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Thursday, February 26, 2009

TGIF: Curiouser and Curiouser

Curioser and curioser
Sandy from Thank God It's Friday asked me to be the guest designer for "Feathers," the new stamping project there this week. I was actually just finishing this journal page when I got Sandy's email. When Ava saw it it, she said it looked difficult, but it wasn't at all. Typicallly, I labor over a page for at least half a day, but this page evolved over the course of about a week, while I was working on two other journal pages. I just doodled on it a little bit every day, not ever really concentrating on it, but working from intuition. I started with a color magazine picture that I converted to black and white in Photoshop Elements. I used only one layer of green acrylic paint because I knew I wanted the background to have a sort of a rough, grainy effect like the photo. Next, I glued on the photo and dry-brushed swipes of violet, red, and yellow paint around the edges. I didn't really have a vision for what I wanted the theme of this page to be, but by the third day, the look on the girl's face told me she was a modern-day Alice in Wonderland, and I knew then I wanted the page to be about curiosity. So, I painted on the hearts and used a white gel pen to scribble on some images and journal with a white gel pen. Then, I cut out some wings and wrote two quotes about curiosity on them. The very last step was to stamp the title on with some foam stamps. This was one of the most intuitive pieces I've ever done and quite a lot of fun to make. Thank you, Sandy, for challenging me this week. The rest of you should fly on over to TGIF and see all my other fine feathered friends there.

10 comments:

Terri Kahrs said...

Kudos, Alberta! This is so strikingly graphic and creative. Thank you, too, for sharing your techniques. Not in a million years would I have thought of using PE to "alter" a magazine pic! This is just super!
Hugs,
Terri :) xoxo

Blicky Kitty said...

Oh it's so beautiful!!!!

Sandy said...

Alberta this is truly amazing.
So fantastic and great interpretatio. I love it. Colorful work.

Thanks Alberta for this stunning piece as Guestdesigner for TGiF.

Please linked your great piece on TGiF. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

hi alberta - it's a great sample piece!!! love the bright colors.

Rosie said...

Brilliant! I especially love her hat and the green is so striking!

indybev said...

Thanks for sharing your "journey" with this one, Alberta. I am always fascinated with the way your mind works, and I'm a long-time member of your fan club!

ELK said...

a delight with wings! ELK

ute said...

oh, what a wonderful artwork,
the idea, the colors and details are so beautiful,

Katherine said...

Alberta you are cutting loose with this one I really like that tendency. I love the combination of paint and collage and the writing. You are starting work like some outsider artists.

Claudje said...

Incredibe, how beautifull! U give me a lot of inspiration, thank u.
Greets,
Claudia