Dancing Moonbeams

The challenge at Take A Word this week is 'Moon'.  I've done a piece in my Art Journal and have used it to test and experiment with a new product and some new techniques!

By the light of the dark grey moon :)

 This is a single page from my journal.  I began by spraying the top two thirds of the page with water followed by Rangers colour wash in Stream.  I left it a minute, blotted it with towel and repeated the exercise to ensure all the page was covered.
The bottom third of the page was sprayed with Dylusions in London Blue and then painted with Golden paints Phthalo Blue with a little red brought in closer to the bottom of the page.
The stylised stars are stamped with Memento Ink in Moonlight white and the sea/lake has waves stamped in Archival Ink French Ultramarine.  The foliage at the front is a Hero Arts stamp using StayzOn Black.
Land to the right is painted in various tones of green from Golden Paints.
Then came the moon!.......

Some of you may know that I'm working with various techniques at the moment and this is one I learnt from Andy Skinner.  I couldn't help but notice how much like the craters of the moon it looks, so I scanned my box lid and added some shaping in Photoshop then printed it on Silver Metallic Foil by Personnel Impressions.  In real life it's really shiny.
To finish off, I masked some of the page with paper towels and sprayed from the moon to the water with Perfect Pearls in water.  I sprayed heavily and blotted the sky portion to remove some of the colour wash.  I left the Pearl Spray on the water to hint at reflection.

Thanks for looking and commenting, I really do appreciate it.

New Year Circles

The theme at Thee Muses this week is circles.  I've been busy playing with techniques but wanted to do something for the last challenge.  So I made an 'out of this world' piece.

Happy New Year

I think it looks like the craters of the moon, hence the 'out of the world' reference.  It began as white card stock with a thick layer of gesso applied.  Into this I pressed various circular objects, bottle tops, pencil ends, paint brush ends etc.  Once dried I painted the whole piece black and then covered that with a blue / green gold.  Next came many, many layers in ever lightening shades of viridian paint using a dry brush technique, until the final layer was just zinc white (almost translucent).  In all I believe there to be approximately 25 - 30 layers.
I really wanted to use this piece for something so decided to take a photo into photoshop and add a seasonal greeting.  This is where the hard work began!

Becoming more and more frustrated that I couldn't make the words appear as I wanted I threw a hissy fit.  Captain Slow to the rescue....  he took the file and manipulated it as I wanted it and then gave it back to me (so technially, this isn't all my own work).

This piece now feels more like leather than paper but I don't know if it's due to the gesso, the paint or both.

Thank you everyone, for taking the time to look at my work this year and for leaving such wonderful and encouraging words.  I wish you all the very best for the new year and hope that it brings you everything that you would wish for yourself.

By the light of the silvery moon...

The challenge at Sunday Postcard Art today is moonlight, and anything about Halloween is always a challenge for me.  It was late last night, the darkness all around and rain hitting the window pane when I was overcome by madness and my creation was born.....

Step away from the cleaning fluids now!

I didn't know if the idea would work but gave it a try.  I have a Paper Artsy stamp of a ruined monastery with a ghostly figure and I decided to try to stamp it with bleach on midnight blue card stock.  Yes, that's right - bleach!

I made the stamp pad from folded kitchen towel and applied bleach to the pad.  The first couple of attempts were a shambles with either the image being too soaked with bleach or not enough.  I realised it was impossible to get a clean image so I chose one that was under 'done' and used a paintbrush to finish up the monastery, and the moon.

The leaves around the sides and base are stamped in London Fog Gray and StayzOn black.  The moon was enhanced with some very translucent Golden Fluid medium in Zinc White.  The bats are actually swallows from a sea scene but I pressed extra hard on the stamp to make them fatter, voila bats!

There is no texture and I'm not sure this piece will survive very long since I didn't apply anything to prevent the action of the bleach continuing.  If you try this technique, it all depends on the type of paper what your results will be.  When I tried gray paper, the bleach removed the colour back to a pale gold.
Always wash your brushes and stamps quickly to avoid any damage.