Monday 31 May 2010

GPPS Street Challenge No. 40!


It's been another busy, busy month but I have been looking forward to having some time to do the lovely Michelle Ward's challenge for May.  I've grabbed what time I could over this weekend and decided to go large!  This challenge was all about size and working outside of our 'normal' range.  I usually work in A5 size or smaller so I decided to go to A3 as that was the paper size I had and also the workspace.  So first up I decided to gesso my paper.  The first time I didn't really think about how I was gessoing so it went on rather randomly.  After letting it dry overnight I then decided to try a technique I have read about but not tried before - spreading acrylic paint with an old credit card.  This was fun and quite therapeutic in many ways after a day of, how shall we put it, exacting relationships!!!!


I wasn't at all sure how I was going develop this piece but knew I wanted to use some rubber stamps so this is what happened.  I used several stamps with archival black ink and then used white paint to add swirls and a white pen for doodles around the edge.








And there was some script of course - just have to have some writing on there.
The second piece was quite different.  First of all I decided to swirl my gesso on the paper making a different sort of texture altogether and then I used water colour crayons which I love to bits.  This gave a gentle effect and the colours were calming.  Again I had no idea what I would do to develop this but went for a big starfish stamp with distress ink and embossing powder (which gives it shine and sharpness and is something I haven't done for ages).  More doodles all round the edge and some distress ink blending all round the edge too.  A favourite quote in the middle which I discovered in the wonderful Tim Holz's range of stamps finishing with a large word stamp again embossed for clarity.  I like this quiet, unassuming result, although I am not sure the photos really show it as it is.





Here above is an idea of size with the tiny tag on the large sheet.
But I didn't stop here - oh no, I was on a roll...

Using gouache paints, I painted wavy stripes and another favourite quote.

Here I used gouache again and played with freehand swirls and rubber stamping with white paint (not sure I like the effect of this but good to try) and of course there had to be some script again!!

All in all this was another great fun activity and I just love this idea of a monthly challenge and Michelle's gentle but freeing guidance.  I'm learning a lot and loving it.  Thanks again Michelle!

12 comments:

michelle ward said...

Sheila - thank you for your kind words, and bravo for finding time for yourself. It was cool to read that you took on this challenge without thinking too much - being random leads to discoveries don't you think? Bravo for making several large pieces, and for trying card scraping (one of my faves!) Thanks for sharing your work and your experience with the team!!

teri said...

Good for you upscaling your life!! I need to shake mine up a little. Perhaps I'll try that next.

TJ said...

Thank you for visiting my blog and taking the time to comment! I had fun visiting all the participants of the crusade. Love your palette -- gold, black, red are the colors of the German flag!! Very cool... happy creations from tj in germany

Michelle said...

I love the white over the bright colours!

jgr said...

Wow! You have been busy, these pages are great and I love the texture of the gesso behind your paint. Wonderful colors, too!

little sheep said...

really cool pages! i love them!

Mescrap said...

Beautiful spread...love the wavy strips and the cats too !
Thanks for sharing with us.

Anonymous said...

They are all great but the last one is the most appealing to me. It feels so free.

Tracy said...

This looks like such fun play, Sheila--wonderful expression! :o) Happy Day ((HUGS))

Regina said...

Looks like you had plenty of fun making your colorful pages.

inge said...

Hello Sheila,

did you know you made the Belgian flag in reverse ? :)
Don't know if you have any relations to Belgium...

Gesso is great to use cause it gives a certain texture especially when you do it randomly like you did.
Scraping technique is easy and you will create great backgrounds !
I learned it from Michelle too and used it already often on several projects.

You did a great job using large papers : something is out of my comfort zone... but maybe I should try it too !
greetings from Belgium
Inge

Anonymous said...

Wohoo! You did go for it. The pages look great. I haven't used my watercolour crayons for a while so thanks for the reminder. Love the cats btw.

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