Saturday, February 25, 2012

GPP Crusade No. 60: I Love...

It's been a few months since I participated in a GPP Street Team Crusade.  Besides following Michelle Ward's prompts for the challenge, there is the fun of reading the blogs of the other participants.   I've made some wonderful friends through the comments and emails that have been shared through this group.  But, sometimes life has other priorities and I needed to step back... and I read today that there will be only one more crusade after this.  I'm SO glad that I'm jumping back in right now because it gives me an opportunity to say it loud from here:
 I love you Michelle Ward!
Mixed media with digital text.

I created a two-sided page on Strathmore Mixed Media Paper.  This paper is great!  It's smooth surface made writing I Corinthians 13 [the Love Chapter] with a Sharpie pen a pleasure.  Next I used a favorite technique gleaned from an earlier crusade - gesso resist.  Using a heart stencil, I applied tinted gesso with a sponge roller.
After the gesso dried, I used a limited color palette of transparent raw sienna, quinacridone magenta and phthalo blue, and transparent mixing white (zinc white).  Since the paint was thick (Liquitex from tubes), I thinned the paint with matte medium and water.  I wanted rich pigments and yet retain tooth to the paper for subsequent layers.  Using the same paints, flowers and hearts were stencilled on the page.  Circles were made using bottle caps for stamps.

Page without the digital journaling.
 Now I let this set for a few days before deciding what to do next.  Using a white Sharpie poster paint marker and Inktense pencils in similar colors to the paint, I brought out some of the shapes and added a bit of doodling.  Love was written with the Sharpie marker and shaded with the Inktense pencils.  A bit of additional doodling was added with a Sharpie pen.  I can go back to this page and add more doodling, but I decided to stop now and scan it so I could add a digital message.  When I read today that Michelle is retiring the crusade after next month, I knew what I had to say.
Here's a wink to you, Michelle!
As I stated earlier, I painted both sides of the paper.  One edge is deckled (paper torn against a deckling ruler).  I folded the page not quite in half to leave space for adding a binding later with my Zutter Bind-It-All.  My Martha Steward scoring board and a ruler helped me get a clean fold on this heavy paper.
This page used the same paints except for the transparent raw sienna.  There was no journaling on the page either.
Last night I found a face (Sharon Tomlinson, thank you) and brought it out subtly with Inktense pencils.
Inktense go on like a regular colored pencil, but when you wet the color, it intensifies and you can move it with a paint brush.  Once it dries, it is set.  I have a small set of 12, but would love more some day.
Please look into the Green Pepper Press Street Team Crusades.  They are still available for viewing and learning and doing!  Michelle has been a generous teacher and a great cheer leader.

7 comments:

Sharon Tomlinson said...

Regina, how perfectly it all came together. I love finding faces and thank you so much for the shout out. ♥

michelle ward said...

Oh Regina - you make me blush...same color as this lovely page ;) Such pretty colors. I love how you offer an explanation of how you got your results. Clever circles. I love the things you love too - gesso, limited palette, stencils... I love that the crusades has been a catalyst toward new friendships - the community building was one of my intentions. I am so happy to have made YOUR friendship and appreciate all you have shared over the years to enhance the experience of what we do and what we share. You've been a faithful cheerleader for creativity Regina. Thank you. xo

Cath Wilson said...

Oooh, beautiful and such dreamy, peaceful colours - some of my favourites. This is beautiful and your explanations are perfect. Love the face, too. Fabulous work x

amanda said...

What a fun exploratory process!

Diana Taylor said...

I'm a first-timer at the crusades but I've loved seeing what everyone has done. Your work is beautiful -I just love the colours and vividness of it all - the colours work so well together and your explanation of how you did it all is wonderfully clear. Thank you for sharing - I quite often choose muted, smudgy colours to work with but am very tempted to have a go at your stunning colour palette (if you have no objection)!

Parabolic Muse said...

These are two of the most beautiful pages ever! Thank you for the head's up about Inktense. I've heard about them, but have never tried them, and never seen them so vibrantly exampled.

Terri Corona said...

I just love your beautiful pages, and all the wonderfully explained layers! I have the set of 12 Intense pencils too, and I really love them...