Italia

still playing with ancient, marbled, distressed colors and images.

Conjuring Spirits

These collages were inspiring by a page from an old book called Magical Circle, Seals and Characters. This page had a lot of ancient symbols, with two seals described as being necessary for spirits to appear.


I used a lot of techniques on the backgrounds, before gluing the central images. I started with gesso, randomly applied, then layered ink and acrylics, more gesso, more paint, etc. In one instance, I appled the gesso over a stencil of an old doily, let it dry, then applied more color. I stamped some images/background, watercolored some of the images, and voila :)

An Ancient World

With my new ATC series, I'm going for an old world shabby chic look.
Here is the first of some cards I made using ancient images and text from a French play. I distressed the background, tore up some of the paper, added acrylic wash, more images, LuminArte water colors, embosing powder. Its hard making something look ancient and still attractive and mysterious. This series is a work in progress; I'll be posting more over the next few weeks.

Here are more of my ATCs:

http://www.picturetrail.com/zenspun

Serious Artists' Block Today

But I wouldn't quit until I produced something. This is for an ATC swap with Paper Traders, called "My Guardian Angel", four more are coming up soon, if my muse hangs in there with me.

Water House Dreams #2

Here's the other half of that spread. The pigeons actually hide behind the lady in grey, unless you pull on the siren above.

Water House Dreams #1

I got bored with my experiment, so I can imagine how bored my reader was (yes, you, you're the only one who reads this thing LOL)

I settled on a variety of stamps and some chalk.

Experiment #4

decoupage medium, Golden red, magenta, and irridenscent gold (drop of each) painted over entire piece.
I've decided that the photo is busy enough without adding to that, so now I'm trying to just dull it a little. (why not do that in photoshop, you ask? I dunno, guess its because I want to use the same application technique to the entire collage when I'm finished, and I like the layered feel of applications.)

Experiment #3

I'm not really excited about either of the previous photo alterations, this new one is experiment #1 with a coat of decoupage medium mixed with a drop of both Golden Primary Magenta and Quinacridone Red. After it was applied, I used a babywipe to further remove some color, to vary the tones a little.
I'll try again on Sunday. I'm thinking of just removing color from the photo instead of adding to it. Anyone interested, feel free to download the original photo, play with it (not digitally, though, I mean irl), and send me the results. I'll post one or two, if I get any.

Experiment #2

Experiment #2

This is a tan acrylic paint, mixed with water and a float medium to prevent quick drying. I think I might like this one better, more old world feel.

Experiment #1

Experiment #1. Same photo with some gesso/water painted over it. What do you think? I kindof like it, sort of watery, maybe a little dreamy. It tones down the background a little which will allow the collage elements more notice.

This Crazy Experiment called Life

he he he, I just like the title of this post. The real experiment will be to alter some photos I have. I'm creating a spread in an art journal that has come my way. It's not just any art journal, it's my twin sister's, and she does beautiful work. Maybe I'll get permission from her to post her pages here, so you'll see what I mean.
Her journal is entitled "Uncharted Territory", and has dreamy and romantic images with a page entitled "In the Garden of the Unfamiliar". Her artist statement says that she craves beauty.
So here's my idea. (Charlene: Spoiler Warning)
I want my spread to be dreamlike. I always dream in full color, and frequently of architectural buildings, rooms and symbolic images, and little scenes in each room. I have a lot of visual puns in my dreams. I also know that Charlene loves Waterhouse Paintings.
My husband took some photos in Venice. I'd like to use them as the backdrop for my spread entitled "Water House Dream" I'll add the images later, but first I need to alter these photos to create a dreamy feel. I like the ancient look of the photos, the colors, and the architecture, so the trick is to alter them without removing those elements.
Over the next few posts I'll try various ways to accomplish this, so stay tuned. and comments and critiques are very welcome.