Purple Haze!

Today’s piece underwent radical transformation in it’s early stages. The first layer was a complete disaster – but it did add some texture to the piece.

It all started when I emptied my pencil sharpener and discovered amongst the wood shavings remnants of lots of beautiful colours of water soluble pencil lead. I had the bright idea that if I tipped them onto the page and added water, I would get a lovely rainbow effect. It didn’t work – what I actually got was a dirty brown/grey sludge! So much for bright ideas!

To cover up the mess, I added a thick and lumpy layer of gloss gel medium, then started adding layers of acrylic paint. The first paint layer was just added with a brush. Next I added some lines and shapes using a variety of implements including bubble wrap, old credit cards and bottle tops. The next layer was a black outline followed by a layer of coloured gel medium. Some more bubble wrap splodges followed finished off with a healthy dose of gold Krylon Webbing Spray.

I have no idea what I’ll end up using it for, but I love the colours and the textures it has ended up with!

Newspaper Collage

Newspaper is one of my favourite materials – it is so versatile! You can use it to protect your work areas, you can cut it up and make things with it, you can build things with it, you can use it for papier mache, you can take prints from it, you can use it in collages – and those are just a few of its craft uses!

To create this image I completely covered a sheet of watercolour paper with torn newspaper, then added acrylic paint using a variety of implements including bottle lids, bubble wrap, sequin waste and old credit cards. Next I added some carefully chosen, strategically placed leaf prints and a few stencilled footprints. Finally after scanning the image into the computer, I added a quotation using distressed digital text.

I love the way the newspaper peeps through the layers in places!