Exotic Birds. . .

The Saturday's Workout challenge for the week is to use a sponge technique in whatever is created, and the Layers of Color theme is exotic birds.  Here's another 8X8 prepared for one of my art journals, with sponged edges and stenciling done by applying by chalk ink with a synthetic sponge.  The exotic birds are obvious.

The background paper was made by brayering 4 colors of Distress Ink (antique linen, tea dye, walnut stain and spiced marmalade) in a criss-cross pattern over a base of layered matte medium, gesso, and titanium buff acrylic paint, which was burnished and lightly sanded between each, thin layer.  Next, the "b-i-r-d" was stenciled with VersaMagic "turquoise gem" chalk ink, and the entire background was overstamped with Rhona Farrer's "swirls V:I" using Versa Magic "gingerbread" chalk ink.  The flower and the birds are images from Memories of a Lifetime, very meticulously hand-cut using both scissors and an Xacto knife, and adhered to the piece with matte gel medium.  Last, I used several colors of watercolor pencil and a gold Marvy gel pen to outline, color-in, and smudge various parts of the page.

A word about hand-cutting images for those who are interested:  I do a lot of cutting-things-out in my pieces.  I love to freehand (no outline drawn beforehand) cut shapes and images, especially of people and birds, and I love the way they are imprecise and free.  But I also love to meticulously cut out intricate details from photographs and images.  I didn't always love doing this, and it wasn't until recently that I became pretty good at it.  It took lots of patience to develop, and one thing I noticed along the way was that as my cutting improved, so did my drawing, and as I practiced drawing contours, my cutting got better and better.  If you are interested in what I have to say on cross-training artistically, you can read my post in ArtiPhacts by clicking HERE.

Have a great day, Everyone!

   

Comments

[Laura]

Ooo, Ohh, how gorgeous is that!! Wow, you should do an entire book of these beautiful pages! I LOVE IT!!!

[Sandy]

Oh my godness this is spectacular. Wonderful piece. Love them.

Thanks for this great entry to Saturday´s Workout.

[Hermine]

Fabulous!!!

[RubyMay]

What beautiful work Barbara. Thank you for explaining how you made it.
I have been reading "Artiphacts" and you are absolutely right in what you say about picking up on the mood of a challenge or letting a memory take over your ideas x

[Rosie]

What a fantastic result you achieved. I need to develop the patience to layer mediums like that (should've said media maybe!) I am not good at cutting, although I can cut very straight with scissors!!
The Crow in the trees is all one ATC-sized stamp from Diva Imp. and the small ones are 4 in a row with hats on! I love them and the other she sent me to play with is the Queen of Crows like a playing card! (I call her Sheryl Crow!)
I seem to have this fixation with burning and melting stuff... and I agree about the ATC girl - she does look a bit like an ink blot! So, what did you see? *grins*

[Anne, Bulles dorées]

stunning blog !!
j'adore !!

[Karen Owen]

Absolutely stunning! the background, the colors, the birds -- all of it combines to make one gorgeous work of art.