Friday, May 4, 2018

"Good-bye" does not have to be forever

     As I mentioned in my previous post, I am sad to say "Goodbye" to Sophie and her pet Raven.  We had a fun month of playing in an altered book.  But, as Roz mentioned in her blog post today, saying "goodbye" to one's fake author does not mean it has to be forever.

     That being said, I couldn't help draw a little Sophie and Raven today, especially since Sophie had been somewhat naughty in her fairy tales:



 
     I made these in a regular notebook from Clairefontaine.  The paper is lousy!  I did prime them with a bit of acrylic matte medium, but it still made my art supplies act strange on it (especially since I have been used to how they behave on gesso for the past 30 days or so).

     These were drawn in an art journal I am sharing with Ria from OurInkyScribbles.    I hope she likes them!

IFJM 2018 Wrap-up Post



     Another year of International Fake Journal Month completed, and what a fun month it was!  My character, Sophie, and I had a great time working our way through a thrifted fairy tale book: covering the pages with gesso and then re-interpreting the "fairy tales" with fun (and often kind of creepy...) illustrations and matching them with the daily prompted quote from Roz's 2018 IFJM prompt list.

     I was surprised to find how much I enjoyed working on a textured page.  My natural instinct was to sand the gessoed page smooth before working on it; but, thankfully, Sophie would have NONE of that.  Every day, it seemed, she would smear the gesso on thicker and with more texture than the day before: and we both loved the effect!

     Working with mixed media helped me to get the effect that I wanted in the illustrations, as well as give me some idea of how they behaved on a primed page -- much differently than they did on a non-primed page.  I also liked the fact that "Sophie" was consistent in her medium choices (the same Faber Castell Calligraphy pen for drawn "Sophie" and Sharpie fine marker for the "Raven", for example).   By the end of the journal, we had a collection of pages that pretty much used the same color scheme -- and it made the whole journal work together as a whole.

    In addition to repeating the same color scheme, it was also fun to repeat the same design elements throughout the journal: black/white stripes, black/white/pink harlequin, greyed bricks, etc.  That also pulled the journal together into one cohesive work.

    I admit that I was sad to say goodbye to Sophie today --- and couldn't help but make a few "follow-up" drawings.    The first (at the top of the page) is the "The End" page of the Fairy Tale book; but, of course, Sophie's Raven finishes it with what he says best, "Nevermore". 

The other drawings will be in my next post...

April 30 -- Altered Fairy Tales

The Raven (Brother's Grimm)

Which matters most?






April 29 -- Altered Fairy Tales

Richard III (Shakespeare):

"That's your problem. You need to pay attention to your dreams; they contain crucial information."




Thursday, May 3, 2018

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

April 26 -- Altered Fairy Tales

Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock):

"It's fun to be on the edge. I think you do your best work when you take chances, when you're not safe, when you're not in the middle of the road, at least for me anyway. "
--Danny De Vito