Secret postcards

Caught stealing an egg

Art Deco lady

My younger son's school is fundraising at present and has used the Royal College of Art's idea of having a secret postcard sale.  Ideally, they'd like known artists or celebrities to contribute cards, but were asking anyone who could pick up a pencil to have a go.  These were my contributions.  They lady should/could have been more delicate, but the markers bled slightly more than I was expecting on the postcard paper.  By the time I drew the fox, I was anticipating this, so I used a Chinese brush pen and rather than trying to include more detail, I just tried to make fewer lines work harder by varying the thicknesses.  My inspiration was Art Deco postcard work, as those artists gave such expression in few lines and fewer colours.

Ingredients for Caught stealing an egg

Pentel Chinese calligraphy brush pen

Letraset Tria marker in orange O567
Pentel white gel pen for highlights in eyes; other white areas are just the white of the card

Ingredients for Art Deco lady

Steadtler triplus fineliner in brown

Letraset Tria markers: red R766, blue V245, orange O567 and skin tone O729

2012 Art Journal, Week 6 - Friends

Friends

 Efemera from UK Stampers says:

"This week your prompt word is FRIENDS

1 Who, when where?

2 What is your most memorable 'friend' story?

3 Use some kind of stencil decoration on your page"

The stencilled panel at the top left started this page.  It reminded me of sunshine on grass and an occasion when a friend invited me over to stay in Holland and work on a horse therapy farm for a week.  When I look back, I still see it as a bright gem attached to some very dark cloth.  It enabled me to give some perspective to the events that I was going through at the time.

I wanted the page to be reminiscent of hard work outdoors in bright sunshine, with slightly scorched grass, dry sand schools and slightly skittish horses with snorting noses and warm, dusty flanks.

Ingredients for Friends

Sunflower stencil (origin unknown)

Anita's horse stamp

Blade Rubber Stamps horse stamp

Sunflower stamp (origin unknown)

Distress ink in 'spiced marmalade' and 'vintage photo'

Letraset Tria markers: greens G136 and G356, brown O346, orange O567

Letraset Metallic markers in silver and gold

Zebra Jimnie gel pens in silver and gold

Beware the Weeping Angels

Weeping Angels, scariest Dr Who baddies ever?

My youngest son is a HUGE fan of Weeping Angels.  If you haven't come across them before, they are Dr Who menaces who first appeared in the episode Blink, back when David Tennant was around.  Essentially they work by plunging you in the past to live out your life there, whilst they steal the energy of your potential future.  This isn't really what makes them so scary.  

They are terrifying because they can only move when you aren't watching them. "In the sight of any living being, they literally turn into stone.  And you can't kill a stone.  Of course, a stone can't kill you either, but then you turn your head away.  Then you blink.  Then, oh yes, it can...  Don't even blink.  Blink and you're dead.  They are fast, faster than you could ever believe.  Don't turn your back, don't look away, and don't blink!"

A visit to possibly the loveliest store in London Blade Rubber Stamps (opposite the British Museum) saw me spending far too much and buying some new rubber stamps.  The main feature of this card is an Aubrey Beardsley angel, from Blade's own collection.  It was obviously crying out to be a Weeping Angel, so I made it one.  The torn wallpaper message is also a reference to Blink, where the heroine of the episode is warned by finding a message under ancient wallpaper in an abandoned house.

Inside the card - really duck Sally Sparrow, duck now

As cards go, this one took me a while.  It was difficult to get the different elements to gel.  As soon as I put the message on the front, it stood out too strongly and stole from the angel.  I used Tria markers on the angel image and background to try to link the pieces with colour, but the angel still seemed to drift into the background.  I solved this by using Glossy Accents on the angel to make it stand out.

Ingredients for Weeping Angel
Beardsley Angel stamp - Blade Rubber Stamps
Distress Ink in "chipped sapphire"
"Wallpaper effect" paper free from a magazine, matted onto black/gold tissue card offcut (and black/gold tissue paper inside)
Letraset Metallic marker in green
Letraset Tria markers: pink R327 and green G136
Pentel Chinese calligraphy brush pen
Zebra Jimnie gel pen in silver 
Inkssentials Glossy Accents