Sunday 1 March 2015

A Cup of Tea and a Sprinkling of Star Dust

There is something quite refreshing about creating something that is completely out of your comfort zone.  I'm not someone who likes to fail so I often find myself, in life as well as art, sticking to things that I am fairly confident I can achieve and, wherever possible, excel at.  When I read the new challenge at Mixed Media Place I was instantly excited about the theme of 'black background + all the colors of the rainbow' but the excitement was followed fairly swiftly with a wave of doubt and within a matter of minutes I was coming up with reasons as to why I wasn't going to enter!

In true British style, I sat down with a cup of tea and gave myself a good talking too.  I need to realise that this blog and the projects I work on are a journey.  Pieces wont always go to plan and I will make mistakes.  Every mistake I make will help me progress further and every blog post will take my a step closer to whatever goal my mind has set for me to achieve.

With those words fresh in my mind I sat down and gave the challenge a go....

I was initially going to work on a canvas prepped in blank gesso but in the end went with a piece of black mounting card.  I was worried about how it would hold up to being exposed to the water in the paints/sprays but besides a little bowing it survived surprisingly well.   I knew I wanted the colours to 'pop' off the black background so I started by sponging white gesso randomly over the card, concentrating on the centre and fading it towards the edges.   Once it was thoroughly dry I added Lindy's sprays in prime colours, hoping that where there was cross over I would create greens, purples and oranges.  Once this had dried I dipped different sized bottle caps, pen lids etc in watered down gesso and stamped circles randomly across the page.  I then lightly hand painted some stars and added very tiny coloured gems to their centres. I finished off around the edges of the board with small dots of Ranger Liquid Pearls in various colours to create 'star dust'.





I then filled each of the circles with Glossy Accents to create my 'bubbles'.  I love how bubbles reflect colour and I found that the Glossy Accents highlighted the colour underneath each circle and gave a gorgeous texture.

At this point part of me wanted to stop and leave the piece how it was.  It felt like a dreamy galaxy of colour and it felt 'safe', but part of me wanted to go beyond 'safe' so I started looking for a vintage image.  I wanted something that reflected how I felt about the piece and I came across an old photo (1920s?) of a woman reclined in a moon.  Her expression was dreamy and relaxed and I thought 'why not?!' and she was added to the piece.  She was originally completely black and white so I gave her dress a wash of green and added a hint of pink to her cheeks to lift her a little.







Besides being the most difficult thing in the world to photograph (shimmery colours, sparkles and glossy bubbles!), I am happy with the result.  It gives me a feeling of peace and wonder and that was what I was hoping for.

This challenge has definitely been that, a challenge, but I really enjoyed the process and might start looking outside of my comfort zone more often :)

I would like to enter this into:

Mixed Media Place Challenge 'black background + all the colors of the rainbow'

Thanks for visiting, always nice to see you :)

B
x



 

18 comments:

  1. Becky Buck I LOVE your style! This is absolutely beautiful and you're right, the dreamy lady really sets it off perfectly. Good luck with the challenge. Jenny x

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    1. Thank you Jenny for your lovely comment :) I really love how it turned out, she may have earnt a spot on my wall over my desk. X

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  2. Great job, Becky. Love your colorful circles.

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  3. Smiling - just beautiful. j.

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  4. Gorgeous work hun, love how this turned out xx

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  5. Wow!!! Great work, your canvas is fantastic!! Thank you for joining the Mixed Media Place challenge!

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    1. Thanks Pascale and thank you for coming up with such an inspiring theme :)

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  6. Ah that's an amazing piece of art! Wonderful work and take on the challenge! Thank you for joining us at Mixed Media Place!

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    1. Thank you Athanasia :) I really enjoyed this challenge and I'm really pleased with the finish piece.

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  7. Hi there,
    I'm hopping over here from the Mixed Media Place Challenge, having participated in it myself, I wanted to see what everyone else did. Haha! I hear you oh the photographing. I had the same problem, but I think you did really well with yours. And I love all that texture and play of color. It makes me think of a fairy sprinkling some magic in the world. Your cup of tea clearly had a positive effect, because this turned out to be a real stunner!

    May your muse shine brightly!

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    1. Hi there :) thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Photography is generally my downfall, I think I need to take a class! Popped over to your blog too and love your entry :) Good luck and happy crafting x

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  8. Becky this came out beautiful! I love it!
    Ivette

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  9. Love your colorful circles. great work!

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  10. Hi Becky! This is awesome! Love this! Xx

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  11. Absolutely stunning! Thank you for joining the Mixed Media Place challenge!

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