Eclipse

An eclipse cannot exist without a ray of sunshine.

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Sorry, Simon. While inspired to make this tag from the Monday blog challenge prompt which is ray of sunshine, I didn't use a single stamp in the process.

Instead I drew a diagram I stumbled upon at the British Library Flicker photostream (a favorite place to look for inspiration) and tried out a technique using oil pastels that's been on my to-do list for awhile.

Here's a link to the tutorial, the artist's name is Loretta Grayson.

Oil pastels are fun but messy which is the main reason I don't use them too often. That, and the fact that they resist water-based paints so are less desirable in mixed-media projects. Still, their resist quality can be useful and Loretta's tutorial helps to illustrate that fact.

They have two qualities I really like--they are smooth as butter and the pigments are strong. Here in the US, you can purchase a student-grade box for a reasonable price (I used Cray-Pas). If you've never tried them and like to experiment, then perhaps I've tickled your interest.

Moulin Rouge

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The challenge at Simon was simple: "Love is in the air" + red. So ... Paris is known as the city of love and the ladies of the Moulin Rouge (that's French for red mill) are doing did their best to promote it.

 

 I began with an image of a medieval map of Paris and a silhouette of the skyline. And I couldn't resist the Can-Can girls so I looked for an image of the Moulin Rouge to accompany them.

 

As far as technique goes, I thought I'd explain the background. The map was busy and most often, artists will use a wash of gesso or white paint to blend back an image creating subtlety. But I wanted to try something different.

So I used white and red paint pens to draw lines over the surface of the map and I rather like the effect.

 

I always try to create the illusion of depth and the vertical and horizontal lines help to achieve this along with using lighter brighter colors in the foreground and darker colors in the back.

The scale of the objects also helps create some perspective since the ladies are larger than the buildings.

In case you are wondering, this is a two-page spread in my large Dylusions journal which is 9" x 11".

Got Friends?

Aunt Butch (or Butch)--that's what everyone called her. It was the nickname given to her by my Dad. She's the one on the right and her real name was Olive Lee.

The photo was taken in my Grandmother's backyard and because of the hats, I suspect it might have been her birthday. I don't know why she looked so sour with that "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" expression but in truth, it was her nature to never smile that much.

But I digress. This post isn't meant to be a sharing of family history, rather, it's a chance to talk about a photo tinting theory that played out rather well.

In a previous post, I mentioned using clear gesso over black paper to create a chalkboard effect using pastel pencils and that made me wonder, would this technique work for tinting black and white photos?

The answer is yes and rather well, I might add.

After stamping and tinting the background and pasting on the girls, I covered the tag with a layer of clear gesso then used pastel pencils to tint their clothing and put a little color in their cheeks. The trick is not to apply too much since pastels are generally not very transparent and you could lose some of the photo's detail if you did.

Would I use this technique again? Definitely.

I chose this photo and made this tag so I could link to Simon's Monday blog challenge where this week's theme is Best Friend.

Stamp credit: Tim Holtz Dots & Florals