Tuesday, March 19, 2013

An impossible-to-photograph CJ page


I know people always say "trust me, it looks a lot better in real life" - but trust me, it really does!

Anyway, enough excuses, this is my entry in Mistyrat's art journal CJ - her theme is "quotes to live by" .....

I've always loved this Einstein quote, it rings so true for so many of us, feeling like failures because of the things we can't do, instead of successes for all the things we can.

So, a fish up a tree it had to be :)

Here's a close up of my fishy friend:


He was drawn with a micron pen onto watercolour paper that already had the red numbers stamped on it, and coloured with watercolours and oil pastels

The page background was printed on a gelli plate and overstamped with the little stars in a pale pearlescent ink - they are over the whole page but they come and go depending on the light and the angle you hold the paper.  So you can see the stars clearly in bright light (the left hand side of the page in the top photo) and they almost disappear in shadow (the right hand side of the page).  And the trees were drawn freehand with a black Sharpie.

I enjoyed pulling this page together, I just wish I could get a half decent photo of it before it goes off in the post....

4 comments:

Jez said...

I love the way the fish is perched in the branches like a bird - I wonder how the bird is coping down in amongst the seaweed. One of the nice things about pearlescent touches is the way they come and go on the page according to the light.
This is a lovely page, and matches the quote so well.

Carmen said...

i LOVE THAT QUOTE TOO - AND i SO LOVE THIS PAGE. i LOVE THE THOUGHT OF THE STARS SHIMMERING AWAY LIKE THAT. wHAT A GENIUS TOUCH!

Aaargh - sorry , caps was on and am to lazy to go back.

Your fishy is just beautiful. This should be framed.

Marit said...

Haven't been around much lately and had a whole bunch of posts to catch up... LOOVVEE the mail art (former post) and your journal spread here is just fantastic! Oh, and I'm gonna make myself a 'stamp sheet' like yours soon - I linked to that tutorial you wrote about it and it looks like a lot of fun! Hope you're doing well, rock on!

Virginia said...

Oh that is fabulous Sarah!