Some Collage Play-Aust Piano Hinge SB

 When I had time, I got sidetracked onto playing with paper and mixed media the last few days. The days go by in the blink of an eye anymore! I can't believe October is almost gone and Christmas is just a few blinks away, but here we are!

I don't know if I can remember how I did some of these pages, still in my Australian Piano Hinge sketchbook, because I didn't write it down, but I'll give it a try!

This one started with an imaginary girl with a decorated face sketch that I had done a while back and printed off. I cut her out and used gel medium to glue her to a copy of some wrapping paper I had printed off (white with pink dots) and glued to the sketchbook page. She was all black/white, so I added color with Posca paint pens and Micron pens. I added metallic gold pen to her neck and around the pink dots in the background. I tore up one of my original gelli plate prints to make her dress, and I tore up an original rubbing with a crayon, paper, and a doily to make her wings. The background had too much white left in it, so I used a micron pen to scribble across the background to add interest and contrast to her head. I love her!

This page started out with torn pieces of an original gelli print paper, paper that I had cleaned excess paint off my brush and stenciled on. There is a piece of single layer paper towel with excess paint on it glued down the middle. I added some markers and posca paint pens. I didn't like it, and eventually the robes appeared to me, so I used a large black posca pen to make it look like three women and a child with a frame around them. I think it looks like I'm looking through them to see what they're looking at. I like it...

This page started with a single layer of a paper towel that I had cleaned my brushes/pens off on multiple times. I glued it to the page with gel medium and let it dry. Meanwhile, I cut the vase shape out of white printer paper, because it was handy, then glued it down. I painted it with light pink heavy acrylic paint, which looked very flat and blah when it dried, so I went over it with a layer of orange Prismacolor colored pencil. It still looked blah, so I cut the snowflake shape out of printer paper and glued it to the middle and added the striped washi tape across the bottom. I thought about adding a sequin to the center, but I came across this girl from a Toni Burt collage that she had gifted us to print off, so I cut her out and glued her to the center. Then I added a gold metallic pen to the vase bottom and cap and for other accents, after using a micron pen to outline the vase and snowflake. I also used the gold pen on the already there heart and rose shapes in the background. I'm still not sure I like it, but it is what it is. It's been fun and it's growing on me...

This one started out with a half sheet of scrap printer paper, which I did a whole lot of mark making with markers and posca paint pens on. I glued it onto the page with a UHU glue stick and thought it needed something else. I had sketched these birds and printed them off several months ago, so I cut them out separately and glued them down with the glue stick. I added some more marks with posca pens and some scribbling with a blue posca pen and called it done. I like it!

 

This page is actually brighter than my scanner scanned it. It's not this dusty looking. I couldn't even bring it out with photo editing. :( Anyway, it started with a brush and India ink and the black shapes. Then I painted a purple top, a blue middle, and an orange bottom around the black with Posca paint pens. I love impressionism, although I'm not good at doing it, so I decided, why not? I started with blue dashes over the purple and orange, then purple dashes over the blue and orange, then orange over the blue and purple. It needed more variety, so I added pink and yellow over all three colors which, to me, kind of tied it all together. The black shapes looked pale next to the colors, so I went over them with a large black Posca Paint pen. So it's basically not a collage or mixed media either, but more of a Posca pen painting! 

Of course, they all look better in person, but my blog is a good way to keep record of what I create during the year. Good, bad, or ugly, it's all a learning experience, and I'm thankful to have it as an outlet for mental health reasons!

The rest of the year has a full to do list for me, and I'm not sure I'm up to all of it this year, but we'll see. Besides my holiday list, I have a dental appointment with a new dentist next week, because a big filling fell out of a jaw tooth, which I apparently swallowed, because I didn't know when it fell out. We had our six month check ups and lab work last week and our PA wants me to see a Hematologist (blood doctor) and is making me an appointment. Not looking forward to either appointment. I'm already nervous for both. I completed my 77th year around the sun a few days ago, and I'm no spring chicken, but, with God's help, I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other. I'm thankful we're doing as well as we are at our ages, but we do get tired sometimes...

Keep on keeping on! And do something good for yourself! :)