Monday, October 6, 2008

Lighthouse


Aaaaaah! I'm still in a good mood from having finished an Illustration Friday drawing! Now to keep the momentum going! This is a journal page with an excerpt from Virginia Woolf's "To The Lighthouse." Unfortunately I can't claim to have read this book. I found the quote (as well as a couple of others from the same book) and comments on the story line, and now I have to say that I want to read it. I have some others on the go and in line at the moment ("The Artist's Way" "Novel About My Wife" "At The Sign Of The Sugared Plum" and "Petals In The Ashes"), but I think I will see if there are any Virginia Woolf books in the library next.


The method for this page was colouring the page with watersoluble crayons first then washing them with water. Once dried I collaged on the images of the lighthouse, the boats and the woman.
Next I washed a layer of dark paint over the top. I had planned to use Payne's Grey because I love it so, but I discovered that the lid had been broken and my tube had dried up. Because that is what I had envisioned, I made up my own version of Payne's Grey with Mars Black, Phthalo Green and Phthalo Blue. It seemed to do the trick. I masked the portion where the beam of light shone and painted over the entire page (except the woman.) I rubbed the paint off a few times with absorbent towels.
Then I attached the bird image and wrote the text with souffle pen, and added embellishments with sharpie and souffle pen.

9 comments:

Rowena said...

very nice. I like the piece and I like your breakdown of technique. And I think the dried up paynes grey was a happy accident, as you got something much more handmade and layered.

I read To The Lighthouse for a book club, and it was pretty good.

studio lolo said...

This is a beautiful journal entry! I love your step by step explanation :)

reagan said...

Wonderful journal page! Thank you for sharing your techniques to achieve this look:-)

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Margaret said...

Beautiful background and thanks so much for sharing the technique, I'll have to get out my crayons and have a go! I very much like the intensity of colour you achieved.

Unknown said...

Hope you get to read 'To the lighthouse' soon.

Caroline said...

Cool image and great process - I'll try that!

Anonymous said...

Hello. I was just passing through and thought I would mention how much I appreciate your explaining how you construct your journal pages. I am learning so much from your blog. Thanks.

Lori, a visitor from California

Mixed Media Martyr said...

Lori,

Thanks for your comment. I always like to see other people explain how they did their pages when I look at their blogs so I try to always explain what I did on my blog as well. This technique with the black paint over the coloured background is definately one of my favourites!

Leanne
(New Zealand)