RR folio for Carroll

Same story as previous post, except Carroll's theme was Color. Well, what artist doesn't love that open-ended theme? I got out all the colorful mark making stuff I don't use much and went to town. This one wraps up this RR. Actually, it was really a swap but who's counting? I've sent all mine out but not received all 4 yet.

I did the front in black gesso, the added a variety of colorful shapes cut from various magazines. It's amazing how much color you can find when you just need a small piece. The flower was cut out for Laurie's but not used, and I couldn't resist adding it here, even tho it didn't fit my original plan of geometric shapes. I love the surprise of the organic shape amongst the more regular pieces. Did some pen work with white and black gel pens.

This is the center spread. I used Dyelusions spray inks and colored India and acrylic inks on it. The Dyelusions I sprayed thru several stencils, then dripped and blew other inks all over the place till it appeared balanced to me. Added "color your world" to it, plus the word "color" here and there.

I did the back last and almost had to scrap the entire folio because I was so unhappy with it. I started out with 3 water soluble sticks - Neocolor II, gelatos and oil pastels. I made marks here and there, then took water to it and made a real mess. Very bad words came out of my mouth. After it dried, I began to use only gelatos and my finger to rub them in and blend them. It began looking better and I quit when I was just barely no longer embarrassed by it. Still not thrilled, but it is colorful. I had very tender red finger pads the next morning, not quite blistered from all the rubbing. 

RR folio for Laurie

The same ladies who did the art journal round robin with me decided to do a swap where we each make one folio for everyone else. Then you can bind the folios into a book yourself, adding more or not as you like. Laurie's theme was flowers, a theme I love, so I didn't lack for inspiration.

This is the front, covered in a collage of green and aqua gelli printed deli papers. Then I stenciled over the top of it with black gesso thru a floral stencil. I'm in love with black gesso lately - it's so *black*. I've just been brushing it on and it leaves such a uniform surface - no streaks or uneven color. Then I did a lot of doodling on the black with gel pens. 

This is the center spread - as tall as the other two pictures and twice as wide. I put down the top layer of a floral paper napkin as my background, then added more flowers and butterflies from other napkins to fill in. Thought about adding a poem or quote but couldn't come up with anything I liked, so I just left it blank. Laurie can add to it if she likes.
(I had already done this spread once with magazine images and loved it but when I folded it closed the images wrinkled and lifted. I cut them down the center, thinking they'd lay flatter, but that was worse and had to rip them all off the page. Argh. So annoyed that I forgot to take a pic.)

The back cover has an acrylic paint background with a collage of images and text from two old garden books. I love pansies and was able to find enough things to make a nice layout. Did a bit of dot work with a black gel pen. 

RR folio for Peggy

Four of us are doing a round robin (RR) where we make one another one folio on whatever theme we've each chosen. Peggy's theme was Nature, which is wide open to all sorts of interpretations. It took me a while to get going on this but I just left it out on my art table and it came about over a week or so.

Front page - used a bunch of stamps (thanks, Rhonda!) that featured animals, insects or flowers, all elements of the natural world. It's amazing how many sizes postage stamps come in. Took me a while to lay them all out so that there weren't any big gaps. Doodled a bit and added a couple words.

This is the center spread. It looks smaller here but it's as tall as the other two pics and twice as wide. It's the top layer of a paper napkin that I got at the dollar store. They had a bunch of cool paper napkins the other day and I came home with 7 or 8 packs. Spent a fiddly hour taking apart all the layers of two each of the designs so I'd have some to work with and not have to stop each time I needed one. The quote is Ralph Waldo Emerson and I thought it was perfect for this. 

And this is the back. I was very pleased with this one. I knew I wanted to incorporate Mother Nature somehow and when I came across this model in her flowery dress in a Vogue or something, I knew I'd found her. I gave her a headband of flowers, cut various elements from a couple National Geos and glued it all down. Did a lot of gel pen work to liven things up. The background is acrylic and the shading was done with gelatos.