Dark to Light

I kicked my husband out of the house this morning so that I could have peace, quiet and alone time at my art desk.

I had a few ideas floating in my head and a couple new stamps on my desk.

I have been feeling pretty low lately and after talking to my friend Diane, I want to try to really focus on positive things when the negativity starts swirling around in my brain.

This piece came out of that. It works from dark to light across the board.

I stamped the asian beauty (StoneHouseStamps) with permanent ink and colored her with pencils. She is an odd stamp in that her image is just cut off straight on both sides so I had to "hide" that if I wanted to use her in the middle of the piece. I found, in my stash, the gorgeous scrap of Japanese paper - grays, tans, gold, silver.

I had to pull out a tool that I have not used in years and years....my stamp positioner! Do they even make those any more? I had purchased the "Japanese Maple" stamp (Penny Black) last week and was dying to try it out. I wanted the shadows from the branch to fall across the woman's face.

As you can see, I am still pulling out that ancient Chinese newspaper. I swear, I could use pieces of it every day and it would still be around 10 years from now LOL

The red background paper is from the Far East Mat Stack....lots of lovely papers in that assortment!

I added the swirly dragonfly (Magenta) and chop (Asian Woods) to the upper right corner. I lastly stamped the postage stamp from Technique Tuesday and colored with with watercolor pencils. Then I cut it out....all those little dents! and glued it to the lower right corner.

Now, to bring it all together -- I painted the leaves with Twinkling H2Os. (love those things!!!!) leaving the leaf shadows just plain ink. Using Walnut Stain Distress Ink, I darkened the left side of the piece. and finally, using Frost White Pigment Ink, I rubbed the entire right side.

It was so nice to be able to just sit and create. Now to find a place to display it (or anything else!) Someday I will post a photo of my art room. I have a friend that says it makes her claustrophobic as there is not a single inch of open space on the walls (or my desk top LOL)