Words Upon Words

Sketchbook Page for 09.07.11

I know you've figured out by now that I love using paper with words printed or written on it, no matter what language. The background to today's sketchbook page is a page from the 1912 Lancaster County, PA, Farmers Almanac. The article is all about studies and trials to kill wild onion. Apparently, if your cows eat wild onion, your milk will also taste like wild onion. Think about it; that's not a really desirable flavor for milk. I briefly scanned the article and learned they started their studies in England in 1899 and by 1912 they still did not have a handle on this difficult weed. As far as I'm concerned, they never did figure that one out.

Anyhoo... I used a multi-colored stamp pad and a dragonfly rubber stamp to sporadically color the background paper. The tulip and butterflies are cut from an index page from an old atlas upon which I melted metallic crayons in an electric skillet (because I'm just that bored! (jk)).

"Sea Sample 7" - 4x4 - Mixed Media Collage

Another sea sample to offer during the Holiday Gift Show.

Green & Purple

Another new sketchbook cover complete with matching bookmark. Making progress!

"En Vogue 2" - Digital Collage

I'm having way too much fun with old sketches!

"Wheelbarrow" - Digital Collage

While cleaning and reorganizing after our evacuation in order to escape Irene, I discovered an old sketchbook that I'd completely forgotten about. When some of the TAGG members were here some years back for the annual Paint Out that I used to hold, I'd used this sketchbook to make simple pen and ink drawings while the others were actually painting. The sketches were sweet, but nothing to write home about.

I was particularly enamored with this little turquoise wheelbarrow on the grounds of the Lewes Historical Society (a gorgous place for plein air painting) and attempted to render it. Although the sketch by itself is not noteworthy, I thought it would be fun to use in digital collage.

The bottom layer of this collage is a Bomomo design (of course) and the next layer is the wheelbarrow, which I made slightly transparent so the Bomomo design could peek through.

"Sea Sample 6" - 4x4 - Mixed Media Collage

Another in the Sea Sample series... this series is a personal favorite of mine for obvious reasons.

And I just had to share the following image with you. It's a heart shaped "lucky" stone I found on the beach this morning. It made my day!

Green Journal Cover

Not all the new sketchbooks I purchased are brown; some of them are green. The green ones are the ones whose pages are made from recycled paper, naturally.