Blossoms on Bridge

Hello again! Yep am still alive and well. It’s been a hectic week in Tokyo working, running errands, visiting family and seeing friends again. So you can imagine there was little time to create some stuff at all! I certainly missed that a great deal and couldn’t wait to be back and start again.

Before I left Japan, I worked on this mixed media piece which I hadn’t the chance to write about. It’s been a while since doing any intuitive art so when I got around to doing that, I went crazy and in the end decided to make it into something flowery.

Ink Spray

I haven’t used my Dylusions ink sprays in ages! Nearly even forgot I had them. Took a selection of them in pink and blue shades including the shimmer ones and had a go with them on my sketchbook (Strathmore’s Mixed Media paper) and blew the excess ink with a straw for some effect.

Stamp and Stencil

I then took a stencil, randomly choosing one with dots, and sponged on some magenta Distress Ink over it. Realising that the colours were getting a bit too dark for my liking, I stamped on some random flower patterns and bubble wrap prints with pink Distress Oxide ink. It was then I decided I wanted to pursue a flowery theme, something I again have not done in months considering it’s not been the season for it!

Flower Power

With more flower-themed rubber stamps and ink, I continued adding more. Then I was inspired by the large flower in the middle and decided to work around it. How about a bridge below it? And have more flowers around it? That flower could be bright yellow as a complimentary shade against the background and the bridge a rich orange to contrast the blue-ish shades. Where I wanted painted, I brushed on some white gesso to prime the area

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Origami Cut-outs

I tried to paint the flower as brightly yellow as possible even using fluorescent yellow but it wasn’t easy. The darker inks in the background would just keep showing through! So I made up for it by doodling in some dots and a spiral using a pink acrylic marker. And with the marker scribbled in another flower. I also went over the ink-stamped flowers with both the pink and yellow markers. Finally, I thought gluing on some flower-shaped cut-outs would make a lovely finishing touch using craft punches and original paper for some Japanese flair.

I created this piece a day or so before leaving Japan which may explain the rather cute Japanese look. Now that it’s March already, we can look forward to the Spring and create more brightly-coloured flower-themed stuff. I can’t wait!