Artful Upcycling

...not bored with cardboard...

    A friend of mine that I lovingly call Nan Glam...(it's too long of a name for me to remember how to spell it!) Anyways, she's hosting a 4x6 cardboard swap. You can paint, sketch, or pretty much do anything on it...as long as it's artful and done on a 4x6 piece. I promised to do a walk through for it...so yep...it starts with a simple sketch...always does.

The top pic is my pencil sketch and the bottom is the sketch lined with a Micron pen. Also, I purposely chose a printed card board. I like that it gives a little bit of interest. 

This time around, I'm using water soluble wax pastels. The pastels are large and difficult to get into narrow spaces. I add a little in the general area I'm trying to color, then go in with a blending stump. It's just rolled up paper. Sometimes called a Tortillon. I did not use water. 

I added a little bit of magenta and blended those in. Then, yet again, with the slightest bit of light green. To finish the blooms, I used an Acrylic paint pen to stipple in the yellow stamens.

No secret here...I just added a dark blue around the blooms and blended it in. Next, I took a light blue and butt that up next to the darker color. Blended those two together. 

Alrighty, I did a big no no. I re-lined my blooms with out sealing it first. Don't forget, that stuff is all water soluble. It'll jack up your pen. So, seal it first with clear coat spray...then line. :)

This is the finished work. I used a Pentel Color brush pen to write out, "Spring Is." I tried to date stamp it, but the stamp didn't make complete contact...but I left it alone. In the corner is an old stamp that I thought looked like the ones in the drawing. I smudged some pastels on that so that it wouldn't be blinding white. To finish it up I scribbled around the flowers with a white Recollection pen.