Hearts - Part I

So, a new book/get well card is brewing.

My great friend Rob, who I have mentioned on this blog many times (he of Rob Turner China ) is in hospital.

He is a bit poorly.

Actually, he is really a lot poorly.

He has a dicky ticker and has had surgery.

We all knew this was on the cards, but it seems that, for what ever reason, the hospital found him a bed sooner rather than later and suddenly he was in hospital and having major surgery.

Well, I rushed out and bought a get well card, but in my mind another book was brewing - a cross between a book and a get well card and Heart themed.

So I have made a start.

I am using lining paper - I mean the sort of paper you buy in rolls from DIY stores that is used to line a wall before a patterned paper is hung.  There are several weights.  I cannot recall exactly what weight mine is, but its about mid range.

Lining paper has a 'soft' feel to it.  Almost as though it were on it's way to being fabric.

Using a commercial stencil I dabbed on some gesso.

Then I selected my palette.

I also ripped a page out of an old road atlas and applied the gesso to that - also through the stencil.

Here is the gessoed paper - with the first layer of paint (applied with a brayer).

And again but with some green now.

Then I 'shaded' over parts of the paper with a red Ink Tense pencil.

And then applied water to the pencil to make the colour sing out.

I slept on this, but when out walking the dog decided to also use some Brusho inks. 

I apply the brusho as a dry powder and then spritz with water.  It gives a lovely effect. 

Meanwhile, I also added Brusho powders to the gessoed road atlas pages (still wet in this picture).

But almost dry here.

And then I turned my attention to the cover. 

For this I am using a box, previously covered with brown paper to give a good surface on which to work, with cut out hearts (cut out from calico) adhered with matt medium. 

Then a liberal cover of gesso. 

You can see that the box is in three sections.  I did not completely pull it apart.  I think this is going to be another concertina book. 

Paint brayered on. 

I've introduced another colour - Claret.  I felt the colour was a bit too wishy washy and a bit of richness was needed.

Next I drew some hearts onto red paper (this is like rag paper but not quite so thick) and coloured them with gold a Oil Stick.

And I also used the oil sticks (gold and a metallic red) on the cover.  Using a mask cut from paper for the heart shape.

Meanwhile, I had brayed some Claret over the atlas pages (again, on its own, the Brusho was too wishy washy)

And then I stencilled on some god oil stick. 

Meanwhile, just to give a bit more sparkle, I painted some sparkle glue on top of the paper hearts.

To be continued.