Time Machines: Grunge: The Torn Page

 

 

We all have our time machines.  Some take us back, they are memories.  Some take us forward; they are hopes and dreams.

Just when I feel at the top of my artistic mojo, with an idea in my head and the products to do it, poof.  A page rips. 

So, I fixed the rip by gluing part of a paper bag over the two pages to keep them together.  Voila.  What great texture… now to move forward since I do not have a blank page staring back at me.

 

 I did a wash of Brunt Umber to get me started, then drew a primitive-looking face.  I collaged a piece of paper for a time machine.  Layer by layer, the face began to take shape as I paid attention to the cheeks area and the whiter areas.  For the time machine, blocking in colors, I wanted a spiral (like the hypnotic spirals) on a screen.  I put the time machine on a collaged bit for a stand. (sometimes the smallest bit adds the most interest.  Once you see that there is one bit, almost missed, then you tend to look more closely.)

 

To give some detail to the face, I outlined in a wide black sharpie.

 

I worked layer by layer and then added the arrows to memories and to Hopes and Dreams.  I made the arrows with white sharpie, which will come back to haunt me if I do not remember to either spray matte medium or matte fixative over the white pen.  The white pen causes the pages to stick together. 

HINT:  How to get your pages not to stick together when you are done.

1.      Stop using high gloss products or products that cause pages to stick. 

2.     Use MATT medium type products.

3.     When done a page, use a fixative that is matte spray

4.     Cover your page with clear gesso at the end.

5.     Rub wax (paraffins from tea lights), or bees wax rubbed lightly over your page. 

 

When it was dry, I put some Matt Medium over all the double-spread pages.  I decided to darken the edges and leave this page to explain itself.

 

 

©Carol Desjarlais 5.11.21