Rain Fower

 The start of a new altered book page - starts with a blank, unprepared page... then the addition of pastels, which I painted with rubbing alcohol to transform from dusty smudgyness, to painterly colour...

The in-between step I forgot to photograph!  I added more pastel over this base layer, then I lightly dabbed on clear gesso.  This seals the pastel, AND provides a surface with lots of texture and tooth.
I then started working into the basic idea I had of clouds, then a face popped up, then a flower... and this is what come into life...

I used some pastel pencils and mainly prisma colour pencils to work over the clear gesso - the prismas are so soft they just melted into the clear gesso.

I love how the underneath page still floats through to the surface, and the transparent layers, and the colours...the perfect way to spend an hour!

Doodle - Oogle continues

Here is the 2nd Oogle Altered Page I promised...
 Oogle 2, Learning to Forget. Altered page, ink, pencil, gesso.

I really had a lot of fun with Oogle 2.  I used the chapter title at the top of the page as inspiration, and really tried to put a lot of expression into her eyes.  I used a variety of writing inks, coloured and watercolour pencil, markers and gesso... and probably a few other bits and pieces as I 'played'. 

Can you spot the word 'altered' on this page?  I thought that was funny being that this is a altered page!

Doodling on

 

Literary Oogle. Mixed media altered page.

Things happen while you are on the phone.  If you happen to be sitting with a pen in your hand you are very likely to start a doodle or two.  Just random swirls, and dots, leaf shapes, rocks, lines and dashes.  Put them together, add a splash of colour - and I find myself looking at another little person!  As part of the Sketchbook Challenge I have been playing with doodles this month - and it has been a lot of fun too!

altered pages for a swap

I can't believe it is Friday already!  It has been a super busy week with the family: homeschooling sorting  

and checking; dropping teens to work; buying new musical instruments; finances to sort through; dogs to pat and walk; who have I forgot? Oh yeah and Husbands to care for!  Whew!  No time for much else this week...  although I did finish a set of altered pages for a swap I am participating in...

There are ten of these altered book pages on their way to America right now - probably somewhere in a plane over the Pacific as I write.  They were all created on the pages of a 1960's german text on child care, with cat pages from another old german book on cats, with collage added from a chinese newspaper I picked up this week... adding some acrylic, watersoluable crayons, stencilling, gesso, pen, and black ink to distress.   When done two at a time these were really fun to do, and  I could have added even more doodling, but I was running against the clock to get these in the mail :-)  As someone once said, easy peasy!

Enjoy and Love your comments!