A Documented Life - Catching Up

Last week's prompt in The Documented Life Project was to use cardboard from a food container in a creative way.  Believe it or not, my page started out virtually covered with such cardboard.

I love how a project can start off one way and then just veer off in another direction, as though the work had a mind of its own. As I said, the background began covered with pieces from several different cardboard boxes. I went over the entire page with pink and green fluid acrylics, so much of the writing (but not all) showed through the paint. I used an old credit card, scraping the paint every which way. I liked the way that looked, but couldn't help but recall a technique from an Anne Bagby workshop. So I took the mask from a Dyan Reaveley stencil (I wish more stencil companies would also include the mask, or cut out portion along with the stencil), held it down with repositionable adhesive, and covered everything else with black paint. Although much of the background and cardboard is no longer visible, it is a dramatic look that I like a lot. You can see just a little bit of the word "light" on the head. With so much black, using paint markers, metallic markers, and souffle pens seemed like the thing to do.

The page is all about my recent commitment to a healthier lifestyle.

This week's prompt is to photograph or draw a picture of our favorite shoes. I've always loved shoes, but honestly, since retiring, I'm mainly in sneakers, but that doesn't mean I don't have some beauties hiding in the closet.

I LOVE these shoes. Too bad I can barely stand, let alone walk in them. But every now and again I take them out, put them on, and parade around the apartment for a second or two. Then I sit down and continue to admire them from that far more comfortable position.

The background is torn up pattern paper, glued down, muted a bit with off white paint, then dabbed with olive and brown ink. Stencils in those same colors were added. The shoes were sketched on watercolor paper and then painted. The stitching detail was added with a black pen. Then they were carefully cut out and glued onto the background page. At that point I decided to add more stenciling in red. The lettering on the top was originally white, outlined in black, but it seemed too stark, so I toned it down with a light pink marker.