Drawing on vellum

I took a class with Marika Rahtu, in Altenew's Academy,  called Beautiful Details. Oh, how I loved her drawings on vellum and her pencil and marker shading. From the six lessons in her class, I made over 12 flowers until I felt I had one to two to use for these two cards. Part of the problem was that I was substituting some of her supplies and that made a difference. But part of the issue was my inexperience with working with vellum. That comes with time. And as I like to say, I have more time than money, so no worries. 

I was most happy with this wild western rose against a green frame. I ended up with several other roses drawn on vellum awaiting other projects. TIP: When I am setting out to make a card, I am now making several of the main design motifs so that after I finish one card, I have several design elements to use in other creative projects. It saves time to make several at the same time than only one design and card at a time. I save the extra design elements with the corresponding card making set which I keep in a flat storage bag. I guess this is only an aha! tip if you are really into card making, lol.

I have been missing in action for almost 2 months because I underwent a serious spinal crisis and had two cervical surgeries in March. I am recuperating with two neck braces and a walker but alas, I am only able to do my art or typing, etc., for half hour at a time. This is so frustrating as creating is healing for my soul and brings me so much happiness. But I am nothing if not tenacious.

So I aim to do one to two 1/2 hour sessions at my art table or computer a day however, since I have to do computer work just to manage my life, that leaves me working in tiny bits of time at my art table. It will get easier as I heal more. So, after two months, I am proudly, displaying my card, lol.

Supplies

• Altenew's Nostalgic Floral stamp and die set
• Altenew's stamps of sentiments from their Fruits and Flowers set (This is a wonderful bundled set to have but any sentiment you already have will suffice. Later, I will show a card with this complete set ;)
• Altenew's white cardstock
• Altenew's fresh dye ink in Evergreen
• Altenew's foam tape
• Altenew's glue (with needle nozzle)
• Green cardstock
• Vellum (you can substitute tracing paper in a pinch.)
• Cornstarch
• Embossing ink and clear embossing powder
• Heat tool
• Prismacolor pencils in chartreuse, lime green and olive green
• Alcohol markers in three shades of warm grey, light to dark. 
• Foam dots
• Clear drop embellishments 
  
  
  

1. Measure, cut and fold your cardstock for your A2 card (4.25"x5.5"). Cut the green panel to measure 4"x5", cut another white cardstock to 3.75"x5"and finally a white piece of cardstock to 2.5"x2.75". 
   
2. Center and adhere the green and larger white panel to your card front. Line your smaller piece of cardstock flush against the top left side of the white panel. I find that working asymmetry into a card creates visual interest.
3. Use cornstarch to brush a fine layer over vellum. Stamp your western rose onto your vellum with embossing ink.
   
   Sprinkle clear embossing power over the embossed ink. Then use your heat tool until the powder turns shiny. It may be difficult to see the clear embossed outline; good lighting helps tremendously.
4. Use lightest of your warm grey markers and begin shading in your rose. Do not outline shadows but rather lay swaths of color where you see shadows. Progressively shade in darker ares. You can use darker shades to delineate edges of the flower.

Use the rose die to cut out the flower

6. Adhere the flower to your card with small foam dots. I chose to cut off the leaves and use foam dots for the rose but flat glue dots to adhere the leaves. I felt showing the flower in two layers made the rose appear to flutter a little. 

7. My finishing touch was to add a tiny bit of embellishment. I chose iridescent drops that are flat on one side and convex on the other. They bring to mind raindrops.

This class was rich in lessons that taught me novel ways of drawing. I found it challenging and know that I will return to watch and work this class again in the future. I am far from Marika's skill with pen and marker drawing on vellum.  Also, I did not have some of the crucial supplies for several of her techniques, so that will also be remedied in the future. I have a feeling, this will be one of my toughest but one of my most favorite classes in the AECP (Altenew Educator Certification Program). 

Here is another card I made inspired by Marika's lessons. It features drawing over a stamped image with colored pencils. As an artist who has a strong hand in all my work, this suited my style more than the delicacy of drawing on vellum. 

Healing through art. My 1 year recovery seen through my art journal

 September 19th is the one year anniversary of my emergency hospitalization for cervical myelopathy that resulted in cervical surgery (corpectomy and fusions). Three months after that on December 27th, I again had an emergency hospitalization and that resulted in thoracic spinal sugery (T9-12)

You see, my entire spine has sustained a lot of damage over time; to the point that the spinal compression was severe enough for paralysis and fatality. I ended up having two complicated neurosugeries  (cervical and thoracic) over three months. 

I am coming up on my one year anniversary of my first emergency hospitalization/surgery. I want to share with you two different art journal entries I created this year about my recoveries. To hear a much more detailed story with visuals, check out my You Tube video here. 

This first page was made five months post op from my cervical surgery. As you can see, I felt stuck, angry and sad. This was most optimistic page I created at that time. I tried to envision hope with the yellow at top. But falling over and pain were paramount in my mind. The overall sense in this piece is being unable to break through brick walls, tears, pain and not being able to walk or balance. I felt defeated.

In the second art journal spread, I focussed on the physical realm and the emotional realms. 

Having been to hell and back in both those worlds, I have adopted the phoenix as a special animal symbol for myself. Legend has it that the phoenix re-births itself after being consumed by fire. 

Yes. She swooped up beside me and I felt the wisps of flames licking my skin as she flew by.

You still see tears but I am now releasing some emotional tears (blue), not just the red ones of pain and fury. I incorporated butterflies for transformation and drew on the wisdom of my ancestors through the High Priestess tarot card. 

I only used paper that I had drawn on, painted, stamped or altered in some way. I like working in layers. Can you spot the three hospital bands in each art journal piece? They are white, red and yellow. They were color copies of the actual bands I wore for a month. You can find the white band in the video.  This photo cropped it out.

There is so much to say about this first year of recovery. It is like an onion. But what I take away is resilience, acceptance and yet, still I hold onto hope. And maybe one more . . . gratitude. Yes, I'll leave it at that.