Art Journal Prompts 39: Use Three Colours

As the advice given for week 39 of Art Journal Prompts (Use Three Colours) was to find a focal image first and work with the colours in it, I knew immediately which image I wanted to use and which colours it would call for; Vintage Photo, Fossilized Amber and Spiced Marmalade.  The image of the giant toadstool came from a magazine advert and had been sitting in my clippings stash for months.

I started with a piece of mixed media card trimmed to 18.5cm x 19.5cm.  The largest of the moon masks by Claritystamp was added and the three chosen colours of Distress Oxide were blended across the page, spritzed with water and dried with a heat tool.  Having laid the focal image over the top, I adjusted the Fossilized Amber to fit in with it.

I then chose Archival inks in Vintage Photo (from the Tim Holtz Permanent Mixed Media Ink Palette), Venetian Orange and Sunflower; the closest in colour to Spiced Marmalade and Fossilized Amber.  They were used with stamps from the Ledger Script, Documented, Slight Alterations and Mixed Media stamp sets (designed by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous) as well as the Drips and Dirt set (The Art of Brett Weldele) to add texture over the whole of the background, including the moon.

More of the Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide was used through the Rays mini stencil by Tim Holtz (THMS003) around the moon (I decided to turn it into a setting sun), as well as over the centre to tone down the whiteness.

Once the background was ready, I added the focal image using Distress Collage Medium and sealed the whole page too.  Once dry, Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers in the same tones of brown, orange and dark yellow were used to add shading, shadows and depth to the image and surrounding background.

I wanted to add a little more interest to the focal image, so added two of the fairies from Wee Folk Set 3 by Claritystamp stamped in Vintage Photo Archival ink (using the Tim Holtz stamp platform from Tonic Studios).

Finally, I coloured three of the Quote Chips from Tim Holtz idea-ology using a mix of archival ink on top of distress oxides and glued them into position at the bottom of the page.

I am so pleased with the way that the page turned out, and I think I may have found my new favourite colour combination.