The Old Man Himself

Weasley made it into today's collage. I really do miss the Old Man. Funny how such a little creature can have such a big presence.

This is the original.

 

Then I played around a bit in Photoshop Elements. This has extruded edges.

 

This one has glowing edges.

 

And finally, watercolor filter with ink outlines.

 

That was fun. It was tempting to keep playing, but I wanted to get this posted. I also wanted to ask a question. If you have experience with collage, perhaps you can help me solve a problem. How do you keep your papers from buckling or wrinkling? Is there a trick to this? Leave me a comment with your advice.

 

See you back here tomorrow, with yet another collage.

One World

I really have to start posting earlier in the day. If you get some funny non-words, it's because my head has hit the keyboard, and I'm asleep!

Today's collage started with a dictionary page, which happened to contain the words oneness, oneself, and on the flip side, omnipresence. Also omnivorous, but that's a whole other story. The words suggested a "take care of the earth theme" to me. probably because I've been thinking a lot about global warming this week following the hurricane.

Somehow I managed to find the Gaia stamp that I had carved a couple of years ago (someone really needs to organize this place), and that became the focus. I also added the seedling stamp that I had carved around the same time. (Note to the Curly One- Not copying you. I drew it first!) A cutout flower, that looked like the sun, some paint and pastels and it was mostly done.

The final step was to write below the flower. I copied the sentence that the dictionary had  as a usage example for "oneself". It says, "One must take a certain amount of initiative oneself". A good idea generally, but especially so when talking about the environment. What do you think?

(In my sidebar are links to other posts for Art Everyday Month, and NaBlopoMo. Check them out for some interesting reading and viewing.)

Blue, With A Moon

Not quite the same as a blue moon. An initial layer of this collage was giant upright shoes, ripped from a catalog. I have no idea why they grabbed me, but they made me think of standing stones. I had a used color catcher that I had almost thrown out, because it was kind of boring. Turns out it was perfect for creating standing stones.

I pulled the word "confidence" out of a pile of clippings, which brought a tiger image to mind. After all, what creature could be more confident and strong than a tiger? My tiger is sketched on tea bag paper with  pastels,  Now that I look at him again, he looks a little worried. Maybe he needs to draw some strength and confidence from the stones?

Just One More Thing

I've been reading the Friday posts over at The Qi Papers with amazement lately. She has been doing this thing called Fiday Flash 55, which is organized (not really sure that is the right word) by the G-Man

What it is, is a very short story, in 55 words. It's amazing to see how much some of the writers can pack into 55 words. I decided to give it a try this week, and found out that it's very hard to edit down to 55 words! So here is my attempt, inspired by this weeks weather.

 

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My Very First Friday Flash 55

 

Hoffman hit the trail in August, when the weather was dry. Now in November, it was warm, humid, and there was a strange stillness in the air. The rain began. He dashed under a rocky overhang. Hoffman hoped the storm wouldn’t last long. Two hundred miles away, the hurricane warning flags whipped in the wind.

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Got it in just under the wire!

Speedy Inspiraton

I was thinking today about the funk I've been in lately. It's time that I started pushing negative thoughts aside, and begin replacing them with positive thoughts. This may take a lot of practice. Then I thought, "who is the most positive person I know?"

Instantly, an image of Speedy popped into my mind. OK, I know he's not a human person, but we all know that lagomorphs are the superior species, so.... And really, he's such a positive little big guy, that he's almost risking his Rabbit ID card. (Not to worry, though. Mr. Mick disapproves enough for two!)

That is why Speedy made it into today's collage. I hope his Mom isn't upset that I stole borrowed his picture from his blog. Don't you just want to beep that nose?

 

I think maybe every rainbow should have a Speedy at the end of it!