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Friday 24 August 2012

Going Over to the Dark Side

First of all, I apologise in advance to all you wonderful peeps who take the time to leave me a comment. I've only gone and made the job harder for you. I've just switched on the dreadful word verification option. How do I know it's dreadful? Because nine times out of ten, even my eyes struggle to work out the chuffin' word they generate. However, in the last week, an increased quantity of anonymous spam has been flooding in. I'm obviously now on some automatic software's program. So in an effort to thwart them, I'm going onto word verification for a couple of weeks, then I'll remove it and see if I've shaken them off. Normal service will be resumed shortly, as they say.

Away from the frustrations of the digital world, I've dug out yet another tag to have a play with. And I've gone over to the darker side with this one. Muddy browns and dark greys dominate.




I drew (or rather scribbled) a zombie-style character, printed him out and coloured him in. Some of the ink ran whilst doing this but it rather added to the effect so I left it.

I spritzed the tag with brown and black inks before stamping along the left edge with black distress ink and using a wet tissue to soak up and blur the detail. I took my versatile white spray from Studio Calico and added some dripped spots and that was the background completed.

I cut out the little fella, glued him in place and went to my Evernote file on the computer to look for a suitable quote. Once found, I typed it into a text document, printed it out and inked it up with Old Paper distress ink. I stuck these on, added a few more scribbles with black pen and voila.

And what of the quest for my creative direction? In the words of the immortal U2 song, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. But I'm feeling ever closer with each experimental tag I make. Hopefully, the more I play, the sooner something will emerge that I'll go full gusto for. I want more texture, more dimension, more mixed media. Maybe with the next tag...

In the meantime, a bank holiday looms and no doubt the traditional downpour of rain to go with it. So whatever your plans for the weekend, I hope they are fun, relaxed and full of creative flair.

Pxx

8 comments:

kjjc said...

I thought this little fella was a stampotique stamp I'd not seen before. Brilliant-love him. think you should turn him into a stamp to sell to me.

Neet said...

This is fabulous! You should come up with your own line - definitely.
Love this tag and so sorry you have had to get that dreaded word verification on but I will persevere with it because it is you and I love to see what you make - and comment. Why do these things happen and make life difficult when all we want to do is share our artwork.
Hope you call in this weekend.
Hugs, Neet xx

Karenliz Henderson said...

WOW I thought he was a stamp too! He is wonderful! I would buy the stamp!!!!

Karin said...

Wow it looks indeed like a stampotique stamp. i love it!
Beautiful tag!

Kory K said...

I am so so so much in love with this!!!

First of all- I am in love with the little guy.

2nd: That background looks too amazing. Wayyyy amazing. I wish I could've watched you do that!!!!

What do you use to draw in?!?! Is it on iPad?!


:):)

-kory

alexa said...

Oh, he has such a mournful air, in that attractive French-looking gamin way! Darker colours for the rain-soaked weekend are probably just about right - I'm liking the mixed media feel too. Out of pure love and dedication to you, I will put up with the word verification even though you may be able to hear me from here, swearing on my fourth attempt. :)

Julia S-W said...

Really love your little chap - I thought he was a Stampotique character!
Great tag.
Julia

Justie said...

I have to say really enjoy this tag, It really cool love the color well everything about it.