Thursday 2 April 2020

2020 #6 Jungle Vibes:Tropical Blooming with ESC {by Chris Dark}

2020 Topic 6: Jungle Vibes


Chris is heading to South America for her inspiration. The riot of colours and beautiful butterflies make a tropical delight of a panel. Her question about whether you plan projects out or play is a good one. Why not change the way you create and do the opposite to see what creative effects you end up with!
~ Keren 

Hi everyone, it's Chris Dark with you today, and I'd like to share my 'Jungle Vibes' project.

Another great topic and as always so many ways you can go with it, but I've gone along the lines of tropical flowers and butterflies. Hibiscus flowers and the almost fluorescent large blue butterflies of tropical climates sprang to mind for me as when
 I was little my Dad was in the Merchant Navy and travelled a lot to South America. We have a lot of souvenirs from Rio de Janeiro, one of which is a wood inlaid tray with a display of tropical butterfly specimens under glass, so I found immediate inspiration for this panel. You won't see this type of souvenir now I'm sure, things do change for the better over time. Something else my Dad brought home from Rio was a green Amazon Parrot and again some of his vibrant feather colours are in this panel, he was part of our family for around twenty years. I found the perfect stamps in the gorgeous Scrapcosy Stamp Set 18 (ESC18) which has a pretty open flower which is great for painting and a lovely butterfly stamp too. 




I teamed the stamps up with a couple of lovely Scrapcosy stencils, PS107 and PS190. The flowers for layering under the stamping and the vertical stripes design reminded me of bamboo and worked so well with Grunge Paste for some dimension and texture. 
Pearl GlazeOrchidBlood OrangeYellow Submarine, Gumboots, Cerulean, Beanstalk, Willow and Spring Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are my chosen colours with some Pearlescent Glaze added for the flowers and Butterflies. Grunge Paste, gives dimension put through a stencil and lots of doodling with various gel and fine-liner pens makes it my own. 





I enjoy the therapeutic effects of crafting; there's nothing better for me than to spend time on a project like this that empties my head of everything else that's going on around. It's good for the mind and for the soul! I also love working through the layers, not quite knowing how something will turn out; it's the process for me as well. Do you feel the same or do you have a different approach to your projects? Play it by ear or plan it all out?


I've used a board panel as my substrate and I can use both sides so this can be a continuing project, that's the fun of just sitting down and playing. I can always make it into something else later whatever the substrate is even if I don't have an actual item in mind. This board will work as part of series of panels, or it could be a cover, I can also chop it down into two pieces or tags, I just thoroughly enjoyed making it.




Some process shots above, you'll see I stamped over my stencilling in black as a guide for painting, the end result is quite different from the actual stamped image but that's what I love about stamps; you can make that image your own.



I mixed pearlescent glaze with the paint for a lovely pearly finish, it's nice to have some areas of difference in a project.


Colours of the jungle are in the background, various greens and yellow brayered on give a nice random effect.






Pearl Glaze, Orchid, Blood Orange, Yellow Submarine, Gumboots, Cerulean, Beanstalk, Willow, Spring Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylics are used entirely with some Pearlescent Glaze added for the flowers and Butterflies. Grunge Paste, gives dimension put through a stencil and lots of doodling with various gel and fine-liner pens makes it my own.

I absolutely love making a stamped image look a bit different, it gives more options with a stamp set, more ways to use it etc. I was very pleased with how the main flowers came out, painted, pearly and changed up with pens. I'm thinking about how I'll continue this project, I still have lots of options with this stamp set and stencils and there are all the gorgeous new Fresco paint colours to try as well! 

I hope you'll join in with us on this topic, it's surprising how many stamp sets will work with the jungle vibes theme! 

Thanks for joining me and I hope you have some creative time today. 
Chris x

Instgram: @chrisd999

6 comments:

Miriam said...

This is wonderful Chris.... A proper jungle feel!

Kathy S......... said...

sorry.....not a tropical flower.......It's a dogwood tree bloom.

Chris said...

I don't think I said it's a tropical flower, it made me feel I could make it into one!

Heartsease79742451.wordpress.com said...

That is amazing I really need to practice layering it adds so much more

PaperArtsy said...

Absolutely stunning Chris!!!

Lucy Edmondson said...

This is very atmospheric and so textural! I love it!

Lucy x