Continuing a Creative Experiment

(Click on image for a larger view.)

I enjoyed creating the Siren of the Sea ATC  in my last post so much that I decided to  create another undersea ATC, this time featuring koi fish.

I'm still playing around with the theme of light and shadow. In the Sea Siren, the light source was very obviously from directly above. Here the light source is much more subdued and subtle, coming in from the upper left in barely discernible rays of pale blue and yellow.

Starting with a slightly mottled cream colored base, the focal image is stamped in Versafine black ink which really brings out the details in any stamp. It is then masked and the background is sponged in various shades of blue ink from dark to light. The large seaweed to the lower left is also stamped in Versamark black, then the mask is removed and the fish are colored in with Prismacolor pencils and highlighted with glittery gel pens for a little sparkle. The seaweed is over-colored in dark green pencil.

The original image was ATC sized, that is to say 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches, but it looked a bit dull and uninteresting. I had the idea to trim it down by clipping the corners with a decorative corner slot punch to create the curves and notches and cutting from one corner notch to the next with a craft knife. The result is the lantern-like shape you see above. I placed it on a dark blue base card and gilded all the edges with a gold paint pen.Gold stickers in the corners highlight the edges and the sparkle in the scales and fins. The contrast with the navy blue base card and the shine of the gold brought a dull card to life and made the image pop. I'm happy with the way this ATC turned out and I am already looking for the next image with which to play.

Materials:
2 Snowball Koi - About Art Accents
Seaweed Foliage - Magenta Rubber Stamps
Gold Stickers - Starform Stickers
Corner punch - EK Success Paper Shapers Card Creator Decorative Corner Slot Punch
Dye inks - Vintage Blue (Whisper Ink), Baby Blue (Memories), Denim (Adirondack), Onyx Black (Versafine)
Prismacolor Colored Pencils - various


Ballo ergo sum
- Gitana, the Creative Diva
Design team member for About Art Accents