Wanderlust: woodpecker

Series: Wanderlust 2021 #11

A new theme this week and new themes always start with a class from the host, Kasia Avery. Unlike the detailed, real-time, step-by-step classes, these ones are more of an introduction to the theme with a chat from Kasia and a speeded-up video of her interpretation. The hope is that it will inspire action without over-thinking, which is particularly appropriate for the theme of serendipity. Yes, there is a process that can be followed, but the idea is to embrace intuitive creation, reacting to the last thing that happened on the page rather than rigidly sticking to a recipe.

So, while I started out with a layer of spray colour, then collage pieces and a focal image, followed by patches of acrylic colour, it started to diverge from there. The next layer of white acrylic picked up colour from the inks, or maybe I hadn’t dried the acrylic colours enough, but that was good because I preferred the effect as the colour developed. I don’t have the same powders that Kasia used so I tried Perfect Pearls instead; that made some nice shiny patches, but wasn’t really thrilling me and didn’t react with water. That prompted me to get out one of my PaperArtsy Infusions powders which was much more satisfying.

After some scribbling with white pen — which was on the recipe — I diverged again, adding black marks around both the woodpecker and the edge of the page and also shading around the woodpecker with a charcoal pencil.

I normally leave a day or two between watching the lesson and making a page based on it — a bit of time to let ideas develop — so it was interesting to go straight from the video to the craft desk. And satisfying to see that I can create something I like without spending days contemplating it beforehand.

Class:

• Wanderlust 2021
• Theme: serendipity
• Teacher: Kasia Avery (website, Instagram, YouTube)