A Certain Kind of Darkness

I saw the quote "a certain kind of darkness is needed to see the stars" somewhere on the internet a while ago and it’s been stuck in my head since then. I knew I would have to do a page using it otherwise it would stay there and drive me crazy.

I pondered for a while about what to do because I really wanted the quote to be the focal point. It didn't quite turn out like that; the stars sort of over took it, but I like the end result  just the same.

To get my initial colour down I used Derwent Art Bars in various shades of blue/turquoise.

I used my ranger sprayer applying only a little pressure to get droplets rather than a fine spray. I left it for a minute or two, then used a roll of paper towel to lift a bit of colour off here and there.

When that layer was dry I wet my brush and stroked it over the Midnight Art Bar and then painted onto the page again.

I repeated this step until the background was quite dark and left it to dry. I had to do this more than once to get the intensity I was looking for.   

I coloured a piece of scape paper using Green Art Bars, did a little stencilling, cut a scalloped edge and glued it to the bottom of the page.

I used another scrap that I had lightly sprayed some dylusions ink sprays onto for the houses. 

I inked up the Stampotique stitched-houses-9262 stamp with Black Archival Ink and stamped out a few houses, fussy cut them and glued them onto the border.

Now for the moment of truth. I’m wasn't feeling too confident about writing with a white pen onto a dark background, as I didn’t want to mess this one up, so I found a nice font and created the quote on my computer, making sure that it would fit on my page and printed it onto tracing paper. I used a piece of white graphite to trace the words onto my page, then went over with my White Posco pen. Cheating??? Well maybe, but improving my lettering skills is on my bucket list for this year and I will find the time, but until then, well Graphite is my friend.

I used some White Ranger distress paint in White and an old toothbrush and created a few spatters, then stencilled the stars using my White Posco pen.

Using both White and Black Posco pens I added a bit of doodling to the houses.

I added a border right at the end.

 I’m really happy that I’ve finally created something with that quote.


Supply List

Mixed Media watercolour paper

Derwent Art Bars in shades of blue and green

Water colour brush

Ranger Distress Sprayer

Stampotique -stitched-houses-9262 stamp

Scraps of paper/cardstock

White and Black Posco pens

Glue

Ranger White Distress Paint

Old toothbrush