Friday 4 May 2018

Words and Music for AVJ

The lovely Alison has chosen a fabulous theme for this month and I thoroughly loved thinking through how I could depict it in a project. Here goes ........ her brief was clear -

'For this challenge we would love to see projects that are inspired by our favourite song or that incorporate musical lyrics or sheet music in their design. Just remember to create your project in our preferred styles of vintage, shabby, mixed media, art journaling, industrial, timeworn or steampunk'.


I took one of my special cut media boards from tando Creative and sealed one side with white gesso and then adhered some music paper, words and stencilled letters. I chose the music paper carefully and typed out the words I wanted to use at the end as a sentiment. Do you recognise it?

Softly, deftly
Music shall possess you.
Hear it, feel it,
Secretly possess you.



I cut off the excess around the edges and then took some white gesso and a palette knife and scraped some across he board and round the edges, sealing it with matte medium when it was dry.


Next I spritzed the background with water in a small area so I could control the colouring up of this next layer and dabbled in a little paynes grey. In the opposite corner I did the same with quinacridone gold and across the middle with burnt umber. I didn't tilt the board to let the colours merge I just heat dried and then repeated the process with the colours swapping them to different areas.


I repeated those two gesso and paint steps again ....


.... and then gathered some collage pieces to finish off the board - old music scores and the words from Phantom of the Opera (one of my most favourite musicals - see above).


Once I had stuck everything down and gone in with a charcoal pencil to add some shading and depth I was quite pleased with the look. I said this year I would be going back to using more neutral and vintage colours again and it is certainly making me happy.


I hope you will enjoy looking at all the wonderful and inspiring projects from the team at A Vintage Journey for our Words and Music challenge and maybe you will find a little time to join in and share something you have been making.

Have a creative month.

hugs Brenda xxx

9 comments:

Annie said...

a fabulous make Brenda x Love those wonderful layers and of course the perfect words for Alison's great challenge theme at AVJ

TFS and huge hugs
Annie x

Words and Pictures said...

I love that you've got the actual music for your quote there in the background, and the ageing and distressing of the layered papers is simply brilliant - what a great piece for the challenge theme!
Alison x

Anita Houston The Artful Maven said...

I would so frame this for the wall. LOVE the music, the quote, the texture!

Redanne said...

I never fail to be impressed by your wonderful art Brenda, this is quite simply breath-taking!! Love, love, love it!! So much!! Hugs, Anne xx

Paper Wishes said...

This gesso layering and built up paper elements is so effective just perfect. Thanks for sharing and inspiring.

A Pink said...

This is fabulous, Brenda. Love your use of music paper and collage pieces so thoughtfully placed and all those layers of gesso and paint that create such great depth and texture. Picking out some of the words from the music paper to use as your sentiment was such a great idea and finishes off your 'Words and Music' art panel just perfectly.

Hope you have a lovely weekend
Hugs x

sarascloset said...

Fabulous music themed project and a wonderful tutorial! Love this grungy shabby look! Hugs!

Carol said...

Gorgeous yummy layers awesome project xx Have a lovely weekend xx

Let's Art Journal said...

Wow, what a fabulous mixed media panel! I love the aged and grungy look that you created with all the layers of sheet music, white gesso, stamping and paints - amazing 😁. Thanks for the inspiration and wishing you a happy weekend! J 😊