MCC Card Design Workshop Wk 2 - Serendipity Squares & Apprenticeship

Links: Glenda Waterworth, My Creative Classroom (MCC)

When I'm working through the optional exercises I often find I am surprised by my own reactions. The making of Serendipity Squares & a Grid Layout was a case in point. On the face of it sticking scraps of paper down & stamping over them doesn't seem terribly onerous or exciting, but it was certainly a challenge for me. I think RANDOM was a word that bypassed my vocabulary for there I sat having retrieved all the offcuts of paper from the various packets that they "belonged" to & had to resist the urge to sort them into piles of colours. It was actually quite relaxing just taking the pieces any old how & creatively utilising those scraps proved extremely satisfying. I did apply a little choice in my final grid arrangement - placing a lilac cornered square into each of the grid's corners.

front view 

angled view showing sparkle & dimension

Choosing a design to analyse & make my own version of brought to mind how an artist used to learn his craft by serving an apprenticeship & copying his Master's work. Knowing that certain elements are required for a design to be successful is all well & good but it is through recognising, applying & physically creating those elements that real understanding comes.

I recently came across Debbie Martin's card (see immediately below) using Pan Pastels & remembered being struck by the way the chequered arrangement of her colours was echoed by not only the actual harlequin stamp pattern but its diagonal placement.

Debbie's original

 sketches showing how the eye moves
 in response to the design elements

The asymmetrical variation of the layered flower & the corner swirl, in what is basically a symmetrical layout with a central focal point, causes the eyes to pause so as to read the sentiment & not merely to skim over it. Moreover, the layered flower also acts to draw the eye to focus on itself & then leads down along the swirl to the harlequin daisy arrangement, onto the left of the corner swirl, moves right & up along the opposing swirl into the other harlequin daisy pattern &, exiting via the top double daisy arrangement, drops to the sentiment panel.

As I don't have any Pan Pastels I had to experiment a little to find a medium which would allow the removal of some of it in order to achieve Debbie's subtle whitening of the flower petals. Distress Inks on watercolour paper were too vibrant but I have several brands of barely used chalks which I purchased during my initial crafting enthusiasm. I tried using those stamping with VersaMark, dabbing with the chalk applicator, erasing (Derwent battery eraser) & fixing with cheap hairspray. This led to my discovering that there are chalks & CHALKS; the cheaper ones were gritty & didn't cover as well as the more expensive creamy Pebbles Inc. which I ended up using as I loved the results. I also improvised with my sentiment & die-cuts as I had neither of those that Debbie used. Additionally I varied my version by changing the flower & layering it differently plus I swapped the colours about.
I'd like to thank Debbie for allowing me to use her artwork for my exercise.

front view

close-up showing detail of petals from which colour
was lifted

close-up of layered flower showing dimension &
colour lifting on petals

Recipe
Stamps Chocolate Baroque UA4SP0146 Big Flowers (layered flower), UA4SP0237 Butterfly Daisy Collage (daisy harlequin & corner swirl) & UA5GW0360 Words of Comfort & Cheer (sentiment).
Colouring Pebbles Inc. Chalks (Basic Brights).
Inks VersaMark watermark stamp pad, Memories Dye Black (sentiment).
Die Marianne Designs Creatables LR0116 Frames & Swirls.
The white cardstock & green pearl were from stash.