What inspires you?

I was captivated by an amazing quilt/wall hanging the other day. We were at Pearl St Mall (Boulder's walking mall - an expensive place!) and DH had ducked into one of the shops. I was with ds at one of their playgrounds. I looked up at some commotion and saw that one of the art co-op shops was having a showing. There, against the back wall, way up high, was a gorgeous piece of work. Really intense greens against a dark charcoal (fading to a misty gray) background. I *had* to get closer!

Once I got in there, I found that it was bright leaves against a jagged, pieced background of graduated grays. Beautiful. It was, of course, hideously expensive (although if I was swimming in money it would've been *mine*!) and much too large to fit in my house. Believe me, I really tried to justify it! lol

I couldn't get it out of my head. I wanted to create something that would pay homage to that quilt. Leaves? I have plenty - and they were an easy choice - but they just didn't seem right. I didn't want to copy it, just be inspired by it. And then it hit me! Eyes. Eyes staring at you from the dark. Oooooo. Chilling! :)

First I stamped these gorgeous tiger eyes from Third Coast on white c/s with Onyx Black VersaFine ink. Colored them in with regular ol' prismas (two colors of green) while trying to keep in mind everything I've learned about coloring eyes from Marianne's blog. Not too shabby, huh? Then, a la Zindorf, I worked that brayer! London Fog Memento ink from the top, Black Soot Distress Ink from the bottom. Then I ran the edge of the DI pad along the panel to suggest grasses. Cleaned up the eyes (a little ink stayed on the pencil & made them look dull) and added white gel pen accents.

I chose a green/black shimmery base and stamped the bamboo from one of the ubiquitous clear Inkadinkado sets with Onyx Black VersaFine. Which didn't really stick very well to the c/s, but looked pretty good 'faded'.

I mounted the eyes panel on black vellum, then popped that up over the ribbon and charm. I like that pop of red, although I'm still questioning whether I should have used plain black. *sigh* Am I ever totally happy?? :)

Thanks for visiting! :)