Nature Journal: Inside Back Cover

Presenting the inside back cover of the nature journal - it is an amalgamation of flowers done using various techniques and stuck together randomly on the page to give the effect of a colourful and wild floral garden.

On the top left corner is this Nasturtium flower created using pen marks on a printed photo.

The middle of the page is covered with monoprinted poppies, using the technique described in my last post. The purple stalk at the left corner of the picture below was inspired by a blossoming stick of verbinas that I once had in my garden.

The bottom left is again a clump of red and black flowers made with sponge prints and sketch pens.



 The red, blue and green paper flower in the picture below was made by my daughter by using sketch pens and markers on wet paper. It faded over time so I added a layer of waterproof inks to brighten it up. The pen drawing at the corner is my interpretation of a sunflower.... or it could be a gazenia too!



Hope you like my wild floral garden on the inside back cover of the nature journal. It makes for a striking contrast to the low-on-colour December page.



Now only the back cover remains to be shared, and the journey of the nature journal shall come to an end.... at least for now. Look out for that final post next month.

Poppies with Printmaking

Finally the grey, foggy days of winter are here sending shivers down the spine. But this winter I won't whine.... the unusually hot December was rather worrisome when you think of what we are doing to our planet. Anyhow, to distract myself from such issues, I decided to try my hand at some monoprints using regular stuff lying around the house.

Using two shades of blue and a contrasting red ink pen to fill in the details, I created a bunch of my favourite poppy flowers. Incidentally, our garden did not get any poppies this year (despite getting loads last year), so this was a fitting way to revisit them.

Believe me, no fancy products are required. All I used were a block-sized piece of synthetic foam, some brushes, acrylic paints and paper to print on. And a cutter or knife to carve the design into the foam block. Don't worry if you don't have those; even a ballpoint pen without ink works wonders! I used such a pen as you can see from the pictures below.

Once the design is carved, paint the stamp with acrylic colours of your choice and voila!.... let the stamping fun begin.

Sounds simple enough? Now try some yourself and send me your pictures. Would love to see how my readers get inspired. :) I also created some red and mustard poppies for the inside back cover of my nature journal. You can look out for those in the next post.

Nature Journal: December Discources

The first official post of the year but it talks of the one big project I started, and successfully completed, all through last year! So proud of this.... As the year drew to a close and the days whizzed by faster than usual, the December page of the Nature Journal proved to be a challenge to complete. First the morning chill made me lazy and I stopped going for my regular walks. Result was very few specimens to show in the journal.

And when I did pick up one of my favourite leaves from the park, I couldn't identify it! I searched high and low for its name, befriended the 'maalis' and asked the gardeners. But it all drew a blank. Then I resorted to good old Google, searching through innumerable sites. Till browsing through endless botanical names and species finally yielded the name - Silver Oak. The tree is native to Australia (wonder how it came to India) and the name is derived from the silver coloured underside of the leaf.

That brings the year-long journey of my Nature Journal to a close. I admit I'll miss filling up more pages with interesting stories on our flora and fauna, and our experiences with them. But then as I just about finished the back cover, so you'll have one more post to enjoy the swan song of the Nature Journal. The next edition of the Nature Journal will get written only when I move locations or after 5 years, whichever is sooner. In the meanwhile, here is hoping some of you will start one of your own and share your journey here!

Happy New Year 2016

Creative Rumblings wishes its readers, followers and fans a very happy and creative 2016!

 

 

Thanks for being with us on this colourful journey.... looking forward to new adventures in the new year. :)