More Inspiration

Today the new host for the Inspiraton Challenge , Smiling Stef, at Splitcoast Stampers inspired us with a piece of art by Charlie Harper.

I love the modernistic feel to this. It is like the 40's and the 70's all rolled together for me.

I immediately thought the Red Castle canaries from Staving Artists would work so well for this challenge! (which are on special--with a free sheet of cling foam).

I am not a birder--though I find birding fascinating. I live in a birder's haven--we often get people from across the country coming to this area to bird watch. I wish I knew what kind of birds these are so I could color them better. But I don't--SO I just decided to have fun. My bird probably does not exist in nature--but that is the fun of stamping and creating--making it all your own.

Now, when I work with an inspiration piece--I look at the piece as I draw up a plan. Once I start--I usually don't look back. I believe it is meant to be an inspiration--not a challenge to re-create the piece.

The bird is stamped with Brilliance ink on watercolor paper. I used waterolor crayons to color the bird. I love that they are a little more opaque than die ink. They are also much easier to move around on the paper. The blue crayon is from Stampin' Up! but the white, grey and black crayons that I used are from Lyra.

To make the background I dug into my scraps and played with them till they were visually balenced. I kind of like the stylized background contrasted with the semi-realistic main image.

I was a fun challenge. Perfect for my semi-quiet Saturday morning.