This week’s Art Journal Adventure prompt was to incorporate a silhouette as part of the art journal page. Some weeks I read a prompt and have no ideas and some weeks I read a prompt and am overwhelmed by too many ideas at once. This was an example of the latter. There were so many ways I could have taken the idea of a silhouette.
I had a page already underway in my art journal that was going nowhere in particular but where I had plonked a wine label slap bad in the middle. I had actually intended to glue the wine label into my rainbow themed art journal but I guess I was rushing and it was late at night so it ended up in my regular art journal. There were also some scraps of text paper already adhered to the page, leftovers from some other project. I decided that should be the background of my silhouette page. But then I realised that the wine label would likely end up completely covered up. That was when I decided I would create a reverse silhouette with the surrounding area being black and the chosen shape emerging in negative rather than positive.
Something you may not know about me is that I love sharks (and whales). It has been a lifelong thing. I would actually dearly love to dive with sharks but its the claustrophobia of scuba gear underwater that deters me. Despite the fact – or maybe because – I doodle sharks frequently, a shark has only put in one solitary, rogue shark appearance in my art journal. It was a messy collage of torn paper that resulted in a rather dorky looking shark. After adding a light paint layer over the collage, therefore, it was just a case of quickly drawing out a shark silhouette shape and then painting black into the negative space. Quick and easy.
A Pict in PA 
What a light bulb moment so you could still include the wine label! And yes, waving hello Mr Sharky! 🙂
Thank you. It was fun to pull together a page that was so quick and easy. My kids were off school for 2.5 days so free time was a precious commodity. This allowed me to cram in some art time in one ration rather than a few minutes here and there.
Wonderful shark! I really like reverse silhouettes and you created a great one with the blues and the collage. I, too, like sharks and feel bad that they are truly misunderstood. I’m a diver and have been lucky to see a few – they are fantastic.
That’s so cool that you’ve had wild shark encounters, Ellie. The closest I’ve gotten to wild sharks were dogfish and they don’t count and seeing a shark off shore while I was on the beach. One day maybe I’ll be brave enough to try diving or at least snorkeling.
Fantastic. And. wonderful! I love that!
Yes. I liked the wonderful. That’s why I had to paste the label into my journal.
The serendipity winds blowing in your direction. !!!
You always make it look easy and amazing, but I think you have special skills. 😉
Thanks, Kerbey. I think the only skill involved is being confident with the line to create the defined silhouette. I just drew the shape without hesitation. Of course, that same “confidence” meant that the dorsal fin got too big but who cares really.
This turned out great… The negative silhouette idea really works so well, and I love the colour with the wine label showing through! I can totally understand your fascination with sharks too – you know, I recently heard that sharks as a species have been around longer than trees!
Thanks. I hadn’t heard about the tree thing. That’s cool. In terms of evolution, sharks perfected their design early on which is amazing. And then there’s their diversity too.
This is wonderful!
Thank you!