This is a picture of our front door taken early in the morning as I left for work. The streetlights were shining over the garden wall which drew a diagonal line across it, I thought it looked kind of cool. In the winter I leave the house before sunrise, or very soon after it, and come home in the dark so it seemed appropriate to photograph it like this. I also love the way the light from inside shines out from the windows. The door came with the house when we moved in three years ago, and at first I thought it was hideous but I kind of like it now.
Around the picture I've written some quotes that I like and appropriate to the challenge. The big one at the top is a quote from Lord of the Rings, inscribed on the The Doors of Durin, the West-gate of Moria. I didn't want to attempt to draw the elvish! The other quotes are: "home is any four walls that enclose the right people", "if opportunity doesn't knock, build a door", "over the horizon lies another adventure", "we're all mad here" (Alice in Wonderland) and " I'm quite ready for another adventure" (LotR).
I left it a few weeks after writing the quotes then decided to add a few doodles.
As this was the first challenge it seem appropriate to by done on the back of the monthly calendar for January. This was part of the 2014 desk calendar from the Foot and Mouth Painting Artists that I mentioned in my last post.
Week Two: Say Cheese!!! Incorporate a selfie into your planner.
The last selfie I took was on a ski slope on our last day of holiday. My happy place is in snow so I thought it appropriate! I covered the back of a postcard from Switzerland in Christmas wrapping paper, stuck the photo on with snowflake and stars washi tape and wrote in black marker. It's a little basic but it makes me happy.
Week Three: Add an envelope from your mailbox.
On the window side I used all 24 of my colouring pencils to follow the triangular pattern then used a black Sigma Micro 05 pen to draw bubbles.
For the back I used the inside of the envelope flap as a starting line and used a small watercolour set (that had been sat at the bottom of my crafting drawer for years) and created a rainbow effect. Rainbows seem to be a theme that I keep coming back to - my mother created rainbow screen prints while at art school. Once the paint was dry I used the black Micron 05 pen to draw branches. I was going to add flowers but I really liked the way they turned out so I went over the lines with a Tombow Brush Pen in Redwood to make them slightly thicker.
Finally I inserted a postcard I bought in the Paperchase sale, adding a washi tape tab for easy access. I love the way the child in the picture peeks out of the window!
Week Four: Write a secret message and then paint over all but one key word
I struggled with ideas for this one, I don't really write anything particularly secret in my diary so spent a lot of time trying to think up what to write!
In the end I copied out the lyrics of 'Sing' by Gary Barlow and the Commonwealth Band. The song was written for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Gary Barlow went all over the Commonwealth to find singers and musicians to contribute. There are some really lovely lyrics (as there always are with Gary's songs) and it's such an uplifting song to hear. I was singing along at the top of my voice on a recent car journey!
I wrote the lyrics in purple Sigma Micron 05 pen and then covered with Tombow Brush pens. I left two parts free of much colour, the two parts that speak the most to me. I may end up coming back and doing more as it feels slightly unfinished.
You might have recognised the washi tape tab to the left of the card - yup, I used the postcard from week 3 for this challenge!
