Sunday, May 20, 2012

Postcard Challenge Week 20~ WEST AFRICA

West Africa, the land of so much turmoil , famine and poverty. Darcy really left this week up to every one's decision; by letting us pick one of 15 actual countries that make up West Africa .  So not knowing which one to chose I literally put all the countries names in a basket and  drew the country of BENIN. Which in the end was a great choice; Benin is the land of voodoo, beautiful women with tons of intricate beads woven into their hair. They also make the most gorgeous baskets out of the grasses that grow in the Savannah. Of course the Pendajari National Park is part of Benin- so safari's are a good source of income for the country.  So I incorporated all those attractions into my weekly page and postcard. ENJOY!

Front of Card
I found this image of a Benin women with all her amazing bead in her hair-
printed and cut out- then I used my Posca Paint pens and detailed the beads
(which made the photo dimensional)-The background is a watercolor of
the amazing basketry made in Benin (By the way this was done using
an set of watercolors I recently got from England from the ?1950's)


Back of Card

 Correspondence:
"My Dearest Melite,
So sorry for the delay in writing back to you!
I left town suddenly to attend to some
charity work in Benin, West Africa.
In the past you asked me about my job,
well I'm in the telecommunications
industry. That's why I travel so much;
seeking new clients for our company.
As far as your visions, when we
were together in Austria , we walked
the events we attended together.
Hope this helps- By the way
Benin women make gorgeous baskets.
                                                                       Alexander"

Page in Book

This page is based on an image I found online (I believe it is a painting) First I
sprayed the background with 3 shades of Dylusional, Lindy's and Rain Mist sprays
(the sun was the original base color in sky-placed lid over the area before
other sprays were added).The original image had a family walking in the sunset,
but I only wanted the mother & child, so I outlined them first-colored in with Black Pitt pen-
had to base coat colored areas with Gesso , since the sprays kept mixing with
acrylics.  Added Bahoob tree and elephant images in Black Pitt pen.
Added country name with stamps.


Page in Book with card




This is how the completed  book  looks.


Enjoy and Happy Creating
Fotojoy/Joyce A.











15 comments:

  1. lovely, super colors and "recently" LoL

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  2. very very beautiful , you really captured the Dry heat - it burns the back of your throat, your image immediately reminded me of the heat of Africa.

    dx

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    1. Thank you. - Did you live in Afirca or just visit there?
      Closest to that type of heat I have experienced -was living in Arizona.

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  3. Beautiful work, I love the background of your card, those colours are fab! I think it's really clever the way you alter an image, nice effects! M

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    1. Thank You Margaret! This challenge has made me do a lot of altered art (which is what Nick Bantock was a pro at)

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  4. Brilliant postcard and page. Love them both. The work on the head dress makes it so dimensional.
    Jen x

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    1. Jen this is one of the disadvantages of this challenge -we can not hold or touch everyone's wonderful work! But I'm having fun anyways!

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  5. Wow, both images are stunning. Love all the extra work you put into using an existing image. Really made it your own. The colors are quite yummy as well. Great job!

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    1. Thank you - it has been fun to alter things -remember how tempted we were in school to alter things? Well now we can do it doing this challenge & not get detention...

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  6. The background on your card is really wonderful. The african lady looks so deep in thought. Awesome card.

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    1. Yes she is so deep in thought ~I knew as soon as I found this image I needed to use her somehow.

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  7. This certainly has a WOW factor! Love your postcard and the book page is stunning.

    Janet xx

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  8. Thanks Jamie- The colors of the spray really popped on the page-(Really I just got that 1950's set of paints off EB- They apprently were never used until I put a brush to them)...

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  9. Wonderful card and super colours! Valerie

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