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.