A Lady of Texture...

Thought I'd start this post with the finished page for a change, so if you don't have time for the full works you can skip the rest of the photos lol :D

And a huge THANK YOU to Rhomany for her free class on adding texture :D

This weeks theme at The Butterfly Effect is Quotes and Poems. I'm sure I've mentioned before that one of my most favourite poems is "The Lady of Shalott" by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It is an epic poem set in the realms of Arthurian legend, and though she is the title character, most of the verses give vivid descriptions of the world reflected in her mirror,while there is very little description of the lady herself.

I wanted the page to portray the environment in which she lived, so I used modelling paste to give the effect of stone walls and reeds(she lived on an island in the river)
to which I added layers of yellow, green and brown paint...
and this is the yummy textured result :D
Next I wanted to show how "the curse" affected the lady when"the mirror crack'd from side to side", so I split her portrait into a before and after image.
One half youthful and beauteous...the other wrapped in her shroud on the brink of death.
Inked lines.....
added shadows...
build coloured layers...


then drew cracks and foiled to give the feel of broken glass.
A quick frame of brown patterned paper and some doodling...
paper flowers and lines from the poem...
and gold wax buff to lift the texture even more.
Close up of shiny foiled cracks in mirror :D
Sorry, I know that was a long one, but there are 19 verses(though each verse is more like 2) in the poem!

I have chosen 2 "second parts" of verses as inspiration;

"out flew the web and floated wide;

The mirror crack'd from side to side;

"The curse is come upon me"' cried

The Lady of Shalott"

"For ere she reach'd upon the tide

The first house by the water-side,

Singing in her song she died,

The Lady of Shalott." :D XXX