Bex Hall

Bex Hall > ICAD

ICAD

Nature prints are easy to create

Who knew messy could be so fun?

A leaf print

This was fun! 

For today’s prompt, botanical, I gathered plants on my walk this morning, coated them with printing ink and pressed them between two index cards. I love the results!

Nature print

It’s hard to decide which one I like best. 

Nature print experiments

As usual, I jumped in without looking at a tutorial. It probably would have been better if I pressed them in a book for a few hours before inking. I will try that next time. And there will be a next time. It is totally worth the effort and messy hands. Soap & water cleanup.

Plants used for printing

I used Speedball block printing ink, a soft brayer, and ceramic cutting board.

Speedball block printing ink

53/61

A lost memory surfaces

The cycle of life in a tiny pond

My pond and tadpoles

Beside the barn

Up the hill

Next to the tree line

A narrow plateau

The suggestion of a pond

Fed by a cantankerous spring

Shallow brown and gold and then green

Filled with gelatinous speckled floating masses

At first

From eggs to tadpole to pollywog to frog

This pond hosted life

And added to my education

46/61, pond as prompt, pen and watercolor

Am I back in kindergarten?

Finger painting with watercolors is fun

Watercolor kaleidoscope

Four layers in this circle to represent how a kaleidoscope (today’s ICAD prompt), image might appear. I used Koi, Jane Davenport, and Daniel Smith pans.

It was interesting to “feel” the differences. The Davenport felt grainy, the Koi cakes were cracked, but easy to activate, and the Daniel Smith brand were all velvety smooth.

Anthony Roebuck at Watercolor Affair offers an in depth look.

45/61

When the prompt reminds you of something else

A loose connection, but it works

Loch Ness

In and around the lake

Mountains come out of the sky and they stand there…

Along the drifting cloud 

The eagle searching down on the land…

I’ll be the roundabout 

Lead singer Jon Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe of the band Yes wrote this song near the end of a tour when they were traveling in Scotland. They were in the back of a van…when the song came together. Awed by the scenery, lyrics like “mountains come out of the sky…” were written.

Anderson says “Roundabout” is a “happy song” and describes it as a “Scottish jig.”*

Today’s prompt initially had me on track to draw the concrete roadway they call a roundabout but I couldn’t figure how to accurately portray an extremely frightened driver navigating through a morass of vehicles swerving and changing lanes. In a circle.

Too much work. Then I heard a song from the soundtrack of my youth echo through my mind. Yes. Literally. That will do. When I learned the song had been born around Loch Ness in Scotland, I imagined what they may have seen as they drove the countryside, creating their magic.

A watercolor landscape with some Micron pen strokes happened for today’s #roundabout prompt. 44/61

*from the Songfacts website.