SAF 2016: Masterpiece Inspirations...
July 23, 2016
Hello! Are you ready for the next Stamp-A-Faire challenge? For this next challenge, Nichole asked us to choose an art masterpiece or an artist that inspires us and create a card based on that work or artist. If you follow my blog at all you probably have noticed that I have a bit of a soft spot for mid-century artists and illustrators. I love artwork from that time period! There is just something that feels familiar and homey about it. I'm especially drawn to artists who created the artwork for greeting cards during that period. Maybe I feel a bit of a connection because it is similar to to what we do...create works of art to share and send to others.
One of the artists from that time period that I really enjoy is Ralph Hulett. He was a watercolor artist that worked for Disney and did many of the backgrounds for the classic cartoons like Snow White, Jungle Book, Sleeping Beauty, and more. He also created greeting cards -- mostly holiday cards, that range from beautiful winter scenes to really humorous images that make you smile.
I put together a Pinterest board with a sampling of some of his artwork.
I drew inspiration from a few of his works to create a holiday card. Here are the main elements that I used for inspiration...
The blue shadows and trees in this painting, as well as the branches and birds.
The buildings here with the more abstract shadows and watercolor background.
Here again, the branch silhouettes and birds...
He uses color in very interesting ways to create shadow and depth. I tried to mimic that look a bit here with the buildings from the City Scene set. I started off by sponging some Aqua Mist ink onto some watercolor paper, then I spritzed it with water to add some texture. Then I stamped the detail portion of the buildings from City Scene using waterproof black ink. I turned the stamps around on my block and used the solid backside of the stamp to stamp the "shadows", off-setting them so they don't line up exactly.
I created the "hills" by using the backside of that tall pointy building (empire state building?), stamped with Spring Rain ink. The trees from City Scene were stamped with Blueberry Sky ink, inspired by the blue trees in this artwork by Hulett. Several of his pieces also feature silhouettes of branches with birds, so I wanted to incorporate that too. I used the Branching Out die, cut from Smokey Shadow cardstock. I trimmed off some of the upper branches so I would have a bit more open space to place my birds, which are from the Feather Finery set. The sentiment is from the Christmas Cheer stamps and dies, and I thought the font was perfect for the look and era!
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I enjoyed this challenge so much! It was a fun challenge to take elements from his inspiring artwork and turn that into a card. You can visit Nichole's blog to see how you can play along with this challenge! You can also visit the other DT girls to see their inspiration pieces and projects!
Danielle Flanders
Laurie Willison
Dawn McVey
Amy Sheffer
Heather Nichols
Melissa Phillilps
Nichole Heady
Ashley Cannon Newell
Lizzie Jones
Kay Miller