Mirror, Mirror

Already it is the last day of August (we're still waiting for summer!) and we are staying with our theme of Faces, the Human Form & Characters on The Documented Life Project 2015. Out art challenge this week is Self-Portrait and the journalling prompt Mirror, Mirror. I somehow felt that self portraits were coming when the announcement came on Saturday and it was in a way well-timed as that was by pure chance also my birthday. Just the right moment, you might say, but it also meant I had little time to work on this spread so instead of drawing I choose to use my favourite medium of photography and played with a variety of filters in Photoshop Elements till I came up with a version of myself that I was happy with.

Before I adhered it to the pages I worked on the background that started with gesso and then layers of Inktense Blocks in reds and blues, activated with water. Once dry the colour becomes permanent. I added collage,so overpainted eventually that you can hardly see it but there is a glimpse on the picture below, bottom left. Then I added wave like imagery (using Stencilgirl's Ripple Effect stencil) and added a rose image too (Little Eddy Rose stencil, also by Stencilgirl)

 I found a mirror in my stash of cut out magazine images and miracle of miracle in one of the Sunday paper supplements the words Mirror, Mirror appeared, to assist me (wonderful synchronicity)

Then I discovered that I had a Donna Downey text stencil that said exactly what I wanted to say about myself and added this as shown, using black. I then outlined the letters with a white marker. Some fabric tape was added too. As per usual I finished with postage stamps and they too add meaning to my self-portrait. To finish I wrote along the side of my head: "age is a work of art". You can find the full quotation on Saturday's post.