AWNB - Asian Inspired Challenge

The challenges we have for you this fortnight at Art With No Boundaries are Anything Goes and a bonus round of Anything Asian Inspired.Once your project is completed and posted on your blog, link up that specific post with our challenge blog, remembering to mention AWNB in your post.

This week, the Design Team chose images from CS Designs from one of two categories: Darlings of the Orient or Asian Montage. The choice was difficult because all of the images are just so striking and inspiring. For my project, I decided to play with the Asian Square Masami/Beautiful, one of the darlings of the Orient. I coloured Masami's face and hair with my Prismacolor pencils using OMS to blend. Tiny rhinestones were adhered to her eyes to create a sparkle. Masami was matted on some Asian style paper and then black cardstock. Foam tape was added to the back to create dimension.

The background layer is another part of the recycled bamboo placemat I had used in a previous design. The edges were inked to draw the eye in to the center. A moon was cut from textured pearlized cardstock and edged in blue ink. A tree branch was cut from kraft cardstock and then inked like crazy with three different colours to get the depth and variation I wanted. Then the grain detail was doodled in with a brown marker. Punched flowers were "cupped" using a stylus and piece of foam to make the cherry blossoms. A small spiky punched circle and a pink flat back pearl were added to the center of each blossom.

Because Masami is a woman of mystery, I chose  this particular CS Designs sentiment to accompany her image. This was printed on handmade paper. I drew around the sentiment with a water brush so that it could be torn rather than cut. Masami keeps her fan close at hand in order to lend an air of mystery to her image. The fan is made from origami paper and a piece of a doily and is tied with gold metallic thread. To finish off this piece, a string of pearls was added to the fabric band at the bottom both to soften it and to bring some white to the bottom. After all, Masami is the pearl of the Orient!

Thanks for stopping by to visit with Masami and me. I'm excited to see what you create for this challenge. Be sure to visit the Art With No Boundaries blog to check out what the rest of the Design Team created to inspire you. All of the projects are so beautiful...love the Asian theme.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie