The Voice of Reason ~ Inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone! Have you met Miss Dee, a fabulous character drawn by Janet Klein of Vera Lane Studio? She is one of my favourite quirky characters. I see her as curmudgeony, sarcastic, and with a low tolerance for people's nonsense. She makes me laugh with her facial expression as well as the sayings that come along with her. When I went looking for someone to help me illustrate this saying, she checked every box. She is also available as Nurse Dee which is a scary thought, although I think I may have met her after my surgery.

I coloured Miss Dee with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. Grape Crush Stickles was added to her earrings, necklace, and purse button. I also coloured her in red and purple. Maybe she is a member of the Red Hat Society but is too ornery to actually don the hat. Anyway, she is all glammed up and ready to go. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted with black cardstock, and trimmed out again leaving a narrow black border.

The background of this 6x6 watercolour page was kept very simple. Wilted Violet Oxide Ink was smushed onto a large acrylic stamp block and spritzed with water. It was then turned upside down and applied to the page several times. I dried between layers and repeated the process, to build up intensity, pattern, and layers. I made sure to leave white space (always a challenge for me) because that was the look I was going for. More ink and water were added to the block and a fan brush was used to splatter this ink over the page (and everything else on my desk). Deep Purple Archival Ink was sponged through Tim Holtz Starry Layering Stencil and Vermillion Archival Ink was applied to a Crafty Individuals text stamp.

To add more texture and a little white to brighten the page, Ranger Texture Paste was scraped through part of Carabelle Studio For the Love of Layers stencil. Because the Oxide ink is reactive with water, some of the Wilted Violet seeped through the paste. Once it was dry, white Posca Paint Pen was applied to the paste to bring back the brighter white colour. Three pieces of washi tape were adhered to white cardstock and then glued in place to give Miss Dee a place to stand.

The wording was printed onto white cardstock, cut into sections, and matted with black. To finish the page, a simple border where the open circles were filled in with marker and Grape Crush Stickles was added to the outside edges as a frame. Black Big Brush Pen was used to darken the actual outside edges.

Thanks for joining Miss Dee and me today. We love that you did that, although apparently I am a little more enthusiastic than she is :)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie