Sunday, June 30, 2013

Summer of Color 3, Week 4: Charcoal Gray and Pale Pink

Welcome to July!!  Once again I'm joining Kristin our wonderful hostess from Twinkle Twinkle for the fourth installation of Summer of Color. This week the colors with the most votes were Charcoal Gray and Pale Pink.  Although I don't really consider them summer colors, and certainly didn't vote for them, I am not opposed to the color combination.

I started with a few products I intended to use for this piece.  I had originally planned to make a crackle from gesso and glue on the black card stock because I had no gray.  I decided to not make my own charcoal gray from black and purple acrylic and gesso.  I've always found that adding a bit of purple makes gray more intense.

I also got out my pink shimmering mists to spray on the white card stock.  Although you can't tell, the smaller white piece is embossed grunge board I bought on clearance a few years ago, and paid a small fortune for it, even on clearance.  It was time to use it, instead of allowing it to languish, or make me believe it held so much importance it had to be hidden away and saved.  I paired the grunge board with my newest gift: a lovely pink pan pastel.

The crackle seemed like a good idea when I first conceived the piece, but after dry brushing gesso over the black, I felt I had the charcoal gray I was looking for, especially after I did a bit of sanding.  Although my "new" camera takes lousy photos,

I wanted to give a sense of the embellishments on this piece which I knew would be lost when I scanned it.

Nature's Bounty











Those of you who frequent my blog know I couldn't go through the entire SOC series without doing a bit of sewing.  So of course, I had to sew the caption (even though I kept struggling with the tension).

What can I say?  I'm not a pink kind of gal, but I bet many in Kristin's challenge are.  So please don't forget to visit them, too.

44 thoughtful remarks:

Patricia said...

I love your piece for SOCs latest choice! I'm not a "pink" girl either but I love how your used pink here, balanced very nicely against the gray - it's not too "sweet"... It has an edge to it & it works beautifully! Well done!

Virginia said...

Oh that's gorgeous hadn't realised these were the colours this week!

Susan said...

Beautifull. I wouldn't have guessed that those colors would work so well together!

BJ said...

Quick off the mark again, I knew the colours yesterday but for some reason wasn't inspired. Maybe today. Great piece. BJ

Julie Lee said...

These colours and your interpretation work so well!I'm not doing the SOC but love to look and this is fabulous and not too obviously pink, if you know what I mean. Punch and Judy, btw, was a puppet show that grew out of the Italian Commedia del Arte tradition in the Renaissance where troupes of actors would travel around performing in public spaces. Mr Punch was originally a clown called Pulcinella, but in Britain he turned into a puppet and they called him Punch. His puppet show antics were never written down, just improvised. In Victorian times his little puppet booth was to be seen on the sea-front at the popular beaches and you can still see him in the UK, especially in Covent Garden in London where there are many street performers! Hope that fills you in a bit. Sorry if I gabbled on: it's a bit of an obsession with me! Julie Ann x

dawn said...

Hello, so nice to see your name up there as first again, LOVE THAT!!

This is so pretty, I love how you made the gray. The embossed is AWESOME, so lovely with the gray. YAY for getting some sewing on this one, it adds more texture to the page.

Thank you for the comment on my blog, I went for the less messy way and love my new cards. Not sure what I will do with this weeks colors yet besides more cards.
Have a good week!

Sharon Fritchman said...

WOW! You are so fast! I absolutely love what you created for this week's SOC challenge! so beautiful!

Linda Gibbons said...

You are really so fast! I love the grungy beauty of this piece.

Shahrul Niza said...

Beautiful work!!. I LOVE how the grungy-grey-crackled gesso gives balance to this, otherwise too vanilla, sweet pink. Yay!.

Unknown said...

The gesso over black is super cool.

Becs said...

So beautiful. I love this colour combination and it works so beautifully on this piece. Love all the textures and very pretty embellishments and sewing. Lovely. :)

Dawn said...

Love the piece Elizabeth, not my kind of colour combo either tbh but you have done it proud my lovely. I love the stitched detail and embellies, perfect.
Huge hugs x

Tammie Lee said...

i enjoy seeing your stitching mixed with your art, a lovely accent.

Halle said...

I had no idea that purple would make grey more intense...thanks for the tip. I do like the color combo this week, although I haven't had a chance to work on mine yet. Mr. G is on vacation, so we've been very busy!!

froebelsternchen said...

beautiful!

Monica said...

This is very interesting way to find the colors you want. Today your post comes by way of Feedly my replacement for the Google feeder. This is on my PC. On my iPad I have Bloglovin, works very well but they follow up comments and reading blogs by sending out an invite to join them SO beware. Since I forgot to recharge iPad I am unable to compare at this time.

Darla said...

You met the challenge wo well. I like pink and grey but find pink can drift into "too sweet" for me. Your piece is stronger than that.

Darla

Monique said...

Lovely use of the pink here. Beautiful.
xx

Ileana said...

Cool process. Love the delicate pink against that background!

peggy gatto said...

so original and so pretty!

Anonymous said...

Nice use of the gesso to create your charcoal gray...pretty embellishments...xox

~*~Patty S said...

Hello Hello so nice to get to visit again...I have so much to catch up with.

You rose to the pink and gray challenge beautifully Elizabeth...I do find them a pleasing combo

Hope you've had a wonderful June and I am looking forward to seeing you for tea tomorrow
oxo

Craftymoose Crafts said...

Pink may not be your favorite color, but you sure did a great job with all the textures. I'm not the biggest pink fan either, but paired with gray, I can handle!

Kathryn Zbrzezny said...

Love your gray background with its texture! Your pinks are sweet and add nice contrast. Have a summery, creative week! ~ kath

Terri Corona said...

I love your grungy take on pink!

Rita said...

Well, you pink and grey turned out okay even if you say you're not a pink kind of gal. :)

joy said...

Hi, Elizabeth! I like your interpretation of pink and gray. The gray does, indeed, tone down the pink quite a bit and it looks fabulous!

Mary Ann Potter said...

Beautifully shabby! I like the way you described your process, too. A lovely entry for this week's colors!

Kristin Van Valkenburgh said...

Xo

elle said...

LOVELY! I bought some very cheap pan pastels and they are so hard I can't get them to spread. But yours looks great!

Jez said...

What an ingenious way to create grey, I would never have thought of that, and it works so well, with the texture as well as the colour.
Your pink section is lovely, and I liked seeing the way you put it all together. Very original.

Unknown said...

Like the look.

Karla B said...

Gorgeous work!

Unknown said...

Really beautiful!!!

Tracey FK said...

your work is so full of texture whether you use sewing of not, but I must say I am not surprised to see it make an appearance... I am sure if I had your skills I would include it as well... happy week 4

Diana Taylor said...

Ooh, I love your backgrounds, they are fabulous - and I like the slightly grungy feel to the finished piece - love it!

Lori Saul said...

Beautiful color inspirations!

Sharon Fritchman said...

Oh my goodness! This is so beautiful! I love how you used the colors and I especially like your embossing!!!

Natasha said...

I love the way you used the colours. They didn't jump out at me as Summer colours either!! Gorgeous dimension and rawness against the pretty embossing, and I loved that you used sewing as well.

Miriam said...

This is just gorgeous, the colours and texture, it looks like punched metal...Fabulous

PaintingWrite said...

This is really pretty and very creative!

Unknown said...

That is rather pretty.

Prairie Jill said...

Gorgeous! I love the contrast between the soft, delicate pink and the grungy background.

Carmen said...

I didn't think I was a pink girl but I loved this combination.

Really love that shade of grey you achieved - I have a 12x12 piece of grungeboard that I've been hoarding and - frankly, don't know what to do with :) Maybe I should just dive in!