Under the moonlight.....

Quite awhile ago, a dear friend and I got together and worked on using Citra Solv with National Geograhic magazine pages. There are a few ways to apply the solvent (Youtube offers a number of videos on techniques) but my space is limited, here, so we brushed on the liquid using foam brushes. I had purchased a box of old National Geographic magazines off of Ebay and went through the pages to make sure I didn't want to keep the magazines or pages in tact. That is how I came to save my gorilla page (see older post). :)

This photo is an example of one of the pages that I treated with the Citra Solv. I love the fact that it leaves areas that can be brought out to create a whole new story. The house in the background was very hidden and I brought it out with a fine-point permanent sketch marker as well as the dancing couple. I used watercolors, stencils with molding paste for the flowers and the moon was created with a handmade stencil and gesso. I sketched in the face.

The original background had a lot of people working in a field and lots of tall grass. The Citra Solv kind of blends the ink around the page - it's a really cool effect.

My recommendation would be to do this in a well-ventilated area as ,even though the solvent is a natural cleaner, it has a very strong orange odor. And; while I love the smell of oranges, it can be over-powering in a small area. The orange aroma still lingers on the treated pages even after fully drying. That I kind of like :)

These pages make for wonderful background starts for journals, canvas, etc. I adhered the treated page to my journal using gel medium.

Thoughts of all of you and hope your week is going well for you. I can't thank you enough for your lovely feedback you leave for me, here, as it makes me feel good about what I am creating! I couldn't do what I do without you!

Much love - Marilyn xxoo