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| Ellen Hess presenting letter "A". A is for amethyst. |
"I had just been assigned the letter A, and was thinking about what in nature
was shaped like an A, when I took a trip to the Franklin Mineral Museum, and
inspiration hit! I would do an amethyst crystal formation, and other 'a'
minerals. Perfect!"
Front & Back - Ellen describes her process to us: I started by sketching amethyst crystals, then played
with the shape of the silhouette and drawing techniques. Then I experimented
with various media in shades of purple and violet, looking for some reflective
effects. I settled on my rapidograph pen for the drawing, and Copic (and other)
design markers and colored pencils for the coloring. Then I researched and drew
other 'a' minerals, and colored them in, too. I also used a technique that
Elaine Gongora had talked about at one of the BAR meeting Show & Tells, in
which she used tracing paper to outline an image, then glued it to a substrate
and colored it in when it was dry. For the front, I hand painted the backgrounds
directly onto the paper; for the back, I hand painted around color copies of my
original drawings.
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| Patricia Toltl tells BAR about making letter "B". All were unique! |
"I was surprised and delighted by the many different images I found and altered
when I choose to make each B an original separate artwork."
Front & Back - Patricia gives a wonderful description of her original process: I used a technique that I came
upon by chance. After drawing out 20 different sketches of my assigned letter B
and still being dissatisfied with the results, in frustration I took newspaper
photos and altered them first by erasing into the existing image, then adding to
the image with graphite. I coated the back
with acrylic medium to strengthen the paper, then used both colored pencil and
acrylic paint to enhance the images. I ended up with 29
different paintings for the front and 29 smaller paintings for the backs which
were then glued to mi tientes paper.
Ronni Pressman took letter "C". "While I was attempting to make life more detailed and organized, [amidst a run of chaos,] I started to
think about fractals - mathematical calculations seen visually in repeating
patterns. They are so meticulously beautiful, and so delicately displaying
ORDER. All of nature can be seen through these amazing graphics - ah, our theme
has emerged as well. I started to manipulate a fractal pattern that I had
created many years ago and it all started to come clear. The letter C was
beginning to surface, hence, the front of my card. The back of the card came
about from the identical fractal pattern, yet manipulated into a tessellating
pattern of its own.”
Front &Back - printed on
Arches "88" printmaking paper, PIXMA ink.
Picture credits: Letter C, Ronni Pressman; the rest, Janet Ducote
