WHEN I LOOK IN THE MIRROR WANDERLUST 2016 PROMPT PAGES

Hello everyone!

I've been playing with my Wanderlust 2016 Word Prompt Journal recently and added a few more pages.  I wanted to share a couple of them with you.  I have found these to be very insightful and thought provoking.

Wanderlust 2016 is a year long art adventure featuring video classes from various artists, new techniques, informative product information, an interactive community of questions and sharing art and of course, one of my favorite aspects of Wanderlust; the bi weekly word prompt journal.

The word prompt given was "What I See In The Mirror".  This really is quite introspective if you think about it.  What is that reflection you see when you look in a mirror?

Here are my pages I created for this theme.  I am looking in a hand held mirror at a reflection of myself as a young girl; with her whole life ahead of her and enjoying something as simple as a summer day.  The ornate mirror was created using Tim Holtz' Ornate Frame die cut on to two heavy white cardstock pieces glued together.  I colored the mirror frame to look antique gold using DecoArt's Media Fluid Acrylics Burnt Umber and Metallic Gold.

The pages began with DecoArt Media Gesso scrapped onto them then lightly sanded particularly where I was going to draw the image of myself.  I then added various Washi Tape pieces.  Finally I added Tim Holtz' Flourish Stencil to scrape DecoArt's Media Modeling Paste over the stencil using a palette knife.  Once dry, I used a baby wipe and DecoArt Media Quinacridone Red and Titanium White mixed to create a soft pink color.  I randomly swiped that onto the background and then added areas of DecoArt Media Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide to give an aged, sepia tone.  When dry, I placed the Flourish Stencil back over the Modeling Paste and using a small sponge, I added DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics Paynes Grey over the flourishes to add some beautiful dark grey tones.  The background sort of reminds me of old wall paper.

My image was colored using Neocolor Watercolor II Crayons and a Detailer Water brush.  They were fun to experiment with.  Then I also added a little DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics in Hansa Yellow Medium, Raw Sienna and Titan Buff to the hair.

The pen work was done with a Black Permanent Ink Pen and the shading was done with a Black Stabilo Pencil and a Detailer Water Brush.

I created this verse and attached it to the "mirror" so that my thoughts could be better conveyed through my art on the pages.  This verse freely hangs from the mirror.  It is attached with a Tim Holtz Antique Copper Ball Chain and fastener running through and Copper Eyelet that was attached to the cardstock using a CropADile.

For me, the symbolism of these pages is significant.  I see a woman that has lived a wonderful life yet my outward aging appearance does not reflect my youthful inner spirit or thought process.  I still find myself full of wonder and amazement at the simplest things.  I can still do everything I pretty much want to do but it takes me longer because I have an aging body that just doesn't want to cooperate to get things done in a timely manner like I could do when I was younger.  That sometimes can be frustrating.

But I have so much to be grateful for ... my family, my friends, my health and the blessed life I am living.  I just hope that I can continue to age gracefully and always maintain that childlike wonder of the world around me and share that with my children and grandchildren.