'The Monster On My Shoulder' for the Craft Stamper Blog Challenge

Hi all

My project for this months Craft Stamper Make It Take It challenge is a journal page. Bit of a coincidence as I had decided to use this before I saw that the amazing prizes on the blog this month are based around art journaling!

These lines are what this page is about...…

THE  MONSTER  IS  ON  MY  SHOLDER 

SAYING  CRUEL  AND  HURTFUL  THINGS

I DON’T STOP AND LISTEN OR ARGUE

BECAUSE THEN IT’S THE MONSTER WHO WINS

NO  DISCUSSION  OR  ATTENTION, 

NOT  EVEN A  WITHERING  GLANCE

I’LL  PUSH  IT  OFF  MY  SHOLDER  

AND  CARRY ON  TAKING  A  CHANCE

…... that voice of doubt on you shoulder, whispering in your ear (or maybe not on your shoulder....maybe someone you work with, live with or are 'friends' with) constantly belittling and making us feel inadequate. And how we have to learn to ignore it, overcome it and keep going.
Here's how I made it.

 Layer of white gesso.

My background colour choices (I can't keep away from blue!!!) and the focal stamp...one from Andy Skinners Spook set. 

 Couple of fluid acrylics in blue brayered on...….

 Green and white then brayered over....spritzer with water when needed.....

 Background stamping with Andy's 'Tech Trauma' set.

 Now for the girls outline and where to put my little gargoyle! I adjusted the shoulder shape for it to sit on.

 Mixed up some flesh colour (ALWAYS mix up more than you need....I found that out several times during this and other projects!).

 Painted in white eye areas....these below are the colours I used for skin, lips and eyes.

 Added in some shadows and shading with some Burnt Sienna and pulled in the cheek a bit....

Stamped, embosse, cut out and painted my lil monster......

 
Added hair around the girls features, defined face shape and started to add some tendrils over the shoulders. Stuck my monster on and added the title words, shaded around the monster with Pitt pens.

Added some white highlights with a Posca paint pen to the monsters' fangs, eyes etc....

Thought I was finished at this point.....

But came back and thought she looked traumatised, unhappy, unwell and like her 5'o'clock stubble was getting out of control. The point of this page was to BEAT the monster, not the other way around! So I completely re-painted the face, took out the shadows and altered the shape to make her less ill looking! I even gave her a coat of glitter paint on her face and a proper nose!!! Stamped lots of words from Andy's 'Word Up' set onto tissue paper and glued them onto her face, shoulders and hair.  This is safer than stamping directly onto a very textured project, or one you don't want to ruin, or if you are just a bit tired! I then had fun doodling, drawing hearts, outlining some words, adding white hairs and journaling (writing stuff) around the outline of her head and shoulders.

 I went back around my monster with a Stabillo All pen and a water brush to shade.

I also gave her mouth a kind of 'sealed lips' look.

In this pic below you can just about see the glitter on her face.....

It has taken me months to feel this is finished! Mainly because the face went through a stage where I thought I'd finished then would come back to it and hate it! Even now she is far from prefect! But that kinda ties in with the whole purpose of the page. Not to listen to doubts but to trust your judgement and keep going!!!

Thanks for looking and good luck with your monster......and the competition!
Suz xxx