Stenciled Poetry - Mermaid Songs

Hello Stencil Lover, It's Cheetarah here and I hope you are all doing well. This month at StencilGirl® talk we are exploring how we can combine poetry within our artwork using the amazing stencils from StencilGirl® Products. 

I have always thought that song lyrics were like poetry esp. if they resonate with me on a deeper level. Recently I came across a musician/actor (Sam Witwer) who's work I really admire and been listening to some songs on his album, Colorful of the Stereo, by his band The Crashtones quite often. The lyrics of "the Mermaid Song" is what inspired me to make the following work in my art journal. 

I started off by stenciling some background texture on a large piece of watercolor paper. As a base layer I have used distress oxides in ocean tone colors. A full list of the stencils I used are at the bottom. 

This is the first texture layer done with the oxides. I chose oxides because they are water reactive but do not completely dissolve when you use another wet medium like watercolors over it. The bottom layer will soften out but will shine through here and there which is what I want. 

Adding more figurative aspects by using Pam Carriker's Create Face stencil and Black Soot Distress Oxide. 

The perfect stencils to add to the feel of this song are the mermaids by Jessica Sporn. I used the various masks that come with the stencil to create a negative on the page. Then I outlined the figures with a waterproof black fineliner and used watercolors for the face and around the mermaids. 

You can see how some of the oxides dissolve and that a subtle texture in the darker watercolor remains. 

I kept on adding more watercolor to enhance the face and mermaids until I was satisfied with the result. Watercolor is a wonderful medium to work with to keep the looseness & playful feel I was going for. Some more texture was added over the top with Traci Bautista's Scribble Flourish. Now it was time to add some of the poetic lyrics. 

For the "calligraphy", Iused a large brush pen and outlined with a white gel pen. 

The lyrics I emphasized were "It's not a lie, I swear that I know you, it's in your eyes, it's a place called home." In the song it's actually sung to/about the mermaid, but in this journal piece, I have the mermaids singing it back to the "land dweller", to keep the conversation going...  

To have the page fit in my art journal I trimmed off a lot of pieces and decided it would be fun to write down the rest of the lyrics on them and add them to the backside of the page. 

This is the finished piece in my journal which I really enjoyed making. 

Stencils used: 

Large stencil from StencilClub October 2016

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-club-october-2016-s/2029.htm 

L606 Soulful Scribble Flourish 

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Soulful-Scribbles-Flourishes-bautista-p/l606.htm

S646 Create Face

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/stencil-Create-Face-Pam-Carriker-p/s646.htm

L527 Mermaids Stencils and masks

https://www.stencilgirlproducts.com/mermaids-stencil-and-masks-jessica-sporn-p/l527.htm

Hope you enjoyed my take on this month's theme of Stenciled Poetry. We would love to see what you create so be sure to tag StencilGirl® Products on instagram when you share your work. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

xoxo Cheetarah