Artist Trading Cards August Theme Trees

I'm calling this set of five numbered cards, "Into the Mystic", yes like the song. If you know the song let it be your background music to this post.

This was inspired by a mountain morning camping at Monte Sano State Park in Huntsville, AL.  It was a misty morning and everything was sort of grey but with an excitement.

The challenge for me was to find supplies to make the monthly themed cards with, things along the way on our road trip. I did have my travel art bag but I did not have paints or inks or watercolors . I knew I had to find something along the way. And a thrift shop gave me the paints. But even when I found these paints I had no idea how I would make them work. The colors I found were black, grey, gold and color shift hot pink. That does not even feel remotely like the theme of trees. See that hodge podge in the corner?

Blending the grey and black with the pink paint, I was able to create a lavender grey base on some upcycled cardboard. In my mind this was the early morning misty day.

Ok,  so now what? Oh , wow I'm surrounded by leaves. So perfect.

I mixed the gold with some black paint and was pleasantly surprised with this greenish gold. And I used this color to paint the leaves and press them into the background to get some veiny, leaf impressions.

Since we were in the woods camping, I had packed a rosemary bush to keep outside our camper door to help keep away the bugs. A sprig of this provided additional details.

I used some upcycled plastic to help press the painted sprigs onto the background.

A little gold helps to highlight the fronds of the trees.

And the words, inspired by the morning, Into the Mystic.

With love and gratitude

Michele

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