Hide and Seek - a painty page

I've had an idea for a technique rattling around in my head for a little while. I wondered what it would look like to have a layer of book text with a watercolour painting on the top, where the watercolour was on top of a layer of gesso. I have to confess that this layout is not the first time I have tried this technique. I have done it before a couple of months ago and really didn't like how it turned out. So why did I dislike it so much then, when I really like how this looks now?

I started with pieces of book text pasted onto a very neutral beige sort of cardstock and left it to dry. I felt particularly uninspired by that! Then I found the bold floral paper in a Basic Grey collection pack (called Indie Bloom) and all of a sudden the page came to life. I knew I wanted to continue the image off the edges of the photo and was a little unsure of my tree drawing skills but thought I would give it a go. I sketched the tree and grass in pencil and then painted gesso to fill up the outline. When that was dry I used my watercolours to paint the tree

After I'd painted the tree and grass over a layer of gesso, I decided I wanted to continue the wall pattern too but was too impatient to wait for another layer of gesso to dry. I painted straight over the book text for the wall. I think it works with this photo as the wall had lots of texture to it.

I stamped the title with white acrylic paint and drew around it twice with a pen, then added a few little stamps as quirky details.

This page makes me happy!