Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Brushstroke cards

Hi there! It's again a new week and soon it's a new month, too! Here's something from this month, however, posted last week on PaperArtsy blog. It's my take on the topic 13 in the blog, Minimalism. You can see the original post here (link).

If you've been following me for a while, you probably know that I'm not a minimalist crafter. Most of the time "more is more" to me. But I really wanted to take a plunge with this and try if I could conjure something minimal.

When looking through the source material PaperArtsy provide as inspiration to us for this topic, S tephen Whatcott's pieces (link) hit me like a ton of bricks. The seemingly simple shapes in white and black, opposite ends of the contrast spectrum. What a striking look, what a flow, what an impact! Instead of the smoother looking geometrical shapes I was especially drawn to the works with a sketchy, textured look. So I decided to think what to use to achieve such an impact in my own work as well.

Probably it was the color combo of white and black which then turned my thoughts to sumi-e, Japanese ink paintings. When I was in my teens, we had a visit from a Japanese artist in the art club I was in. She used just one jumbo brush with black ink and conjured koi fishes, cherry blossom branches and craw fishes to the paper. I admired her skill and control with that brush very much as she could paint the thinnest line with it as well as make these juicy blobs. Thus I decided to see, what I could come up with a brush, limited color palette and one stamp set.

You can see the finished results of my trials here, but if you wish to see and read more about the process that lead me there, please visit the PaperArtsy blog (link). The longest time in these cards went to figuring out the "swoosh", that seemingly easy brushstroke in the cardbase!

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a great start to the new week!