The Whatevers #1 - Take photos

In June 2012 Natalie Kalbach and two of her friends started a new project called "The Whatevers" - a Creative Storytelling project.

 

Image borrowed from Nat Kalbach. 

On the 15th of each month, one year from June 2012, they will post a vintage photo and their creative story about this photo combined with mixed media.

Here's how they describe it:

"Have you ever been to a flea market and then had this weird sensation of those faces from long ago times looking at you? Sometimes you find a little trace of the history on those photos, the name and city of the photographer, a scribbled note or year on the back of the photo…but that is it. There is no more ….Really…no more? They are forgotten as long as they have no name and no story…

We want to give those Whatevers a name- we want to make them part of our family and if you want…you can make them part of your family too."

In June 2012 they posted a photo with a girl and a boy on a bench - Here's how my story about them:

Mom always said: 

that it's important to take a lot of photos. 

Because when you get older and times fly by, 

the photos will help you remember.

I decided to keep my the-whatevers pages in a separate book, than my other art journals. So I got an old book and glue some pages together with decoupage varnish, to make them thicker.

I covered one of the pages with tissue paper and then painted over the tissue paper with acrylic paint and water. I wanted the print on the tissue paper to still be visible. On half of the other page I added some gesso.  

I wanted the photo to be on the left page and the story on the left.

I colored some modeling paste with golden acrylic Yellow Ochre and spread that over a circular mask on the background. It is barley visible on the finished page, but it gives some more dimensions and texture. Which I love. :)

I worked with Acrylic Inks, and made circles with my finger. 

On the close up you can see the colored modeling paste, behind the acrylic ink. :)

I added the photo with decoupage varnish and covered it almost completely with gesso, to make it more one with the page. :) Then I doodled a frame around it, keeping the old fashioned style.

The right page, the one with the story, I wanted to keep slightly more clean. And I also wanted the book page underneath to still show, so you'll know that it's made in an old book.

I doddled around the acrylic ink circles, and doodled some more smaller circles. And as a finishing touch I added some white paint through punchinella.