Diva Challenge #227 & Made by Joey #70

Diva Challenge #227~Circus

Tropicana, Fescu & Cack

ATC watercolor wash, Rapidograph fine liner & Caran d'ache watercolor pencils

It was a relaxing morning at the cafe today. After a lovely visit from a dear friend and playing tourist in my hometown for a few days, I'm getting back to my routine.

Today's challenge was put forth by the Diva's guest blogger, Lee Darter CZT. We were asked what came to mind when thinking of the circus and given a set of patterns to utilize.

I'm not a fan of traditional circus but I love Cirque du Soleil. I have a background in theatrical costume design and I remember how influenced and inspired I was by the magical characters and acrobats and of course, the colors and hand painted costumes.

I had previously made up a bunch of these painted ATC's, and at the risk of being redundant, I continue to use them here. The colors of this particular ATC felt perfectly "Cirque" to me.

"Cack" brought to mind decorative swirling umbrellas handled in stylized movement by elegant and fluid acrobats-"Fescu", emerging through the forced perspective arches of "Tropicana".

This was such a fun challenge~thank you Lee!

Made by Joey Challenge #70

"Girdy" Monotangle

The watercolor background for this ATC was inspired by rust. I have a bunch of inspiration saved here on my Pinterest page. Rust is beautiful. I have to say that "Girdy" is not a pattern I particularly like, but after looking at the other submissions I was inspired. "Industrial" came to mind, which made me pick up this rusty ATC. The idea to create the look of flexible piping (I have no idea what that stuff is called) came midway through the tile when I realized that I didn't want to fill the vertical lines with solid black.

Thank you for stopping by and big, big thanks to those who take the time to leave comments. They always brighten my day.