The Oracle is a beautiful fairy. She is full of mystery and possibilities. I always think that she is on a magical quest searching for lost kingdoms, full of wisdom and adventure.

So today I’ve created a landscape to begin her journey —a bridge to a far off magical land.

To create this scene I have used the following stamps:

The Oracle

Embrace your dreams

Border stamp floral

Creeping vine

The steps:

On a sheet of watercolour card I sprayed some ink.

On a separate piece of copy paper I roughly drew and cut out a ‘disappearing path’ shape. I kept both the positive and negative shapes to use as masks later.

I placed the template over the inked card and drew the path in pencil.

I intensified the colours using a range of distress oxide inks. The paler colours add a mist effect. I also lightly inked over a circle template to create a sun.

Using a mask in the shape of mountains I inked in some distant shapes in pale oxide ink.

I painted the path using white gesso.

Once the gesso was dry I used soft pastel to lightly reflect the colours of the sky on the path.

Using the path mask template I covered the foreground and stamped the flower border several times in dark blue oxide ink. I used first and second generation ink to create distance- dark at the front gradually getting paler.

Using the mountain mask again I added cliffs/hills in the same dark blue ink. I stamped the Oracle and drew the sides of the path to create the impression of height. I also stamped the flower border several times in the foreground using clear ink. When the soft pastels were blended over the top this creates a misty pattern. I added a shadow in front of the fairy and staff using a charcoal pencil.

I used the creeping vine stamp to add posts. I achieved this by only inking up part of the stamp on its side. I used the path insert mask to help with the stamping. I drew in connecting ropes and used the vine stamp again to add small amounts of ivy to the posts. The tops of the posts were then highlighted with the soft pastels to reflect the sunlight and some was added to the distant landscape.

Finally after mounting the picture, I added glitter, stamped the verse and highlighted the scene using a gold stardust pen. This included the fairy’s wings and hair, the sun , clouds and the bridge posts.

I wonder where her adventure will take her? What lies beyond the bridge? And oh the secrets she will discover!

Till next time,

Lisa xx