Testing Stories in Collage - Today's Activities

Today's activities, plus a design for a 1920s dress I'm making. I love the picture of this lady, she appears so happy and relaxed.

 

I finally thought of some pictures to place on the "unhappy" piece. Originally I was going to stick down that image of Anne and Lore from Mais ne Nous Delivrez Pas Du Mal, where they are on fire and recite the "Dig a ditch, dig it deep" poem, but I changed my mind. 

Instead I have some rather cute but funny girls from the 60s and 70s, dressed for their communion. One of them is rather cross and upset about something. In my mind, she has some resentment towards the girl on the right hand side, standing prim and proper in her beautiful white dress. It's a more lighthearted take on things, though the words below seem quite sinister... Perhaps Lotta has a dark side? Perhaps her hatred of this girl led to terrible things? Too many ideas, it makes me want to write something.

Another idea for a story, inspired by Heavenly Creatures (the film rather than the real-life case). The girl on the left reminded me of Melanie Lynskey as Pauline, so then I thought of Juliet, Heavenly Creatures, and how it would be if she had a one-sided love for Pauline. (This is all made up fantasy, by the way). And thus, this random girl that I thought was very aesthetic (can't remember her name, sorry!) and Kate Winslett got printed out and stuck in my book as inspiration and face-claims for my future characters. 

When I write this story, I'm going to change the names and give it a different twist to the film, but for now it's Pauline and Juliet until I think of names. Juliet and Kate Winslett's face really sticks with me for this character, so I may just change 'Pauline's' name.

The future story will deal with 'Juliet's' seemingly normal life after disaster, and how it all falls apart due to her obsession with one girl. It will contain elements that the film captivated me with, though I will make it as original and different as I can. I'm still testing out characters and ideas.

Off With Her Head

Yesterday I went to see Alice Through the Looking Glass with my friends from the local Lolita community. It was brilliant and I fell in love with the costumes and new perspectives on the characters. More about the trip here.

Just a brief outline of my day, along with a scrap of envelope that I bought on Friday in an antique store. Isn't that handwriting on the envelope beautiful!

Alice in her Mandarin dress, with bird paper in the background and my usual daisies and water colour. I love the vibrant look to this page.

The more tired I get, the worse my drawings are... Hands are so hard to draw!

The Queen of Hearts/Red Queen - my favourite! The words happened to say "need a punishment" and "danger", which I highlighted as they seem relevant to this character in a way.

Curiouser and Curiouser - just a quick sketch.

Comment te Dire Adieu

I did these pages on Friday, when I met my friend Josephine in the town center for shopping and a trip to the cafe. 

I found the song Comment te Dire Adieu by Francoise Hardy a few days ago, and it's very relaxing and puts me in a good mood, even if the meaning of the song is a bit unhappy.

In town I found some old postcards for sale in an antique store, and funnily enough, I came across an old postcard of Billie Burke, who played Glinda the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz - one of my absolute favourite movies! This was a lucky find, as Glinda is one of my favourite characters too. In the spirit of the film, I dyed the pages with a pink tinge to match the colour of Glinda's dress and give the collage a dreamy feel. Someone had gone over the postcard with glitter glue (I'm guessing) and gave it a really nice effect with swirls, so I tried to copy that motif in some of the blank areas, as well as my usual daisies. The crown came from an old envelope I cut up and drew on. 

They call the town I live in "Sunny Southport" - sometimes ironically, I think. But today was actually a really sunny day, so I was pleased and painted a cloudy but blue sky with pink and blue water colours. I love writing on top of wet water colours, as it gives it a faded-out effect.

In the antique store I also picked up a vintage postcard of my town's attractions and some old stamps. The stamps, after a bit of research, are from the 70s or 80s and is connected with Northern Ireland, having the hand of Ulster.

Rainy Days

Real life mirrors life in Roses for Margaret. I've been told it's not my fault, but I can't help but feel resentment that we can't patch up the bad times and become friends again. Hate is a strong word, but all my feelings are extreme, and the same goes for my character.

Sick and tired of being sick. Pretty gross, and pretty self-explanatory. I'm seeing a doctor soon about my nausea, but in the meantime it's awful and I can't eat without sickness.

Just some scribbles of life under the sea, and playing with water colours to relax. I often use the colour blue for sadness, but here it's more of a serene kind of blue. 

Along with a crush comes crushing self-doubt. When I'm sane and sober (meaning, not crushing on someone and obsessing over things) this doesn't usually have any effect on me, but right now I've got quite a nasty little devil whispering in my ear. 

And oops, I spelled "disappointment" wrong. 

Happier and Sunnier - Despair

These entries from a couple of days ago are certainly plainer in style, but I like the water colours I used and the font. It's basically my day in a nutshell; sewing, art journalling, and walking the dogs.

The paper is quite thin, so the water colours always get a unique effect each time. I should use water colours more often, though I've lost my palate somewhere.
To make the page more distressed before I begin, I smudge a stamper ink block against the page in pink. It also gives it a summery, hazy feel, in pink.

This moth stamp is something I found in my Mum's supplies, so I thought it would be cute to colour pink to match the theme, and separate some text.

Despair. I quite like the plainness of this page, as it reminds me of Malice Mizer album cover in a way with its simplicity and the butterfly sticker. The word "despair" is also quite similar to their song "Sadness" from the Tetsu era, which I love and listen to a lot.
The envelope is perfect for hiding secrets inside, as well as looking quite elegant and vintage.

Some Days are Magic, Some I Am Alone

So I started my art journal yesterday! I always used to keep a diary, but in the recent years as my memory has improved and I have less time, I’ve neglected it. This art journal is like a stylised rendition of my feelings - I’ve been feeling very lonely and depressed over the past few years due to illness, so I tried to express this through my pages - that was my mood yesterday, when I started, too. Some pages are quite happy though, such as the unicorn and the fairy. In a way, it feels quite therapeutic and I don’t feel as bottled up, so I’ll be doing a lot of this in the future.

Margaret's Summer. Just so you know, Margaret and the title of this blog comes from a character that is a lot like me, in a book that I'm in the process of writing called Roses for Margaret. She's a bit like an alter ego, though we do have some differences and similarities.

I used lace paper dotted with pink ink from a stamp, as well as a stencil and some paper with a bird cage. The girl - called Jane Morris and photographed in summer 1865 - comes from Pinterest, and I saw some similarity in her expression as to how I feel. I love to use old photographs in my journal, as they almost all appear serene and thoughtful, yet with a hidden sadness. I also love the vintage and antique aspect. 

The bird cage split in two whilst I was gluing, accidentally. I thought that it looks quite effective though, almost like a broken heart, or someone is trying to break free from the cage.

Raining in my heart, lyrics by Buddy Holly that popped into my head due to a personal problem that's been going on for a couple of years. It was also raining as soon as I woke up, and it was quite a cosy rain that made me stay indoors and bake a lemon drizzle cake and set to work on my inspiration journal. And it did rain all day long - I had to walk Bertie in the rain with my pink parasol.

Lyrics from the song "Dis, ferme un instant les yeux" by Dominique Ney, from the soundtrack of Mais ne Nous Delivrez Pas du Mal, one of my favourite films. I have a vague idea what the lyrics mean in English, through my small knowledge of French. I highlighted my favourite verses and imagery, such as 'le ciel rouge (the red sky)". I drew flames to mirror the tragic ending of the film, and a bird to relate to one of the horrific acts Anne committed in the course of the film.

Here are the lyrics, from YouTube.

Dis, ferme un instant les yeuxComme si c'était un jeuLe temps d'une chanson. Oh dis, ne pense plus à rien,Simplement qu'on est bienEt que nous nous aimons. Sur la mer, plus rien ne bouge. Même au loin sous le ciel rougeUn soleil vient de glisser sur l'eau Là sur la plage déserte,Un instant, nos vies s'arrêtentEt l'amour nous vient à fleur de peau Dis, ferme un instant les yeuxNous sommes si heureuxEt la nuit est si belle. Oh dis, seul un rayon de luneDans un creux de la duneNous tient lieu de chandelle. Si les heures se succèdentPour nous, dans le sable tièdeLe temps semble s'être suspendu Les pins doucement se penchentEt nous frôlent de leurs branchesMais nous ne les sentons même plus Oh oui, lorsque je serai loinSi j'ai quelque chagrinSi je suis malheureuse Oh dis, j'oublierai tout là-basRien qu'en vous voyant là,Rien qu'en fermant les yeux.

Lonely, and a page detailing what I want for the future, namely friendship and love. Due to my illness, I haven't really had a 'normal' life and have missed out on friendships and relationships through the course of growing up, which is something that bothers me quite a lot. It feels a lot safer to express these feelings on paper rather than keep it all inside and private.
The two girls on the right hand side look like sisters rather than lovers, but what I wanted to find was a vintage picture of two close girls with a loving but sisterly relationship in the photo. Vintage photos of lesbians are hard to come across, though I do have a small board on Pinterest - this picture was just really cute! :)

Bits of text cut and manipulated from an old Enid Blyton book that my sister was going to throw away. It basically says in a nutshell how I feel currently.

And finally, here's a happier picture! I love fairies and got this stamp from a cardmaking magazine, so I thought it would be a nice thing to experiment with. I used another Enid Blyton page, inktense pencils, water, and a pink ink stamper to colour the pages.
The butterfly wing used in the fairy picture was something I found loose on an hill near my house - I thought it was too pretty to leave (and it wasn’t attached to a butterfly) so I thought it would be nice to use and immortalise in my journal as one of my findings. 

Another happier picture, this time of a unicorn! It was done by my mother using watercolours, though she doesn't mind me using it as she hardly uses her art journal anymore. It says, but you can't really see, "some days are magic", as on some days due to my mood swings I feel over the moon and jollier than anything. 

I hope you liked this insight into my journal! It feels really comforting to get my feelings down on paper, and a little freeing to express myself like this on the internet. 

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Ellie!
Margaret's Summer Roses is a blog where I post my art journal pages, which will most likely detail my thoughts and feelings of the days, kind of like a public diary. I've recently started and it's very therapeutic, so I hope I'll carry this on! It also serves as a part of my writing inspiration, as I'm a aspiring author that has published a book already.
I've already got my main blog for a bit of everything, and a sewing blog. If you're interested, I also have my official author blog and a Tumblr.