Family Outing Under Way
- Kaaren Poole
- Aug 18
- 4 min read
My opossum art journal spread is now finished, and the family outing is under way.
The image below is where I left off last time. Clearly, there was a long, long way to go. Really all I had was the drawing of the opossum set in a barely suggested background.
In my photo that I drew the opossum from, the little guy was up in a tree, a bit above eye level. And my intention was to also have him in a tree in the spread. So I added collage pieces, leaving the “branches” of the tree untouched.
I’m sorry I didn’t take more pictures as I worked, as there is a pretty big gap between these two photos.
Forming the Tree
My next steps were about forming the tree in which the opossum sat, so I began by painting the branches Burnt Umber. I thinned the paint and allowed the coverage to be uneven.
Next, I added washes of different greens to darken and saturate the greenery. Stampings with bubble wrap and patches of alcohol inks developed the blotchy look of the canopy.
Then I began adding leaves, cut from magazine and catalog clippings of colors that I thought would work. Some of them, notably the small green and white plaid, are from a clothing catalog. A few even have text. (When I hunt through magazines for clippings, I always save areas of text with colors other than black and white. They are often very useful in unanticipated ways!)
Adding the Family Outing Under Way
Then, noticing that the viewer’s POV was in the tree and potentially looking down to the ground, I decided to add the family of opossums passing by. I had to draw them rather loosely, as I couldn’t find photos of opossums from that point of view. So, I had to use what little knowledge of opossum shapes I already had to imagine them into existence.
This family outing is possibly unrealistic. I know that when the babies are little, they ride on mom’s back and apparently try to continue doing so as long as they can. Given that, I decided to make the young ones nearly as big as the mom, who is leading the way. It was fun drawing the ones to the right passing under the tree leaves above.
I added pink to the opossums’ noses, hands and feet, and tails, just to give them a little more life.
Expanding the Color Palette
As I turned back to the canopy and added more leaves, I was becoming increasingly aware that, despite the pink noses, paws, and tails, I was headed towards a monochromatic piece. This is neither good nor bad, but I noticed it.
I thought my spread was working pretty well, but decided to add a little more color variety. My go-to choice would be red-orange, but I wanted to keep the piece cool. Cool is peaceful and calming, and so was the family outing. So, I went in the direction of blue, adding blue and turquoise leaves, some turquoise alcohol ink blotches and turquoise washes here and there, especially in the lower right corner.
As far as the new leaves went, I added a few with longer shapes and more dramatic patterns.
Adding a Second Focal Point
In the end, I think that what makes this piece work is the framed leaf image. It’s a different kind of leaf than the ones I cut for the tree, but I think that makes it better—adding variety. I added a few borders around it with Neocolor II water-soluble crayons—white and turquoise.
It’s so frustrating to try to photograph metallic touches. There are a few in this piece. The tissue paper that I added early in the project is embedded with tiny silver dots, and they continue to show through any paint that lies over then. You can barely make out a few over the framed leaf image. I also added a twining, leafy branch around the leaf add-on with a silver pen, and small silver dots all around the edge of the spread.
The Bottom Line
I didn’t have any real problems working through this spread and I like the way it turned out. The concept of the opossum family outing is fun, and the family on the forest floor below is drawn in a loose, fun way. It’s frustrating to not be able to share the metallic touches with you, though.
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