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ITAC'17
September 1st, 2017
Challenge 4 - Africa!
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The next excursion on our world tour takes us into the sunshine; let yourself be bewitched by the charms of Africa.
CHALLENGE 4 – AFRICA
...Spirit of the Sahara!
With around a thousand ethnic groups and over a billion inhabitants, Africa is the second most populous continent after Asia. It is the cradle of humanity; the ancestors of modern humans first appeared on its BRIGHTLY WARM COLOURED earth. Known for eye-catching costumes with ETHNIC PATTERNS, JEWELLERY, intricate hair styles and body painting indicating membership of a specific ethnic group or religion or denoting marital or social status. In these lands of tradition, children gather together under the shade of a tree to listen to the STORIES handed down by the village elders.
The ARID and CRACKED land of the Sahara Desert extends for 5000 km and covers over 8.5 million square kilometers, but its warm breath is like a caress on your face…
Whatever form your project takes, it should include at least one of the following elements;
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Warm, bright colors
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Repeated ethnic patterns
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Charms, pearls, metallic wire…
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Words or text
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Textures, cracks, rust effect...
Go CRAZY and treat yourself to some fun: you don't have to include all the suggested elements in the instructions, but why not have some fun seeing how many you can fit in. The more the merrier!
Our jury will also be taking into account - your designs, techniques, how you have expressed the themes... They will be looking for originality and will keeping an eye out for any individual outstanding creations for special awards.
You also have the chance of earning some bonus points;
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2 extra points if you use any of AALL & Create’s exclusive products.
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1 extra point if you use any product from our partners and sponsors.
Get some inspiration by taking a look at the fabulous work of the artists from our Africa group; Autour de Mwa, Bipasha, Kate, Lilith and Val!
Autour de mwa - Layout
My Africa!
My birthplace, my homeland, my roots…
Seeking inspiration from the continent of Africa came easily to me as I was born on its northern edge and I’m passionate about sharing my enthusiasm for the beautiful land that I came from. The real Africa of my experience is a place of great richness; a vibrant place full of energy and optimism. It is a very diverse place with a mixture of many cultures, but also a great mix of the old traditions and the wave of newness and modernity sweeping across it.
I wanted to communicate that feeling in my work so I chose to use a mix of different elements to reflect the diversity, with wood, paper, metal… I also wanted to reflect that duality between tradition and modernity and I did this with my use of colors. The brown tones reflecting the earth, roots, and tradition and the brightness of the turquoise showing the energy and joy of modernity.
Bipasha Bk - Art Canvas Banners
I have added intricate lines, patterns, minimal textures, designs often found in Ankara prints, commonly known as African prints. I have used contemporary Africa as my main source of inspiration and attempted to mimic Afro-futurism/symbolism through some mixed-media surrealism and steampunk style in my Afro art doll.
Kate Crane - Art Journal
It’s all about the colour for me! The wonderful, rich colours of Africa are my absolute favourites and are perfect for creating layer upon layer in your art journal pages.
Lilith - Scrapbook layout
Africa means much more to me than just a part of the world. I grew up in South Africa as a child and my first memories go back to this period of my life which was a beautiful time but I also saw what apartheid was. Seeing it up close has made become a fighter and defender of tolerance and justice. I left a part of my heart in South Africa when my family moved back to Europe.
Val-Edelin Molant - Scrapbook Layout
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For me, Africa is truly the cradle of humanity: the location where humans first appeared, the origin of what we have become and the place where human history began. It is a continent where so many ancient traditions and ancestral cultures rub shoulders together, where the earth has stories to tell, but also a continent with a history of oppression and slavery as well as many valiant struggles for freedom. Thinking about all those aspects gave me the inspiration for my Layout.
Tracy Evans - Canvas
I was really drawn to the idea of using warm hot colors in this piece combined with lots of layers, text and texture, achieved from the crackle, papers and layers of paint. All combined to create a piece I hope conveys our journey to this wonderful continent
Jasmina Scrap - home deco
For this fourth challenge, I wanted to have a change and try out a little home deco project. I started off with a combination of very warm colours, using yellow, orange and gold.
If you are taking part you will need to;
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Create a piece of artwork following the theme and instructions for the challenge.
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Post your work on the AALL & Create Fanatics Facebook group in the Challenge 4 Africa album. Please note that only work posted in the correct albums will be eligible for inclusion.
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Anyone who does not have a Facebook account but who still wants to take part can do so by posting their work on their own blog or website and emailing the link to contact@aallandcreate.com or just by mailing us the image of the work.
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Post your work on your own social networking account pages and/or blogs along with the link for the challenge and the hashtags #itac17 #itac17challenge4 #aallandcreate
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There’s only ONE deadline: September 24th, 2017 End of our international tournament.
- Autour de Mwa has a video tutorial showing the creation of his project for everyone who is subscribed to any of the AALL & Create online workshops.
- Bipasha has prepared a video tutorial on the creation of her project for all the subscribers to our online courses and workshops.
- Kate has a very detailed tutorial which explains how she went about making her two Art Journal pages.
Lilith has a video and a step-by-step guide to share with you, giving her advice and showing the techniques she used to make her project.
BUT that’s not all; we said that we would have some more surprises in store for everyone and after seeing the overwhelming enthusiasm last week we wanted to arrange some more giveaways;
- This week the AALL & Create team is giving away some sets of the popular ‘Natural Aspect' stamp sets (GIVEAWAY HERE)
- Also this week the AALL & Create team is giving away access to your choice of our online workshops (GIVEAWAY HERE)
And to top it all off we are marking the fourth stage of our international tournament by giving you special discounts* 15% OFF on all our exclusive products with the code ITAC17CH4
and 20% OFF for everyone who is subscribed to any of the AALL & Create online workshops (Codes will be on the welcome information page for the online classes).
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*Offer valid until midnight GMT 7st September 2017
Have fun, enjoy making and creating – we can’t wait to see what you produce!
The AALL & Create Team
Your Colour Gurus