Music Inspiration: January Hymn by the Decemberists
Sometimes when I’m not sure what I want to work on, I will listen to music and create a page inspired by the song. I also love finding music videos on YouTube and drawing inspiring from those, whether it’s from the colors and lighting used in the video or the song lyrics. Every week or so, I’ll find a song or video to share so we can all be inspired.
For our first Music Inspiration post, I searched for “January” on YouTube, and this is the video I found inspiring:
Here are the lyrics:
On a winter’s Sunday I go
To clear away the snow
And green the ground below
April all an ocean away
Is this the better way to spend the day?
Keeping the winter at bay
What were the words I meant to say before you left?
When I could see your breath lead
Where you were going to
Maybe I should just let it be
And maybe it will all come back to me
Sing: O January O
How I lived a childhood in snow
And all my teens in tow
Stuffed in strata of clothes
Pale the winter days after dark
Wandering the gray memorial park
A fleeting beating of hearts
What were the words I meant to say before she left?
When I could see her breath lead
Where she was going to
Maybe I should just let it be
And maybe it will all come back to me
Sing: O January O
(from elyrics)
I made a video showing the page I created inspired by this song/video:
I’d love to see what you come up with!
3 responses to “Music Inspiration: January Hymn by the Decemberists”
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thank you moira! i was wondering what the glazing medium is for? the captions were helpful because i thought you sponged on white paint, but it was the paper towel blotting that providing the white like snow. nice bob ross reference. do you prefer the gel medium transfers over the contact or packing tape transfers? contact paper & packing tape are more instant than the gel medium. when doing the gel transfers, why after you remove as much paper as you can do you let it dry, then wet it again? i’m not talking about the overnight drying, but after. you did this twice, right? by letting it dry, then re-wetting it are you making sure the image doesn’t disappear?
Hi Teddi! The glazing medium extends the paint — it is a translucent medium and I add it with fluid acrylics so that I need less paint to cover the surface. It also makes the colors more translucent so it can work as a glaze (basically, lets you see what’s underneath) It works well with the Golden Fluid Acrylics because they are loaded with pigment.
I guess I don’t have a preference between gel and tape… I like that the tape is instant, but it’s shiny and easy to have bubbles when you glue it down, plus the tape pre-transfer can have a weird surface. The gel medium feels more magical, haha, and I like that once it’s started, I gotta make it work cuz it’s already on the page. I never know quite how it will turn out. Plus I like the texture.
I do the re-wetting a few times just to get rid of as much of the paper as I can. The surface gets a little gummy after a lot of moisture and rubbing so I let it dry and start over just to be able to feel the paper coming up. The image seems to disappear if you haven’t gotten up all the paper — when the paper dries, it becomes opaque again, but you can’t rub away the image, unless you rub up the gel medium, too.
got it! thanks 🙂