I’ve Got A Golden Ticket

Hello everyone!  Today I have something to share that was unplanned.  I woke up thinking about this so I had to do it!

As you know, I am Guest Hosting the May challenge over on Art Journal Journey this month and my chosen theme is…

Language!

You can find a nice list of ideas for language inspired pages in my introduction post just click here on my site or here on AJJ.

For today’s post, I was inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl and also my book cover ATC from the 100 day project – here’s a reminder of what that looked like. The original illustrations for the book were by Quentin Blake, so I continued with this style for my page.

I enjoyed making all the book cover ATCs and it made me want to make some at a larger size.  I’ve already done that with this book and also this book and have been wanting to make another one.  I was happy with my ATC version, so why not a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory page!  As I was commenting on other AJJ Language entries I came across Rain’s Thursday Art Date where the theme was “candies” and I think I fell asleep thinking about chocolate last night lol.  I remember seeing (too late) that last week’s theme was cookies and my cookie page had already been made a few days earlier so I thought I would make this page today and share it on the right day.

So as I said, I was up early again this morning, so I thought I would get started straight away. I had an idea in my head that it would be like a scene and that the page would be surrounded by bright purple but then I wasn’t sure what was going to be in the scene apart from Charlie and Wonka.  Then I realised I really wanted to have Augustus Gloop drowning the chocolate river (he gets rescued, don’t worry) and the Wonka factory gates, and it went on from there.

I remembered to take a few photos this time.  The one below is after I have drawn everything in pencil and pen. For the “candy” elements I drew a chocolate river, Wonka Bars, lollipops, a candy cane tree and flying sweets/candies. There is also a chocolate making machine leaning over the gates pouring chocolate into the chocolate river. Then of course, Charlie and Wonka in the middle, Charlie waving his Golden Ticket and Wonka showing him around.

Then it was time to start adding colour.  I added some details with Pitt artist pens first, like the faces and the flying sweets/candies.

BTW, in the UK we don’t use the word “candy” unless something is actually candied eg candied ginger, we use “sweets” or sometimes “sweeties” where I am.  Even more confusing is that in Australia, they use the word “lolly/lollies” for sweets, so if someone asks if you want a lolly, they are offering you a sweet and not a lollypop or an ice lolly.  And if someone offers you a sweet in the UK they might be offering you a candy or a dessert lol  The best plan is just to say yes to everything as it’s probably all going to be sweet and delicious!

After that I got on with the painting and didn’t stop for photos as it was taking quite some time to get it all done.  Here’s the finished page along with the book, my ATC and a Golden Ticket!

I wrote some of the names of Wonka’s sweets around the edge of the scene including Wonka’s Whipple-Scrumptious Fudge Mallow Delight…

Wonka Bars and Everlasting Gobstoppers…

Fizzy Lifting Drinks and Lickable Wallpaper…

There is a Dutch chocolate company called Tony’s Chocolonely and I have included some wrappers as they are so bright and colourful, they always make me think of Wonka’s chocolate factory.  I am lucky to have a friend in Holland who sends me some of this delicious chocolate on occasion and when I was there last time, I brought some back with me and shared it around.

So for the language theme I chose Roald Dahl’s made up words from the book.  He was really very clever and imaginative in all his books, making up new words (Oompa Loompas) and ideas and even new kinds of sweets way before the Harry Potter books used a similar idea.  Here is a short list of some of the words he invented:

Scrumdiddlyumptious. When something is extremely delicious, it is scrumdiddlyumptious.
Uckyslush. Pretty much the opposite of scrumdiddlyumptious.
Crodsquinkled. To be caught out at something.
Biffsquiggled. To be confused or puzzled.
Bopmuggered. To be in a very bad situation.
Trogglehumper. A particularly bad nightmare.
Whoppsy-whiffling. Unbelievable or crazy.
Catasterous. A mix of catastrophic and disastrous.
Hopscotchy. Cheerful.
Flushbunking. Something that makes no sense at all.

There’s a list of 50 more words here if you are curious.

The page could also represent the international language of chocolate, something that people usually understand whatever their language lol.

I hope you feel inspired to join me at Art Journal Journey this month.  Language is all about communication, and I would love to see you communicate using language on your pages, in whatever form you choose. I have a lot of ideas for language-inspired spreads to share with you over the course of this month, so do keep checking back if you need some inspiration or ideas, or even just to say hi!  I can’t wait to see what you do with this month’s theme and I will be dropping by to see all your lovely creations.

Yesterday I shared a work in progress, well the project is finished and the post is scheduled for tomorrow, so drop by and see what it turned into!

If you enjoyed this page, let me know what you think in the comments. If you have any questions about anything in this post, just ask.  As always, thanks for reading!

Ingredients

My handmade art journal, watercolour paint, neocolor IIs, pitt artist pens, acrylic paint pens, pencil, black fineliner, gold metallic paint,

Challenges

Art Journal Journey – Language – May Challenge For the language theme I chose Roald Dahl’s made up words from the book, language of candy/sweets/lollies
Rain’s Thursday Art Date – Candies – there is chocolate of course, the chocolate river and the Wonka bars, and also some lollipops, a candy cane tree and lots of flying wrapped sweets/candies, and the names of the sweets are written around the outside of the page

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