Artistic Response to Client's Ritual: Serenity Emotive Writing

As I stated in my last post, I have decided and created a piece of emotive writing to portray the sense of freedom and serenity that Brad gains from his space and ritual. My first thought of how to present my response was to simply read my writing to the class when it comes to presentation on Monday, however I finished my piece of writing earlier than I anticipated. Therefore I have decided to incorporate a visual element to it as well.

I thought about how I could create a visual element to a piece of emotive writing and came to the idea of creating a parchment scroll in which they used in Medieval times to recite declarations and other pieces of information. I played on this idea and tested different ways of presenting my piece of work and the following are photos of my tests before my final.

The photo isn't very good, but this was my first test in which I simply found an image on the Internet of a piece of parchment and used it as a background for my writing. However I feel that it lacks the look of authenticity that it could have been from back in Medieval times. Therefore I decided to try some other techniques. 

From the idea of using the computer to make the parchment look, I then tried the idea of coffee/tea staining the paper to create an older look and feel of the page. This was my first test. I used a piece of A3 paper like I would with my final and see how good it would turn out as I did not have anything to put the coffee in that would fit an A3 piece of paper. It didn't turn out too bad, and with this photo I have rolled the ends up to create that scroll look. However I did it too soon so the paper was still a bit too wet and thus the large rip in the top. 

This was my last test before making my final. This one I wanted to see that if I used a printer to print my writing, what would happen to the text when it is coffee stained. The result worked perfectly and the ink did not run at all. This test was in A4 to save money haha. Because it worked I used this idea for my final. I wanted to create a look that the piece was older by burning the edges of the paper, it worked out alright but not as aesthetically appealing as I had hoped. 

This is my final.
It turned out a lot better than I had hoped actually. I coffee stained the paper multiple times unevenly to give it a much darker look and on different parts of the paper. This time instead of just letting the paper to dry using a clothes-horse and a dehumidifier, I baked the paper in the oven for about 20 minutes on about 60 degrees to help dry the paper and darken up the edge a lot more. While this was in the oven I crumpled, ripped and folded some of the edges as you can see to create the older look and make it seem as though it has lasted the test of time. Now all I have to do is possibly roll the paper if I am inclined to make it have more of a scroll look.