Thursday, December 27, 2012

Mixed Media Canvas

Merry Belated Christmas to all of you.  My resolution this year to post twice a week was waylaid by the Christmas holiday.  Too many things to do to prepare for the holiday, but I'm back and I still have the same resolution to provide blog posts once a week and twice if my schedule will allow. 

Between designing and blogging this Fall I managed to sign up for 4 online classes, one was with Kelly Rae Roberts, Flying Lessons, which I loved.  If you have never taken her class I would strongly suggest that you take it.  It is inspiring to say the least.  The other 3 classes that I signed up for are from Christy Tomlinson who is an amazing mixed media artist and again I have learned so much, I am about a third of the way through the classes but have a year in which to complete them, but am loving the process.  The success of these classes encouraged me to sign up for another mixed media class called Life Book which begins in January and I am so thrilled to be taking it.  It is a year long class and has a number of different international artists teaching classes throughout the course of the class.  Christy Tomlinson and Kelly Hoernig are just a few of the guest artists.  I have not taken a class for a few years and these online classes are so incredible, for someone who still kind of feels like computers and the Internet are a little like magic, this is a big step for me.  I'll keep you posted on my progress. 

To start us out on the right foot this coming year I thought that I'd post some photos of two canvas projects that I am currently working on.  As many of you know I love working with stencils and have shown you a variety of ways in which to incorporate stencils into your projects.  They are just so easy and there are so many outstanding stencils out on the market at the moment.  I decided to pull out the 4"X4" gallery wrap canvases that I had purchased a while back at Michael's and decided to use my Jacquard paints on them.  I actually have an idea in mind for the set that I am sharing today but am still working on the sketches for them but really wanted to get the color scheme set on the canvases.  I knew that I wanted to incorporate my alcohol inks somehow with this project and also wanted to try painting using my fingers, something that Christy Tomlinson does frequently and amazingly it was a fun liberating experience.  I also knew that I wanted to use the Jacquard Lumiere Metallic paints somehow. 

1.  Blue Canvas:  I began by mixing the Neopaque Blue with White and slip slapped the paint on the canvas to get it covered.  Next pulled out a variety of Lumiere Metallics and using my fingers began to blend the paint around the canvas until I had the look that I wanted and then pulled out my Lime Green Pinata Alcohol Ink and dripped it onto the canvas and finger blended.  Lastly added white snowflakes with a stencil.  It was quick, easy and very effective.

2.  The purple canvas was painted in the same way, different paint colors, added a little sponging to the corners and edges, dribbled Sunbright Yellow Pinata Ink onto the canvas and finger blended.  Added Neopaque Magenta to the edges using a square stencil and used Neopaque Yellow with a swirl stencil.  And loved it. 

3.  The pink canvas was equally fun and was painted in a similar manner to the purple one but with a dot stencil on the edges and swirls on top.  Again I dribbled Sunbright Yellow onto the canvas to enhance the metallic paints. 

I have been a paint layering fan for many years and love how the layered look enhances the background of the canvas, these are actually lovely on their own but really think they will be spectacular once I have added the design elements.  I can't wait to get started on what I have planned to finish these canvases off.  How fun is this?

My next post will show the next set of canvases which are the second set that I referred to earlier in this post.  They are quite different. 


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