When my daughter started designing her new living room, she took a walk on the wild side by going with an African theme. She surprised me by asking me to create a piece of art that would work in the room, but also had some personal imagery. This sort of request is way outside my comfort zone. More painting than collage, custom theme, not really cutesy...But I decided to give it a try.
I started with a 14"x18" canvas panel, and layered it with papers and ephemera. I found magazine photos of elephants and giraffe, a map of Africa, and a great line on cardstock called Safari Chic, by DCWV. I gave it all a really good coat of gel medium and used my brayer to smooth it out as best I could. The magazine pages gave me some real fits, right from the start and even after they were down flat as can be, when I started adding paint, they lifted right up again, and made bubbles, which I don't like, but have to live with...
I added washes of color, and used the brayer to added thicker, grungy layers of acrylic paint. Then painted the mountains and background, working my way forward to the tree.
My daughter is a redhead and became the warrior in the piece. She is very fond of her cat, so I made him a bit larger, more of a panther sized, to be a companion in her wanderings. I was pretty nervous about painting the two figures, so I created them on a scrap of paper first, using a sketch and watered down acrylics, then cut them out and collaged them to the painting. I left the foreground mostly untouched, so that more of the collage papers would show through. I can't seem to do anything about the wrinkles in the lower right corner, and I am trying to accept them as a "textural element"...
I added a coat of acrylic encaustic, which did help smooth the pieces out a bit, and blended the figures into the background, so they didn't seem so "cut and paste". So here it is, my finished mixed media canvas; "Forever Fierce". I hope she likes it...
This weeks Every Inchie Monday theme is "makeup", you can see the others in this challenge right here!
I started with a 14"x18" canvas panel, and layered it with papers and ephemera. I found magazine photos of elephants and giraffe, a map of Africa, and a great line on cardstock called Safari Chic, by DCWV. I gave it all a really good coat of gel medium and used my brayer to smooth it out as best I could. The magazine pages gave me some real fits, right from the start and even after they were down flat as can be, when I started adding paint, they lifted right up again, and made bubbles, which I don't like, but have to live with...
I added washes of color, and used the brayer to added thicker, grungy layers of acrylic paint. Then painted the mountains and background, working my way forward to the tree.
This weeks Every Inchie Monday theme is "makeup", you can see the others in this challenge right here!
It came out great!
ReplyDeleteThanks Lynda!
DeleteHi Sally Rose. Your Inchie is cute.
ReplyDeleteNice job on the collage for your daughter. I be she loves it from her sweet Mama! What did you use to adhere the magazine pages? I use a Golden medium and they usually smooth out and stay flat.
I used Golden medium in a matte finish. At first it was nice and flat, but after the final coat, I got the ripples. I only had the trouble with magazine pages, I wonder if I should have lightly scuffed the back side of the pictures...Thanks for the compliment, ParisMaddy, she has only seen it online, but she is shopping around for a frame for when I bring it to her! :-)
DeleteAll I can say is WOW! I bet she'll LOVE it!
ReplyDeleteShe does, Janet, she is sharing the picture with her friends and doesn't actually have it in hand yet...I would like to do more like it, I really liked combining the collage and the landscape!
DeleteYou made a wonderful collage.
ReplyDeleteYour inchie is very detailed, it's great.