Just Start Adding Paint...

Day 4 of Blogtoberfest finds me with some color smeared on my large canvas. I hemmed and hawed and had a moment of uncertainty. It is so easy to freeze, worrying over things like ruined canvas and wasted paint. All I can advise is "Just start adding paint!" Don't worry about things like value and worth. I have paid more to see a movie than I spent on this canvas, so Hey, it's just for fun, right?

I like working in blue and aqua, and I do have a habit of lightening the intensity towards the center. 

 

 I also worked on my owl element, on a separate paper. This is why I like mixed media collage so much. I can work independently on a single element, until I have it just how I want it to look, before adding it to the final piece. I will often make color copies at different stages of the drawing,  then do finish work on the color copies, especially when working on details like eyes and expressions. It saves a lot of heart ache over ruined attempts.

 This little pretty is sketched, then colored in using ink, color pencil and oil pastel...

Here she is, along with the basic branches, that are currently just blocked in with their base color. I haven't yet decided if I will use strips of paper to add texture to the branches, work solely with paint, or, most likely, a combination of both, along with more oil pastel.

I usually have more paint on my pallet than I like to waste, so I spread some onto an extra 8" X 10" canvas I had. That lead me down this path...

It is hard to see in this picture, but I added a flourish cut on my Sizzix. It blended in a little too well, so I started adding a bit of shadow using a bark colored Inktense pencil, and smudging it with a wet paint brush. It visually lifts the flourish up off the canvas, and adds dimension. On the lower left side, I tried the shadowing effect on the torn layers of paper. I like it, so will do that on the rest of the piece.

Well, that's my time in the studio today, until next time...enjoy!