Pinks and Grays in Canvas Form (5/100)

The more I create mixed media art with the intention to portray a specific message, the more I tend to enjoy the work that I produce. This piece is no exception. 

When I started today's 4x4 canvas for my 100 Day Project, I only had one idea in mind. I knew that I wanted to completely cover the base in newspaper (though the majority of it ended up being covered completely in the final project). However, after that point, I didn't have the slightest clue as to where I was headed. However, as soon as I stamped the butterflies (one actually was covered up), I knew that I wanted to tell something about flying, or moving forward. The catch? I've recently been trying to avoid words. I think it worked out in the long run. 

The link to purchase this piece is here.

• In looking at the finer details of this piece, the thing that stands out to me as something I want to explore in the future is the graphite I used on this particular painting. With some experimentation, I discovered that graphite actually blends incredibly well on top of acrylic paint. I have ideas in mind for how I will play with that in the future.
• I used my gold marker for the arrows in this particular piece - that is certainly an investment that has been well worth the $1.50 I think I paid for it. Gold details are quickly becoming one of my favorite things to add to a piece of art as the final finishing touch. On top of that gold marker (which I layered on top of white acrylic paint), I doodled some lines with a white gel pen.

• The photo on the left is probably my favorite photo I've taken of this piece. You can see the texture incredibly well, that was created from smudging graphite over top of the acrylic paint, as well as some tissue paper that I layered into the background. 
• The stencil that I used to create the horizontal ovals was actually one of the hand cut stencils I mentioned yesterday. I have been enjoying playing with those pieces (I still have one more to play with before I start repeating myself), and I'm sure they will soon become essentials in my mixed media stash. 
• Finally, the little pink dots scattered throughout this piece I actually just made with my fingers. My paint had been sitting out for a little while, seeing as I had taken a break to eat, so it was too tacky to use a paintbrush with. I love the result of these little dots.

Ultimately, I love the way this canvas turned out, and I hope you all love it as much as I do! Thank you all for visiting, I've been having so much fun sharing my art with all of you!

Pen & Ink + Distressed Bright Colors

I would like to start today's post off with today's piece for 29 Faces, which was a whole new kind of experiment for me.

I think I've been gushing about this challenge the entire time I've been doing it - there's really something to working at the same thing consistently, and I've definitely seen significant improvement just in the time I've been working on this challenge. This entire month I've been making an effort to experiment in different mediums, and today's face is the 28th out of 29 faces in the month of September. It was done after being inspired by another challenge that I just recently heard about - Inktober.

Now, I haven't done a whole lot of pen and ink drawings in my day, solely because it's always seemed like an intimidating medium to me. However, seeing as this entire month has been about exploring new things (as I did with watercolor, an equally intimidating medium), I thought it only fitting to do a sample piece for Inktober using a face. This was really about me convincing myself that I could do it if I truly wanted to - I'm so pleased with the result that I probably will be doing Inktober this coming month. So stay tuned!

Now we arrive at the art journal page I finished this afternoon. This was done on the page opposite the one created in this video - in it, you can see me building up a few layers that I built up on top of. That is what makes the color scheme vaguely similar to the previous page - I decided to go with the colors that were already down on the page.

There is something that I really love about this page - I feel like it really describes me in a lot of ways. I love bright colors, but I also love distressing. I love texture and a lot of layers, and this page did all of that for me. 

• A big part of the purpose of this page was to experiment with the Ranger texture paste I had bought at Michaels the other day. I had bought some texture paste previously, but it wasn't very good and was really more like white paint. I should have known, since it was pretty inexpensive. However, this texture paste was much different - it was thick and I laid it down over top of a stencil to create the pattern of squares you can see throughout the page.4
• The blue squares scattered throughout the page were punched from the leftover paper I used to draw my face from before - it was a piece of 140 lb paper that I sprayed with Dylusions ink spray and wet with a paintbrush to spread it out over the surface of the paper. The color seemed to work well, so I went with it.
• You can see just how many layers of paint I put down in the second photograph. It took me quite a while to get this page to a place where I was genuinely happy with it, and these are the little areas that make all of the process worth it for me (besides the fun of playing around with  color).

• Something I am quickly starting to become a big fan of is doodling in the layers of my pages, specifically underneath a ton of other layers. You can see that in this photograph, with the gold circles I did in sets of three.
• There are many layers of stamping and paint - you can see the butterflies and dots specifically. Also, if you look closely in the upper left corner, you can see an under-layer of collage I ended up covering almost completely - it was a piece of a gelli print from the other day I was trying to use. I guess I'll have to try again soon.
• I'm linking this page to Stamplorations Stencil Sunday (mixed media + a stencil), as well as Altered Eclectics (anything mixed media).

In the long run, I'm extremely happy with my creativity results for today - sometimes I feel as if it's too much work to try to juggle it among all the chaos of everything else that is going on in my life, and then I realize just how much better I feel when I do make things and I remember why I do it. 

Thank you all for visiting, I look forward to seeing you around!

Mixed Media Canvas Portrait (9.4.2016)

I honestly don't think I could be happier with the way today's 29 Faces piece came out.

I worked on this for a few solid hours before I was finally happy, but it was the complete opposite of yesterday's feeling rushed. It was nice to just work while listening to music, not worrying about much else. I did this piece on a canvas, so that's still a new sort of learning experience, but I'm much happier with this piece than the other canvases that I did.

• Right off the bat, the first thing that draws attention is the hair. This was a shimmer paint that I got from Target last night, and I'm extraordinarily happy with the results of using it for her hair. I had tried to give her a braid, but the more I worked at it, the more I realized she was probably better suited for long, wavy hair.
• The inspiration for this piece, the thing that made me want to make it in the first place, was the idea of incorporating the butterflies into this girl's hair. If you've been following my 29 Faces journey, you'll have seen that the other day I drew a girl with a fairly elaborate mask. She's probably my second favorite face that I've done for this challenge thus far, and her mask was somewhat inspired by the elaborate details often associated with butterflies. From there, this idea was formed.
• On the right, you can see some of the details of this girl's eyes. I actually painted them first, and then painted her hair over top of the face, in order to better get a feel of the flow of the hair and the way it would fall more accurately. 

•  On the left, you can see one of my favorite bits of this entire painting. This little cluster of butterflies, plus the stark contrast of stamping and the gray painted circles pretty much define everything that I love about this piece.
• You can also see some of the texture in this girl's hair in these photos. I think what happened there was that underneath the painting I did a good bit of collage (most of which was covered by the face - you can see some bits of newspaper text at the very top of the piece though) using Mod Podge. Then I dried her hair with a heat gun. It was a sort of happy accident, and I'm super excited that it happened like that.
• The right hand photo is my second favorite part of the painting. It's soft and feminine, and the sharp black stamping adds just the right stylistic contrast for my liking - if you know me, that's basically my fashion style. I like to mix leather jackets and boots with lace and florals. I think that's part of why I love this canvas so much. 

I hope you all enjoyed viewing this painting as much as I enjoyed creating it and love the finished result. It's been great to hear from all of you in the comments, it really makes my day! Until next time, I hope you all have a good time with your art!