Make A Wish . . . New Collaged Piece

"Make A Wish"

mixed media on 8x8 wrapped canvas

Thanks for all the great comments on my pug photo in my last post! it is one of my favs! Who am I kidding? All of the photos I take of Bosco are my favorites! lol I thought it would make a cute card so I listed it today in my etsy shop!

Despite the fact that I woke up today with an ugly headache I tried not to let that stop me from finishing this piece I have been working on for quite a few days. This was inspired by techniques I am learning in Jodi Ohl's class "Fun With Faux Encaustics". I am veering off the traditional road with her class but am having fun learning alot of great collage layering techniques that I don't usually incorporate into my paintings. Of course I have absolutely no patience to let layers dry which can be a problem! lol

You may recognize this girl as it was a sketch I posted a few weeks ago. Well, I decided to print out my sketch on plain paper and collaged her onto the canvas. I just colored her in with some crayons and charcoal pencil. I have to say I had alot more fun coloring in a sketch than painting a face! This may be my new favorite way to get my sketches on canvas!

Wordless Wednesday. . .

"Friends"

Embrace Me With Your Love . . .

"Embrace Me With Your Love"

mixed media on 6x8 inch canvas board

Thanks for all your great comments on yesterday's post! I think it is my love of photography that pulls me right back to these altered photo pieces. So remember when I said I had another photo waiting in the wings? Well I got it on canvas quicker than I thought! This is an altered photo of my "Embrace" painting. You can see the original HERE.

I played around with the composition for a bit with this one. I knew I wanted to cut it in 3 pieces but wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them! After moving them around alot I finally found something I liked. At first the blank space to the right scared me but then I thought I could fill it with some writing which I don't typically do. I used a palette knife again to scatter some white gesso around. I am loving that white gel pen. I find it much easier to write with than a paint pen.

I really like this piece. I am feeling less pressure to step away from the black and white palette.

Altered Angel . . . Using Photos of My Art

"Altered Angel"

mixed media on 6x8 inch canvas board

Its rainy here today so I have been in my studio sanding photos and painting. Some of you may remember seeing this photo in its original state. . . .as thepainting "Angel in the Shadows" Click Here to see the original painting. I had been thinking about using it for one of my altered black and white pieces. I digitally altered the image to black and white, cut it out, and began scratching it up with sandpaper. I used distress ink on the edges. Then I grabbed my water soluble black crayon to do some shading and outlining of the angel image.

I glued the photo to the gessoed board and cut up another piece of the image to add at the top. I used white gesso on a palette knife to scrape onto the background. I have a new white gel pen that I added the details with around the edges.

I have a photo of another one of my glazed paintings that is waiting in the wings to be cut up and altered! I think that will be next!

Progression of a Landscape Painting

I am excited to share the landscape I spoke of in Tuesday's post that I had been working on a for a good friend of mine. It was a special photo of his that I was so struck by when I saw it that I wanted to paint it for him. I hadn't done a landscape in quite awhile but this has renewed my love for the process of landscape painting! It is where I began before discovering mixed media.

The above photo shows the first layer of color that I put down pretty quickly. I did an initial sketch so I would know where to add the lights and darks. I used a combo of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna for a neutral grayish tone along with some acrylic glaze medium to keep the paint moving. I tried to mimic some of the texture of the landscape as I laid down the color. And then I used a rag to wipe out the tiny bit of sky at the top, the path and the sidewall area on the left. You can probably still see some of my sketch with the tree limbs and a person on the path.

Then I began adding another layer of color this time with lots of green, yellows, and orange. I am now also going from dark to light to establish perspective. I must admit I had difficulty with the curved wall on the right side! I tried to work with shades of light and dark to bump it up.

Here is the finished painting! I really like what the yellow does for the gray of the path. It is a nice contrast and the yellow just pops! The person I didn't like initially and almost took it out at the end! But it is a crucial piece to the initial photo that I needed to leave it in.

I saw him Tuesday nite for dinner and surprised him with the painting. He loved it! And it made my heart so happy that I was able to recreate this scene for him in a painting that will hang on a wall in his home!

Wordless Wednesday. . .

Tilly Foster Farm

Brewster, NY

Emerge . . . My First Layered Collage Painting!

"Emerge"

mixed media on 8x10 canvas board

As I said in yesterday's post I did alot of painting this weekend. This piece is my first attempt at a layered collage. I typically don't have patience for layers and I certainly could have added many more but I will take this as a first step! I initially was going to use this as a background for one of my face sketches but when it was done I decided to fill the blank space in the center with the tree. I used a couple of my own photos for the collage that were printed on plain paper.

The colors I used are not colors I am comfortable with either. I used some hansa yellow, phalto blue (gs) and nickel azo gold. I did begin with a first layer of payne's gray glazed over some stamped tissue paper and of course that got lost when I added the other colors. I used staz on ink for the first time and I love it.

This picture doesn't do it justice. In person there is more depth and some texture from the tissue paper. Hope you like it!