Sunday, July 20

Oh Ya, I have a blog ...

WOW! I should be arrested for blog neglect! My excuse is ... S U M M E R !!! I want to be outside, especially after a challenging work day. So my crafty life, including blogging, has taken a back seat. I believe I'm about a month behind on PL - but I have been taking pics and journaling events in a notebook to later translate into PL pages sometime soon. I also have a project due for an upcoming Christmas in July Blog Hop - details coming next week!
Sometimes it's good to back away and then refocus. I have some classes coming up that I'm very excited about - both Mixed Media related! I also finished up a canvas recently that I want to share. This was created for Right at Home Scrapbooking and can be a class if anyone is interested! Just let myself or Right at Home know if you are interested!! 
I wanted to continue with the girl art canvases that I've been creating but change it up a bit. The canvas is 10 x 10 deep edged and will sit nicely on a desk, shelf or bureau. I wanted to use a girl figure from the shoulders up only and focus on adding a mouth, cheeks and lots of hair. I started by sketching out a figure to achieve scale ... she will have hair, don't worry!!
 
 
I then collaged some papers from My Mind's Eye "Now and Then Dorothy" Collection. The background on this canvas is simple, unlike my previous canvases, so your eye will be drawn to the girl. I used text paper to cut out the girl and gave her a sleeveless tank top. I started shading the skin, cheeks and mouth with Faber Castell Design Memory Crafts Pitt pens and Gelatos. The subtle white on the background is a light coat of gesso I scrapped on with a palette knife ...
 
 
 For her hair I used the gorgeous Dash of Red acrylic paint from Claudine Hellmuth's Studio Paints. These paints are fluid acrylics and are easy to use. They are not heavy body paints so the brush strokes are not as easy to achieve but there are ways to add texture once you've applied the paints. Here's the finished canvas ...
 
 
I love how vibrant her hair is! To add some texture to her hair I dragged the handle end of the paint brush through her hair and added some "gesso highlights". I carried the ripped strips of paper to the sides of the canvas for more interest ...
 
 
On the right side of the canvas is a cool textural feature that is hard to see in the photo but is awesome in real life. I used Wendy Vecchi's Translucent Embossing Paste and Tim Holtz Hearts Layering Stencil to create a subtle area of  hearts down the side on the canvas. I added clear glitter to the hearts when they were still wet to add some shimmer to the canvas.
 
 
I added a headband and some beads for a necklace and she was done! Well, I hope you enjoyed some of the process with this canvas! I'm happy with it for my first girl of this size! I learned a lot and made some mistakes along the way - all part of the process!
Enjoy your weekend and I'd love to hear from you. I will TRY to keep up with my blog a bit better, but if the sun's out it's gonna be tough!!! Thanks for stopping by!!!  

3 comments:

Phyllis said...

Love all the bright colors, especially her hair, keep up the interesting and creative ideas

Creative Tara said...

Such a fun canvas and neat to see your process for it as well, I've enjoyed all your girl canvases and am inspired to create a similar series myself :)

Donna B. said...

Awesome canvas! I love her bright, long hair!

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