Hello Friends,
Today I want to share with you my mixed media collage art canvas that I made using StencilGirl® Stencils. The theme for our creative team for August is 'passages'. I had to think awhile about what this theme means to me. I started thing about how time passes. How we pass through time and experiences as if passing through doors or windows into a new chapter of our lives. So my friend Peg and I chose to use stencils that had a door and window theme. Here are the stencils we chose for this month -
So to start my piece, I got out my StencilGirl® stencils, a gel plate, pan pastels, and acrylic paint.
The colors I chose were based on my moody and rather dark theme. Not my usual palette but it was how I was feeling about the theme. So I started gel printing, putting pan pastel through the stencils onto the plate using cosmetic sponges and a patting/pouncing motion and then picking up the pigment with a thin layer of acrylic paint and my brayer. I found that I could exclude parts of the stencils I did not want to use very easily with application of the pan pastel. I came out with some great prints!
Next I found some photo images on a royalty free site for artist use called Unsplash
I altered the photos in my photo editor, cropping them, making more contrast and changing them to black and white. Then I printed them on my inkjet printer and sealed them with a brayered layer of matte medium. Lastly I cut out the images carefully with a small scissor.
Now for the fun parts! I started my collage using the gel prints made with the Arched Aqueduct stencil designed by Carolyn Dube. I wanted a gradient effect starting very dark at the lower left corner of my 11 X 14 canvas panel and them moving lighter at the upper right corner. Once that was all glued down with matte gel medium, then I arranged 3 arched doors and windows, smaller to larger going at a diagonal as well.
Then it was time to add in my various people. A baby, a teenager, a young mom, an couple getting older and a elderly lady with a cane. All passages I have made in my life... well...I am not yet elderly but I will get there soon enough!
Once all my collage was glued, smoothed, and dry it was time to start blending all the disparate piece together using techniques such as mark making, finger acrylic painting and more pan pastel over everything. I used a jumbo jet black pencil from Jerry's Artarama as well as a Stabilo ALL pencil and waterbrush to blend in my photos to the background. I used pan pastel with sofft tools to color my black and white images in a 'tinted' sort of way. I also used pan pastel to create light coming from each door and window..as if the next stage is inviting and you should step on through. I also used a white fine tip Posca pen from UNI to write a quote that I felt was perfect for what I was thinking...in my own icky hand writing...onto the canvas.
After some more work tinting and marking and smoothing and blending, I was done! I think it turned out really cool. Kind of dark, a little grungy maybe, but saying what I meant to say!
You can see a video of the whole process complete with voice over explanation and tips on my YouTube channel here
Thank you :) <3 Shel
This is stunning and awesome! XOX
ReplyDeleteThanks so much Aimeslee :)
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