Ever wanted to create a quick and easy collage piece whose sensibilities might appeal to a child (a grandchild, niece, nephew, your own child)
or an adult?
Sometimes we want to create something simple yet interesting as a gift for someone. In my case, I set the bar high. I made a bunch of wall-art for our first grandchild, Kai, so now I feel compelled to continue the tradition. That’s okay. I have nothing but time on my hands, right?
In this piece, I started with a blank canvas. I used a 10×10 inch stretched canvas. I painted the canvas with something called white GESSO. I thinned the GESSO with water as I painted (used a spray bottle). I used two coats of GESSO to create a nice white surface.
Lovely blank piece of stretched canvas. So much potential.
When dry, I stamped muted colours of acrylic paint all over the place. I used a small SEA SPONGE to paint over alphabet and shape stencils. I let that dry.
Did I mention that the day on which I was painting we were experiencing pouring rain? Cats and dogs, in fact.
Some people say, “Yuck, rain.”
I say, “Hurrah!”
I painted the edges of the canvas with black ACRYLIC paint at this point. I usually do this step at the end. I know I have to repeat this edge painting step at the end of the project. Silly me!
I used GOLDEN BUFF MEDIUM (Acrylic) to cover the stencilled canvas.
The really fun part: I used images from a discarded adult colouring book to create a still life piece. With a pair of ultra sharp scissors I cut out ‘shapes’ like a bowl, some butterflies I found in the colouring book, an apple or apricot shape, a banana shape and a bunch of grapes. I did not draw before I cut. Repeat! I did not draw before I cut. I also found some words in the book that I liked and snipped them out, too. I used GEL MEDIUM (an acrylic product) to glue the back of the shapes and words to my canvas. I added GEL MEDIUM over these items, too. I smoothed using the edge of a used gift card. I let everything dry.
I actually love how it looks just like this. It has a Zentangle feel.
I used ACRYLIC PAINT MARKERS and PAINTERS markers to add colour and more dimension. I also outlined some objects here and there as well as some words. Then I used an ACRYLIC PAINT MARKER to create the illusion of the bowl sitting on the table (yellow colour).
It is looking pretty cool here but it’s missing some pop!
For this next part I scribbled (yup) some charcoal here and there to give an illusion of shadows. Them I smeared it all up and covered it all with acrylic medium to ‘fix’ the charcoal in place. Otherwise the charcoal would smear if anyone touched it. So much to learn, right?
Then I let the piece sit for a week. Yup. Just like I do with my writing. I let things sit and after a week, I see what else might be needed. Can you guess what I added to the painting?
I added a few scribbles on the bowl and white dots on the butterflies. That’s about it. It might not be done yet but I like it just how it is and I hope my newest grandchild (a granddaughter) will, too.
It never hurts my feelings if you share my blog and / or newsletter with friends. In fact, I’d like that very, very much. CM