Friday, August 1, 2014

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!!


I am so excited to be the guest designer for the mixed media blog challenge this month!! I absolutely adore modeling paste and when the challenge came up - I thought, YES, I have the perfect idea!!





I started out by smearing modeling paste thickly through a stencil onto  parchment paper! I pulled the stencil up and left the paste to dry. Then I got started with the rest ....


When we were at the beach this summer I saw a beautiful egret sitting at the waters edge. She looked so peaceful and regal that I knew I had to sketch her and keep her forever.






 I started the background by using a roller stamp onto a blank canvas. Then I used tissue paper on my gelli plate to make my pink sunset for behind the egret.  I tried to make it as ombré as possible! (This was harder to do than I thought it would be!!! ) When the tissue paper was dry, I used gel medium to adhere the tissue paper to the canvas. I love the effect because you can see the roller text behind the tissue paper!






I also wanted to create the blue ocean with a wavy texture.  I painted teal onto the canvas.  I mixed the same teal with modeling paste And  painted the paste the through the stencil to create a texture. I used the same stencil as the feathers!





The I used my sketch to help me cut out a large bird silhouette out of watercolor paper. I used the watercolor paper to make sure the paper wod be strong enough to add the modeling paste 'feathers' to it! I did paint some gray and white paint onto the paper, but in the end, you can't even see it!





After about 24 hours, the modeling paste was completely dry. It peeled right off of the parchment paper and held its shape.





I took the 'feathers' and layered them on top of each other.  I cut out little triangle for the neck. I used gel medium as my adhesive!






And with some glue to attach the bird to the canvas, a couple of doodles and a favorite quote - Done!











10 comments:

  1. Karen, this is just gorgeous. I love the bird and thanks for explaining how you made the texture of the feathers. I'm definitely trying that. Thanks so much for being the Guest Designer at August Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.

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  2. merci pour ce tuto , très bonne idée pour les plumes !

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  3. WOW! This is amazing Karen! The feathers are stunning and so textural! Love the process - I need to jump into gelli plating, I've never tried it! Thanks for GD for us at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge and for sharing you gorgeous canvas! You rocked this month's challenge!

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  4. Karen, I love your project and instructions. Thanks for being our guest designer at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge. Happy Creating,

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  5. this is amazing!!! i love how you created the birds feathers ahead of time! awesome awesome piece of art!!

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  6. WOW, I can't believe you did this all with a stencil! Pure genius and that fussy cutting must have taken forever! I love the colours and your bird is amazing! Thanks for the easy to follow tutorial, it's great to see the step by step! :)

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  7. really beautiful canvas Karen! It's always so hard to let things dry properly isn't it? so now I work on several things at a time:)

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  8. This is so cool. I love how you did your feathers.

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  9. This is so amazingly gorgeous! The colors really pop, and I love the heron-like silhouette, it's really unique. Thanks for being our Guest Designer this month at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!

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