Create Art

This is a piece I have created for Liza's Design Team. Although it may look quite simple there was actually quite a lot that went into it. Unfortunately, I can not get a good picture of the finished item. When we moved my mini photo studio got packed away and I have not found it yet. I hope by breaking down the processes you will be able to see the work that went into this.

I started with a 5 x 7 canvas board, I don't often use this type of base so it was a challenge to me to begin with. Although they are supposed to be gesso primed I always give my canvases a coat of my gesso anyway so that was my first step.

I had no idea of what I was going to do when I started this project but I thought I would do things a little differently than I usually do. I opened up my draw of acrylic paints and pulled out three colours I liked together. A lime green, a turquoise and an aqua. I just added them to the canvas and blended them together. I thought the colours looked a bit flat so I sprayed a clear sparkle on top just to lighten it.

My next step was to add some texture to the background, normally I do this first and add the colour afterwards. I used the stencil that Liza sent me in my DT box but I did not have a stencil paste or texture paste in a colour I thought worked with the background paint. So I used some of the paste and gold mica from my DT box and mixed them to make a gold stencil paste.

Next I decided to use the chipboard piece. I considered painting it but then remembered the gold leaf we had been sent. I used size to adhere the gold leaf to the chip board. Once it is dry you can use a dry brush to remove the excess gold leaf and bring out the detail. Remember to brush off the excess into a container so you can use it in another project.

As the project was taking on a steampunk look I picked out some metal pieces from the DT box. The large butterfly I covered with 2 coats of green wax to give it a bit of a patina. I lifted the top set of wings to give it dimension and added the light bulb charm to the centre to represent the body. I then added the clock to the bottom of the piece to balance it. I decided that somethings needed help to stand out from the background so I added a black outline around the chipboard piece and the clock.

Lastly I added the words 'Create Art'. I painted them with the turquoise paint and highlighted with gold paint. Sorry this picture is not very good but it shows the wording better than the top photo. So as you see, even a small canvas can have a lot of steps to complete it but it is worth it in the end.