Friday, January 15, 2016

New Technique on Canvas

Hello everyone!!!  I am back from California where I attended the Prima "Art Venture".  It was excellent and the workshops were amazing.  Unfortunately, I cannot post the items that we did because of the designer wishes, but each workshop was wonderful and very informative.  We worked with Frank Garcia, Anna Debrowska (Finnibair), Vicki Boutin, John Petersen, Sharon Laakonen, and Sandra Evertson.  A very talented group of people.
I am going to share with you a technique that I learned in the Sharon Laakonen class. I have never done this technique before.  I got to use the new Prima watercolour pastel crayons to create a background on their new watercolour canvases.  It turned out to be easy and fun.  Since I can't show you the actual project we did I did another one at home to show you the technique.
Below is the finished canvas.


To start, you will need the items shown below:  9 x 12 canvas or the size you want, watercolor paper (140 lb. weight is best), a soft brush, watercolor pastel crayons, something for mixing, and a water sprayer.
Since I did not have a watercolour paper canvas, I used a regular 9 x 12 canvas and covered it with a piece of watercolour paper.  You can buy the paper in a 9 x 12 size, however, I found that I had to trim off a slight amount on the edges.  I adhered this securely to the canvas.


I used 4 different pastel colours, vermilion, magenta, dark ochre and dark brown.  Starting with the lightest colour (vermilion) I scribbled some into the a plastic lid, wet it with water, then mixed it with a wet soft paint brush.  The right side of the lid below is the mixed side.  Mix the complete scribble.  They mix very well.


I next lightly sprayed the surface of the paper on the canvas.  Then I applied the vermillion colour in a circular motion.  Keep mixing and adding the colour until the surface of the canvas is covered.  With the surface of the canvas still wet, (you do not have to wash out your mixing item after each colour)  mix the next colour which is the magenta in the lid, and apply it over the first colour but not to completely cover it.  You will mix and blend the second colour here and there making sure that you mist lightly with water.  You want the first colour to show.  Do not press too hard with your brush.  Water to paper can cause pilling which is small balls of the paper forming.  That is why I used a 140 lb. weight paper which is heavier.  I had no pilling at all.  You will do the same with the third colour (dark ochre) again here and there making sure that you spray more water onto the surface of the paper, blending as you go.  I did not use a lot of this colour.  But you can if you want, just as long as you use a light spray of water.
This is a closeup after the third colour was applied.

I let the complete surface dry (you can use a hair dryer for faster drying time).  I then took the dark brown pastel, in the same way as the others and applied this around the entire outer edges blending it toward the centre but not all the way.  The finished canvas surface is below.

To finish the project, I mixed a pink mica powder into modeling paste which I placed here and there with a stencil.  Next I stamped with brown ink a small acrylic stamp to give more texture.  I then made a paper collage that you can see below and adhered this to the canvas in the centre.

My next item is the "diva" which I made using a new Julie Nutting stamp.
I first stamped the girl onto a piece of vanilla cardstock and cut it out.  This acts as the skin tone for the face, arms and legs as well as a base for the pieces that you will create next.   Next I stamped the girl onto a piece of patterned paper.  I then cut out the dress only and adhered it to the cardstock girl onto the dress area.  Next I stamped just the head onto yellow cardstock and cut out the hair which I adhered to the head of the cardstock girl.  I added dimensional pearls to the head band and the waist band, black stickles to the shoes, and adhered a ruffled piece of lace around the bottom of the skirt.


I added the "diva" to the canvas using pop dots, added a chipboard frame embossed with white embossing powder and a piece of patterned paper adhered to the back of the frame.  Flowers were next, butterflies and a bit of bling to complete the canvas.  I am hooked on yet another technique.
I hope you enjoyed this picture tutorial and will give it a try.
Until next time,
this is Donna wishing a wonderful day.
"Don't judge a woman until you've walked a mile in her shoes.  That way, when you say something about her, you're a mile away and you have her shoes."

1 comment:

Heather Miller said...

Great share! Sounds like you had a wonderful trip :)