TMC 11 Canvas

It’s time for our new challenge over at The Mirror Crack’d, a canvas.

I am lucky to have the most amazing team and they regularly put me to shame and today is not exception. I wish I had half the talent they have, but alas I just keep plugging away. Compared to them my canvas is very basic. However, it was still an effort for me to make it, so if you don’t think you can do this sort of thing, be like me and at least give it a go! You never know, you might surprise yourself.

I started with a 7x 5 canvas because my main focus was going to attempt to be the face, and I didn’t want it lost on a larger one. I cannot draw to save my life so without the help of the fantastic Paperbabe Templates and Stamps I wouldn’t even have managed this, lol.

I started off by applying four shades of Distress paint to the canvas and then spritzing with water to get them to blend into one another. When it was dry I used the ‘short and fringe’ template to draw the basic shape and then painted over it with white titanium paint. Then I used the head and fringe templates to draw the basic head shape and her fringe. I gave everything apart from the hair a layer of Lyra Aquarell crayon in the palest skin tone, working up in tones to give some shading and definition. I have to be honest this was hard on the canvas because of the texture of the canvas and the wax crayons didn’t want to glide to easily over that surface. However, as the colours wipes off quite easily I was able to keep going until I was happy with it. The downside is that it still isn’t permanent even now!

The beauty of the Paperbabe system is that it also comes with stamps for the features. So I next did the eyes. I can see they are ever so slightly skew whiff, but as I used a permanent inkpad they were pretty much there and stopping there, lol. I opted for the plain circle around the iris to do the pupil, but there are many shapes in the stamp set including a lined one that looks very like a natural iris.

Next I tackled the hair. I did a rough wash of pale brown and then just added layer upon layer of Aquarell crayon to give some highlights to the hair.

The lips came next, not my finest hour, lol, and finally the nose… I had a great laugh initially because my nose looked like a moustache! But I finally managed to get a semblance of a nose, minus moustache by persevering with some polychromos pencils for shading.

The sentiment was stamped onto tissue paper with memento inks and then mod podged onto the canvas. I think the sentiment is apt, because you don’t have to be The Mona Lisa to be Awesome!!!

The white stars are texture paste through a stencil and the little gold swirls I used my immense talent, LOL, and drew in myself. I added some highlights in her hair with the gold pen I did the swirls with, and also under the sentiment.

I wish I had the talent to draw and/or paint, but failing that I highly recommend this system as the next best thing. Whilst she may not be the Mona Lisa, compared to my normal attempts that look like a five year old with broken fingers has drawn a stick figure, this is truly a masterpiece, and I am sure that with practice I could get better!

Just to add that I made the mistake of blanking out the coloured background with plain white acrylic paint, and I think I would have had a much more obliging surface if I had gessoed out the background.

At the risk of embarrassing myself I am entering this into:-

2 Creative Chicks – #28 Anything Goes
Altered Eclectics – July: Anything Goes
Craft My Life All Crafts Challenge – June/July: Anything Goes
Craft Stamper Take It Make It Challenge – July Take A Stamp Anything Goes
Crafty Individuals – July: Face Value
Decorate To Celebrate – #103 Anything Goes
Frilly and Funkie – July Something To Say
Left of Centre Creative Challenges – #85 A Splash of Paint
Rhedd’s Creative Spirit – July Anything Altered Art/Mixed Media Goes
Stamplorations Stencil Sunday and July Mixed Media Challenge – July Anything Goes
That’s Crafty – Wish Upon A Star