Playing with some canvas

I am such a huge texture junkie. If I can add any tactile qualities to anything I'm working on, I totally go for it. So when I was asked to create a piece of art for a sweet lady on Craftster I decided to get creative and play around. I got a lot of inspiration from Mel at LeapFeetFirst who has been creating fabulous mini canvases along these lines. I still have more playing around to do but here's a first attempt and I'm very pleased as to how it all came out.

I started with an 8 x 10 inch canvas that I glued a bunch of random paper ephemera on. Then I took some stencils and used them as a resist so that when I coated it thickly with gesso it created an incredible raised shape!! (Apologies - I was going to link the tutorial I used but the page is down for some reason)



I took a bunch of pictures to show the dimensionality!!





After the gesso dried fully I glopped on some granulated texture paste, a bunch of acrylic paints, and then my own homemade alcohol inks. The alcohol inks weren't as vibrant as I had hoped. I tried food coloring and kool-aid but in the end broke down and went out to buy the real deal because I wanted that vibrant color. At this stage I did also try to sprinkle alcohol onto watered down acrylics for a neat effect but it didn't work out so well. Hence, more paint to come!



More layering. I wanted to try to add a crackle effect by painting acrylics over barely dried glue and it sort of worked, but not to my satisfaction. I might have to break down and get some crackle medium the next time I'm at the store for a real crackly effect. I also had some "pouring medium" which is the black areas. It creates a gorgeously slick look that will stay even after drying. Love it!



So at this point, the whole thing is looking like a hot mess, so I went back in with more gesso to tone down the colors so I could rework it again. After the gesso I dripped some india ink and let it run a bit.





A close up of the corner - I love the way the different layers show through, and the touches of color at the tops



And a final picture!!!

A final layer of alcohol ink spritz (with the real deal, look how much more vibrant it is!), some mica powder highlighting, detailing the butterfly, etc. I just wish my pictures could convey the texture a bit better. Oh well, use your imagination =)