Tuesday 22 March 2011

Mermaid

I have fallen way behind with my Magical, mythical makings course over at Willowing due to our house move. I started wk 2 which was an angel but I didn't like how it turned out so I will have to get back to that one. Week 3 was mermaids in the style of Chagall. Well I have done the mermaid but not in his style at all, but I am pleased with it. It was painted on plywood which was a bit of a challenge, the paint reacts so differently to canvas and it took lots of layers to build it up.
I used water colour crayons, acrylic paint and twinkling H2o's. I could not get hold of any of the 'Golden' brand mica flakes that Tam used on her painting so I made my own. When I experimented in my art journal I used gel medium straight onto the tail and then sprinkled 'magic scraps' on. This didn't work very well as the scraps kept falling off and the medium had taken away the shine of the scraps as it was matt. So on this piece I mixed the magic scraps(small crushed sparkly bits!) with a gloss gel medium in a little pot first to make a sort of sparkly glue, then I just smeared it on the tail where I wanted it. Because the gel medium had covered all over the sparkly bits when it dried they all stayed in place and kept their sparkle. The wood is about 15 inches high. Overall I am pleased with it and when I move back home I am going to hang it in my toilet!
TFL
Sami x

5 comments:

Carmen said...

Ohhhhhhhh Sam she's fabulous - I love that you used the different colour. I'll have to remember that tip. I'm even further behind than you so don't fret it.

Love that background.

laurie said...

she's beautiful! i love to think of her gracefully swishing her way through the sea. the sparkles are perfect - your method was very successful.

Jamie said...

This turned out so lovely!

Crafting Queen said...

Wonderful, love the colours!

Paige said...

Oooooooooo!!! pretty sparkley :D she'll look great in your small room :D