Week 7: BPC class

I've been working on this project for several weeks now for my Big Picture Class, and thought I would share some of the steps that I went through to create this.

Step 1 - adding a few items

I started out with an 8 x 12 canvas.  I glued some items on to it to give it some depth - corrugated cardboard, chipboard gears, and a couple of tags.

Step 2 - seal all areas with gel medium

Next, I applied a couple of old receipts with some gel medium and let everything dry.  I did find with this project that I often had to let things dry overnight before moving on to the next step.

Then, I applied a thin layer of gesso over the canvas and let that dry again.

Step 3 - apply a thin layer of gesso

Now, the fun begins!  All I really did was play with paints (purple and blue) and distress stains (tea dye), then went in with some molding paste and worked on adding some more texture to the canvas.  The paste picked up the colors I was working with.  Again, I let it dry overnight.

I also wanted to experiment a bit with inks, and went in with purple, blue, green and metallic.  I dripped it on and let it run to get the effect I was looking for, and let it dry once again.

Step 4 - add paints, molding paste and inks

Next I went in with some stamps and StazOn ink and added a few images to the background, and adhered some postage stamps. I decided to add some clear crackle paint over some of the images for more texture. and...can you guess, let it dry overnight!

Finally approaching the end!  I laid my image out on the canvas and played with where I wanted to put everything - flowers, gears, words, etc. before I glued anything down.  I had fun mixing flowers with gears and antique buttons, and decided to add some to the lady, along with a bustle and feathers on the wings.  Oooh, such fun!

And there you have it...the creation of my SteamPunk Lady!

Voila!  My finished "SteamPunk" canvas!