Colorful New Mixed Media Canvas

Another little project I finished in March... this one was actually started back in January and ended up sitting partially done on my desk throughout February while I was in Asia. I picked it up again at the beginning of March and worked on it off and on until I was happy with it. It took a while, and it's different from anything I've done before, but I like it.

This was another canvas redo - this is the original canvas (I actually remembered to take a "before" photo!)

I liked the shape of the flowers and the background color palette, so I pulled off the fish and started working from the flowers out until the whole thing was redone.

For some reason, about half the time I look at it, I just see a colorful map of the UK. That's probably just me, though. lol.

I started by taking dictionary pages and spraying them with a few colors of Dylusions sprays. I crumpled them up and adhered with matte medium - I wanted lots of color and texture. Then I painted the other ones for some contrast and to pull in a bit more color. I also tore some random pieces from an old atlas and added them around and embedded them in the background.

Next I put a whole bunch of random alphabet stickers around some of the edges and filled in the background with teal and turquoise. I knew I wanted to go around the shapes with a different color so I went with a few shades of green, keeping a white border to make them pop. I used some yellow india ink to get some drippage - that deliberate imperfection adds a lot, I think.

I had some flowers made from phone book pages that were already sprayed and assembled, and when I played around with setting one on top, I actually liked it. I added those, then stamped sentiments in gray using masking to keep them within the shape. I wanted it subtle so that it didn't take over when you looked at it. Some of them you can barely see unless you really look, but it adds a lot, I think.

I used Pan Pastels with mica and glitter on the book page flowers, then used oil pastels to add shading on top and around. And of course, I used Liquid Pearls to outline each of them in turquoise and add a few other details.

It turned out nothing like I'd planned and yet looked like what I'd envisioned all at the same time. So I'd say that's a success! I tried new things and had a lot of fun, and I enjoy having it hanging in my little gallery. On to the next project!