Welcome to part two of my posts highlighting my latest release from StencilGirl... my Boho Collection! (If you missed part 1, you can check that out here.)
Today I'm sharing more details and examples using the three Boho animal designs: fish, birds, and butterflies. I'll start with the original Boho design... the fish. This actually came about more than 10 years ago when I was trying to find a way to fill space on the huge walls in the stairway of the townhouse I lived in at the time. I was still pretty much a mixed media novice, but I had an idea to make a series of 16" x 20" canvases and cover the background with textured shapes and patterns and then put collaged animals on top. Heading down the stairs was all cool colors and I used fish, collaged in paper. Heading up the stairs was all warm colors, and I used birds collaged from fabric. It actually turned out really cool, and I kept those installations in place for years, even after moving to Connecticut!
Fast forward to about a year ago... I still have the original collaged fish, and I took one and traced it to make an updated version - my handmade collaged Boho fish. (My original design was a basic hand-drawn shape made from cardstock and I carried that over.)
I was really surprised out how popular these little guys ended up becoming! I continued to make and even teach similar versions of these fish, and then this last January it evolved into what I call my 3D Boho Collage technique. I hand-drew a new fish design for one of my early versions of this technique, named him Gus, and instantly fell in love. That exact drawing was then scanned and became one of the fish patterns on my new Boho Fish stencil.
You may have seen it, but in case you missed him, here's Gus:
I also used the new middle fish design as a beaded embroidery pattern for one of the pages in a new artist book I've started... it's on a transparent page that layers on top of a paper page that has a collage version of the fish on it - they line up so that when you layer them, it looks like this:
(You can also see where I used my new Collage Textures and Patterns, Circles stencil in the background.) Here you can see the separate pages:
The third fish on this stencil is actually the exact same body as my original pattern, and then I added fins and some other details.
Of course, if I did fish, there had to be birds as well (had to close the loop on that original concept from more than a decade ago!)
While I was playing around with the Boho collaged fish, I also drew a stylized bird pattern and made a collage of that:
Like the fish, this guy was traced and scanned and became the first of the birds on my Boho Birds stencil. Of course, I had to try out my 3D Boho Collage with the birds as well, so he also became Rusty:
Rusty needed some friends, so I drew two more less stylized birds to keep him company and added a few words and phrases to the design. One of them cried out to become another 3D collage, so this one is the "Queen of Her Nest."
Finally, I wanted to branch out to something new for the third stencil. Butterflies are a motif that I use frequently; for me they symbolize change and transformation. I drew three designs, including a Peacock butterfly, of course! and added those words to this stencil:
I pulled out my art journal to work with these, starting with the largest butterfly and some soft pastels on top of a collaged background:
On another page, I stenciled the other two butterflies and the word "change" and then used watercolors to fill in the designs.
Here are a few closeups:
Here again, you can see where I used the Collage Textures and Patterns, Circles stencil in the background.
Whew! That's it for my introduction to this new stencil release! I just love all of these designs, and I hope you do too! I took pictures of the process for several of my samples, so watch for some tutorials in the near future. In the meantime, all of my stencils (including the new ones) are available in my shop, and of course they're also available from StencilGirl.
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