Be True to my Heart - Finished Canvas's

Here are photos of my creative process...Inspired by Donna Downey's Canvas Create series for February 2012.

The 3 photos below show:  

• addition of water-thinned Indian Yellow acrylic paint (on top of the original Magenta colored base) giving the background a funky orange with deep burnt orange undertones
• then Magenta acrylic paint was added to ridge around the heart and a water-thinned wash over the body of the heart
• then I made a circle template from a scrap piece of paper and painted the circle openings with Blue Green acrylic paint

The next two photos include:  

• the addition of masking tape
• white acrylic paint rubbed over the raised textured areas on the background
• a word stamp with white ink pad
• a flower/heart/butterfly image stamped first with black ink, then a white ink pad

Hmmmm....dislike those circles and the color of the paint in those circles, blah

And......also dislike the image stamp, ugh

In the photo below, I painted over the parts I disliked with a Turquoise acrylic paint mixed with gesso.

I was happier with the Turquoise color but added more thinned white gesso to lighten up the color a bit (see below).  I decided the masking tape looked too plain left untouched so that got a wash of Indian Yellow paint (below).  That made the tape perfect!  And I couldn't be finished there....

To add additional dimension I painted bubble wrap with black ink and pressed it down on a corner section.  Then I stamped the bubble wrap with a white ink pad and added that to each canvas. 

I added Indian Yellow paint over the white ink to one word on each canvas.  Then I added some blue liquid ink on an edge, turned the canvas so it would drip/run but I only ended up with a single line of ink.  Then I remembered seeing a video about blowing air through a straw to move ink around so I tried that (only without the straw - didn't have one) and look what I got....a cool scattered paint blotch.  

I am so happy with how these pieces turned out and am glad I did more than one so these can be sold as a set or separately. I am especially pleased with learning to use molding paste, gel medium, mixing color with gesso, fixing mistakes and how you can use masking tape and bubble wrap in the creative process.

So a big thanks to Ms. Donna Downey......she is a great teacher and inspiration.

Hugs to all,  Erin