Collage

Apparently I've been on vacation from blogging. Now that summer is almost over I think I should get back on track. I have had a really great summer. Starting with a cruise in Alaska which my friend gave me for my 50th birthday.

I also invested in a Gelliarts printing plate and it has been so much fun. I've gone a little crazy making prints with it. Mostly stuff you would use for art backgrounds. I decided to start making things with these papers and here is one example.

First I selected an image. I was inspired by a crazy owl I saw on someone's business card. Here is the owl I drew. It looks nothing like the business card owl.

It is sitting on a simple painted background not created with the Gelli plate.

Then I picked the printed papers I wanted to use. They all seem pretty random don't they?

Then I cut the owl up and created the pattern peices. I did them bit by bit so I could glue the owl together correctly.

I use matte medium to put the peices together. 

I should have finished the background and then completed the owl but I like to make things harder. 

Here's my owl. I think he's adorable.

I then added visual texture to my back ground using plastic canvas.  

Then I put the owl on using matte medium.

Once it was dry I tried to create a little shading. Using a watercolor crayon in raw umber. Once I did that I created a ground using black sparingly. I put a couple dots of white to highlight and give the Owls eyes some life.  

I think it's really cute. I think now I should do a whole series of animals.

Hopefully a carousel type horse next!