Painting My World/A Tree Takes Form

Time to add more depth to my world. I used fluid acrylics and Jacquard Dye-na-Flow and Lumiere paints to add more depth and color to the landscape of my piece including clouds in the sky. I used washes of the paints so that I could add layers of color as I wanted. Working with these acrylics diluted gives me soft almost watercolor effects while still allowing the piece to be added to without getting muddy or loosing the detail from a previous layer of color.

After letting the landscape dry I used permanent pens to add details to the grass and the cliffs. The wrinkles that are in the paper of the mountains made good starting points to add rocky depth the the cliffs, as you can see in the 2nd photo.



A TREE TAKES FORM:
PAINTING ON INTERFACING:

This project is full of new techniques and I think I have more to try. The current one is painting on interfacing. I used a medium weight, non-woven, non- fusible interfacing. I wanted something heavy enough to have some body but light enough to be able to put on my drawing and trace onto the interfacing. There is a seam along the left side of the tree that I taped from the back side, the interfacing was not as wide as I needed. I used permanent markers to draw the tree onto the interfacing. The third photo shows the interfacing on top of the drawing.

I again used diluted acrylics and Jacquard paints. The interfacing proved to be very absorbent and with the diluted paints I got some really cool watercolor effects. I added some acrylic medium to the diluted paint to help keep the acrylic content enough so that future layers of paint would have a stable surface and wouldn't run.

After the first layer of paint had dried I added additional layers of paint to add more detail and depth to the tree. After painted with the acrylic paint the surface looks almost like a light weight suede and since it is non-woven you can cut out intricate shapes without fear of fraying.

After painting to a point I was happy with it, it was time to start cutting the tree out. It took me 2 days with scissors and a craft knife to cut around all of the branches. Although at points I was wondering about the choice of making the tree of the separate surface and having to cut it all out (it was a bit daunting); as soon as I put it on the collaged and painted landscape to see what it would look like I did a happy jig all around my studio. The tree seemed to glow, now I am thinking I may consider doing it for another project in the future.

I enjoyed painting on the interfacing and if you want soft effects it works great. If your paint was thick enough you could probably get more details, another option would be to use mat medium or gesso to prime the surface like you would a canvas. I think that using heavy weight interfacing you might have an interesting surface to bead on.

For the most recent photos of my project go to My Web Gallery or Artistic Kreations and Passions.