Mixed Media Animal Portraits – Part 1

I love imagining ways to use the fabrics I've painted and that's how this project began. The Sponsors (Charlie and Chance are always willing to act as models for any project. 🙂 This episode of Drama-free Friday began with 11″ x 14″ canvases, collage and paint.

One of my favorite mediums for collage is Traci Bautista's Collage Pauge in the Matte finish. After tearing up some old book text and music papers, I randomly collaged them around the canvases. Of course I can't work on just one at a time!

Once the collage dried, I added various colors of Dina Wakley acrylic paints. One canvas is painted with cool colors and the other is warm colors. 

Next, I added some stamping to create visual texture with Archival Ink in Jet Black. A few spots were easy to add with TCW203 stencil (Circle Grid).

The drawings for the cats were originally inspired by Lab 1 (Draw Cats in Bed) from the book Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. Once I settled on the cat images that I'd drawn, I enlarged them and created my patterns.

I cut each pattern piece from my stash of hand painted fabrics. Machine stitching around each piece is fun and adds some interest. TIP: If you have small or narrow pieces, draw them first with Frixion Pens. Next, stitch slightly inside the drawn line and then cut out the pieces. This can save you a LOT of frustration. 😉

Each cat was glued together to create one large appliqué. That's where we stopped for this episode of Drama-free Friday. Join me next Friday at 2pm Eastern and see what happens next!

Until next time ~

Remember to Get Creative today! It's easy!

Barb

PS – Remember to get your copies of our new Mandala Medley, Mandala Melange v2.0 as well as the FREE Mandala Madness eBooks.