Sunday, March 26, 2017

"Beautiful Faces" Album

Hello everyone!!!  I hope you are having a great day.  
My next project has begun.  Back in 2015 I made an album called "Old Age".  You can find it in the 2015 archives on the right hand side of the blog.  I have decided to make another album called "Beautiful Faces".  It is turning out to be an extensive project and it will be a lot of mixed media techniques with pictures of beautiful faces from around the world.  
Today I will be showing you the front cover of the album.
 I haven't decided how to complete the back and spine.  I may cover it with canvas just to keep it simple.  As I finish a couple of pages, I will show you how I completed them.  So this will be a section by section posting until I have finished the complete album.

  
Next are the basic steps to completing the cover.
I first painted the entire surface with white gesso for protection.  I then did some mixed media techniques to give the background lots of texture.
First I took a product called "string gel" and mixed some fine ground shiny material that I found at Micheal's called Decorative Filler.  The string gel is thick and dries very hard and firm.  I let this dry.


I then added some netting that I have had for some time just in a few places.  And lastly, I used a stencil with dots and applied some modeling paste here and there.   I also put modeling paste in several places using a spatula only.   Let all of this dry completely.


I then painted the whole surface with black gesso.


I then dry brushed various colours of Finnibair's Art Alchemy paints onto the surface.  I didn't completely cover the surface with any of the colours.  I dry brushed them on here and there, even slightly going over the first one.  I mainly used rich turquoise, and light patena.  When the paints were dry I sprayed first with Prima tea stain spray, let it dry, then came back with a shimmerz turquoise spray.  You have to judge for yourself how you want this to look.  It is all a matter of layering your colours.  You can always go back and add colours, which is exactly what I did when I had completed the cover.


The next step is my favourite.  Selecting and adhering the embellishments.  I pulled out lots of items from my metal collection.  I did keep adding other pieces as I went.


Below is how it looked before I painted everything in black gesso.



As you can see above that I layered everything and made sure that every item was touching another one.  I started at the upper right corner with the metal corner piece and went out from there.  Its okay to put some things on top of others.  I did add some paper flowers here and there but mostly I used metal items.  To adhere them down I used Art Basics (Finnibair)  Heavy Matte Gel.  This is amazing as a glue.  Nothing will fall off when you use this.  A lot of the items you see are used for making jewelry.  Just go for it.  You can't make too many mistakes.
When all my embellishments were added I then painted them with black gesso.  From there I used several colours of the Art Alchemy paint - the blues, pinks, brass, even red.  I just dry-brushed them on here and there.  I also dusted on some mica powder in a few sections.  You get a better result if you let each colour dry first and just keep adding more.  Below is a couple of closeups to show you the final result.



There you have it.  The start of a new album which will be on my table in my family room along with my old age book.  This is something I have been planning for some time.  I will keep you posted on its completion.
Until next time, this is Donna again wishing you a safe and prosperous week.

HAPPY CRAFTING

"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
                                                                                                Ghandi

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