Egyptian girl or ultra modern.....

Hello my crafty friends. Today's offering took me on an unusual journey....at least for me.

I knew I wanted to do a canvas and I wanted to use the face of this beautiful girl by Tim Holtz.

I started by adding paint to the 8x8 canvas using the brayer and fresco acrylics. I used several colours including a brown, blue, orange and a yellowy green.

I then stamped the girl on tissue paper (a paper I don't use very often). I then coloured her from the back using spectrum noir pencils. I didn't want the colouring to be overwhelming and by colouring the back it really softened the look. I did emphasize her eyes and lips slightly.

I cut her out and stuck her down carefully with mod podge.

I then added tissue tape to background and this is also another thing I very often forget to use. I inked over them very lightly with distress inks.

Then I turned to the hair. I remembered I had this stencil with rolling hills and the more I looked at it the more I could see hair. I remember Barbara Gray in one of her classrooms setting us the challenge to see how many things we could think of making with this stencil. Hair was certainly not one of them! A lot of masking was involved here and also waiting in between applications to allow grunge paste to dry.

So in between waiting I stamped the butterfly from Tim Holtz again and embossed it. I coloured it with distress inks picking colours that resonated with background. I used mermaid lagoon, twisted citron, dried marigold and gathered twigs.

I used a cap from a marker and dipped it in black gesso. Then I went over it with white gesso to create a shadow: I borrowed this from the lovely Emma Williams. She had it on her recent canvas.

I coloured hair with fresco acrylics and used 3 shades including London fog and chocolate pudding.

 Then I added gilding waxes to bring highlights to it. I then stuck the butterfly in her hair.

I also used waxes on a metal corner and 3 sprockets and attached these to canvas.

As a finishing touch I added some gold pearls in her hair and also some micro beads and distress glitter mixed into gloss medium in random areas. (again I borrowed this from Emma).

And there is my canvas ready. I hope you can leave me some constructive criticism, hugs Theresa xx

I would like to enter this canvas in the following challenges:

Simon says stamp Monday challenge - no ordinary paper

Frilly and Funkie - raise it up

Fat-Tastic Tuesday - anything goes with a twist: make it feminine

CropStop blog - anything goes