Portrait Mixed Media Art Tutorial

I just prepared my painting for the "Something Red" show we have each year in Salem OR. It opens on first Wednesday of Decemeber and it has become a tradition for me to make something red each November. If you follow my blog you will see dolls and other art works with red in them. It is usually in the fall this happens of course.
I have been wanting to try my hand at a large canvas. But to be safe I wanted to do Mix media so I could try things out and be intuitive as I went. I have in my mind a scripture that has been comforting me.

The part that blesses me are these words.
"He Crowns Me with Loving Kindness and Tender Mercies"
Psalms 103:4

and this is good too.. "who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion," Not that my life is in the pits at all ..it is just that we have baggage from our past and it is sweet to know we are blessed and loved. And of course the daily struggles to reach our goals and get our art out and sold.

So with that in mind..I painted a face that would have a crown of course.
My favorite books and faces in hand...
but I had to clean my desk..and studio to get that big canvas on it...
It was fun to paint large. I used both acrylic paints and the black Stablilo marking pencil. (It works over glass or anything) You need to paint over the black lines with gel medium to stabilize the black otherwise it can smear all over your art. I also on occasion would paint a layer of gel over the whole face so that I could scrub it back if I made a mistake and wanted to start over on my last version underneath.
Hmm. how to set up the painting.
I really love my studio.. so quiet and warm and clean...to think....Next I took a very large canvas..got out all my stamps and stencils and red paints. I went wild and pushed the paint all around till I had a beautiful Red backdrop for my painting.
I used stencils I bought at a paint store in Venice.
I had to clean my studio again..I just can't work with junk piled everywhere .yeeks...
I also did a red mixture with stencils on her dress. The process of collage has started...
The dress was too red so started over and made a new dress. After using gel to glue down things on the dress I took my sewing machine and outlined items as well as making lines to give the dress definition. Painting back over the stitches when I was finished.

As painting moved on I realized that I was putting all my favorite things into the painting...so I typed the words "Favorite Things" to put somewhere.

I love Venice Italy..so I added a window photo I took this summer while riding down the Grand Canal.....

And then I put a photo of another favorite thing using photo shop into the Venice window of a peacock...symbolizing beauty..the white ones are so lovely. I happened on a white one once while driving the back roads of Scotland years ago. It was sitting on the brick fence in front of a house. So magical.

And then white lilies...ahh....my all time favorite flower. The smell sends me.
A favorite restaurant called Amadeus in Portland Oregon always has them on the tables. It has a beautiful view of the Columbia river and it was built in the 1920's It has the feel of a old men's club..so nostalgic.

and of course wings..and the butterflies...soaring around...I just love them...

So now it is called "Favorite Things". and I wrote the words to the Psalm on her dress and painted over them...our little secret...
I had fun using Photo shop to make my collage items.
I found antique botanical prints on line and made them larger and smaller. I changed their colors in the hue...then I painted on some of them ...and used watercolor crayons and pit pens...so pretty.
Her hair was a challenge. I started with a white Stablilo marking pencil...then I painted it red..I didn't like that so I went back to using the white stablilo marker pencil on black
I finished by drawing in the Venice canals and buildings... sprayed it with clear spray to make sure the water soluble pencils and crayons didn't smear.......

Pretty girl in her Crown...
A week in the making...
Love to see your version if you make one.

Blessings for your Thanksgiving preparations...oxoxo

PS
If I learned many of these original techniques from various teachers on the web blog links, online classes. As well as at Art and Soul, Artfest, and through Somerset Studios magazine and Stampington Magazine group...it is great fun!
Here is my first painting I started using techniques from Misty Mawn's class years ago.
Here is a blog post with a little of the process of making it.