nature is great for inspiration

A few weeks ago I volunteered to help with a charity 5k at Gifford Pinchot State Park.

One of my jobs was to hang out on the trail and point runners in the right direction. I was stationed across from a small clearing in the woods with a magical ray of sun splashing on a mossy tree.

I tired a few different ISOs and finally got the shot I was seeing in my mind (minus the leprechauns).

With a little time to spare and a lot of unspent ambition, I remembered this blog and began scouring the underbrush for letters.

mixed media tree #2

     Supplies:

•  masking tape
• a large cutting mat
• a photocopy of a shape you would like to cut out
• an Xacto knife
• watercolor paper
• textured paper of any color
• a ruler
• black acrylic paint
• watercolor paint
• paint brushes 
• a frame. (Some might get the frame last, but I had a frame on hand and sized the piece to match.) 

I didn't have black paper, but I liked the texture of this blue charcoal paper, so I painted it black.
Wait for paint to dry.

Really saturate the paint brush with concentrated (not too much water) watercolor pigment. Paint a few strokes across the bottom of the page. Quickly dip the brush in water and make a few more swipes. Dip the brush again and make a few more swipes. If you do this quickly enough, the strokes will bleed into each other.
Continue until the page is covered with a gradation of the concentrated color. I made two or three of these background pieces until I was happy with the texture and tint. Wait for paint to dry.

Tape your photocopy to the (dry) painted background, paint side up.
(To create a mirror image of the photocopy, tape the paper paint side down.)

Begin cutting out your design. This took me about a week of careful trimming for a couple hours after work every night.

When I was done trimming the tree (pun intended) I noticed some small rips in the paint side of the paper where the original blue showed through. I laid the painted paper on a sheet of plain copy paper and gently re-painted my tree. This process covered the tiny blue spots, and created a neat reverse image of the tree that you could use as part of a series.

The next step is easy to forget, but it's important to clean your frame and glass before placing your art into it. Nobody wants a lovely field of black acrylic paint ruined by dust or paper scraps.

Sign and date your art, trim it, and place it into the frame.