Sunday, March 29, 2015

Nevermore Raven Collage

While I was working on the C'est la vie canvas, Brittany approached me and asked if I would make a "cool canvas" for her.  She's a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe's literature, especially the Raven, so we decided that should be the theme.  It was difficult to come up with a design idea and get started.  Poe's Raven is very popular and has been worked into art projects so many times that it was hard to find an idea that hadn't been done before. As the blank canvas layed on my drafting table for a couple of days, I kept thinking of the quote by Vincent Van Gogh, " Just slap something on it when you see a blank canvas staring at you with a sort of imbecility.You don’t know how paralyzing it is, that stare from a blank canvas that says to the painter you can’t do anything."  I put a thick coat of black gesso over the entire canvas and the ideas started to flow from there.  Next the canvas received a heavy coat of purple acrylic paint, and swirled lines made with a texture tool.  I had the new Dylusions paints sitting on the work table and the concord grape just seemed to be calling out try me.  I diluted the paint with some water and painted over the textured ridges in the paint.  After it dried the Dylusions paint added a cool two-tone effect.  Dali's paintings- The Pesistance of Memory (the watches) and Argus (the eyes) were the secondary elements of the canvas and everything just progressed from there.

The canvas is almost finished-just a few finishing touches and it will be ready to hang.

Oh and Brittany if you are reading this post, I hope you remember all of the original art work that I created for you, on Mother's Day!

Canvas in progress.




Finished canvas- the brown on the bird is the light reflecting off the UTEE.


Directions For Nevermore Raven Collage:

Canvas  8x10
Liquitex Black Gesso
Foam Brush
Assorted Buttons
Ivory, olive green and black Cardstock
Raven Poem
Ranger Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel-(UTEE) clear
Heat Gun
Tim Holtz Clock Stencil
Golden Modeling Paste
DecoArt Dazzling Metallics Venetian Gold paint
Dylusions Concord Grape paint
Palette Knife
Small Ceramic Tile
Tim Holtz Ideology Clocks and Gears
Decorative Trim
Martha Stewart Leaf Paper Punch
Liquitex  purple, black and medium grey acrylic paint
Small Roses- Black and Purple
Raven SVG Cutting File-mine is from the Silhouette On Line Store
Art Minds Gold Flakes
Small Metal Brad
The Robin's Nest Dew Drops-Water (blue, purple and green)
Tim Holtz Distress Inks-Vintage Photo and Tea Dye
Small Bowl of room temperature coffee-for aging the poem
Princeton Catalyst Wedge W-02
Tom Bow Aqua Glue
Small paintbrush
Ranger  Distress Ink- Gathering Twigs

1.  Coat the canvas with two coats of black gesso and let it dry completely.

2.  Use a foam brush to apply a thick coat of purple acrylic paint to the top of the canvas. Run the Catalyst wedge to create wavy lines in the paint.  Let the paint dry.  Mix Dylusions Concord Purple paint with a little water to make it fluid. Spread the Dylusions over the top of the ridges in the purple paint. Let it dry.  Paint the sides of the canvas with black acrylic paint and set aside to dry.

3.  Mix modeling paste with the Venetian Gold paint.  Lay the clock stencil in the center of the canvas and cover with the gold modeling paste mixture, scraping off the excess with a palette knife. Set aside to dry.  Once the piece is completely dry, brush (with a paint brush) a small area of the gold clock design with Tom Bow Aqua Glue and carefully lay the gold flakes over the glue. Press the gold down onto the canvas. The flakes should appear textured and not smooth.  Apply the gold flakes to the stenciled area, letting some of the modeling paste show through.

4.  Cut a Raven, using the measurements given in the SVG cutting file (mine is from the Silhoette Store), out of black card stock.  Cut a branch long enough for the Raven to sit on out of black card stock. I drew the branch and hand cut it but you can use an SVG cutting file or commercial die cut.  Apply a Versa Mark ink to the front of the Raven.  Cover the entire bird.  Cover the bird with UTEE and shake off the excess.  Place the bird on a ceramic tile and use a heat gun to carefully melt the UTEE.  Let the UTEE dry and cool down before moving the bird.

5.  Print a copy of Edgar Allan Poe's Raven on white paper using a laser printer.  Tear the poem to fit on the right and left sides of the canvas.  Pour leftover cold coffee into a small bowl and soak the poem pieces for a few seconds, remove and blot on a paper towel. Keep soaking the poem and blotting it until the paper looks aged.  Let the paper dry on the paper towels.  After the poem is dry, apply the vintage photo distress ink randomly to the paper.  Adhere the poem pieces to the left and right sides of the canvas, using Liquitex Matte Gel, smooth out any air bubbles with your fingertips.

6.  Cut 3 pieces of ribbon ( approximately 3 inches and 2 1/2 inches) and tie them together with a knot. Tie a knot at the end of each piece of ribbon. Glue the ribbon just under the edge of the clock face. Glue the Ideology clock face to the upper right corner of the canvas. Glue an Ideology gear to the center of the clock and then glue a small brad over the gear.  Glue a small purple Dew Drop to the center of the brad.

7.  Cut a piece of decorative trim 1/2 inch longer than the length of the canvas.  Glue the trim 1/4 inch above the bottom edge of the canvas, so there is a purple border at the bottom.  If the buttons have a shank you will need to remove it so the button will lie flat against the trim.  Glue 3 decorative buttons, evenly spaced, on the trim. Seal the edges of the trim with the Tom Bow glue.

8.  Glue a black rose to the lower right corner of the canvas just above the trim.  Punch 3 leaves out of olive card stock using the leaf paper punch. Glue the leaves under the edge of the rose. Glue a small gear to the left of the rose and glue a Dew Drop in the center

9.  Glue a small purple rose on the poem just to the right of the Raven title.  Hand cut 2 small leaves from the olive card stock and glue under the edges of the rose.

10.  Glue 3 black buttons across the top center of the canvas. Glue  smaller purple buttons in the center of each black button and glue a green Dew Drop in the center of each purple button.  Randomly glue the Dew Drops along the top of the canvas, leaving room for a title.

11.  Glue the branch approximately 1 1/2 inches above the trim on the left side of the canvas.  Place the Raven on the branch and glue to secure him.  Glue a small purple rose with the stem in the Raven's beak on the canvas. Glue a small dark purple crystal over the Raven's eye. Dot the center of the eye with black paint.

12.  Paint the branch black, apply the paint thickly to give a textured appearance.  While the paint is still wet dab medium grey paint randomly along the branch.  Mix a little bit of black into the grey paint and dab randomly over the (wet) grey paint leaving some lighter grey showing along the branch.

13.  Put a few drops of distress ink on a craft mat.  Use the wooden end of a small paint brush to pick up the ink and randomly dab the ink over the surface of the poem.

14.  Print Nevermore on card stock.  Cut the title out, distress the card stock with tea dye distress ink.  Tear the ends of the card stock, leaving enough room to roll the ends.  Use an awl to roll the ends of the card stock inward toward Nevermore.  Glue Nevermore about an 1 1/2 inches under the row of buttons at the top of the canvas.