Artful Experiments!

Hi there Dear Friends!

I totally love my Creative Team for their readiness to experiment, have fun and reach for brand new artistic solutions and fresh ideas!
Today we meet with our talented Bipasha who shows us her new mixed media heart and adventures outside the comfort zone. :) I know you'll love it!

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Hello Everyone!

I'm back today with something that may seem a bit unusual from my comfort zone.

There's not a lot of room for adventure and excitement in our comfort zone. So once in a while, to add a little zest to my creative mixed-media life, I make it a point to try something new and sometimes a bit scary - stretching my limits!

Getting outside of your creative comfortable box may be tough at first, but trust me, when it is in mixed-media, the versatile Finnabair mixed-media products make this ride always a happy and fulfilling one for me.

I have never created any heavily embellished mixed media project with dark bases, but the very thought of all the beautiful textures popping out on a dark base with the perfect measure of highlight have always intrigued me!

I've had a wooden heart box in my craft studio for a while now and thought that it would be perfect to alter it with my fave Finnabair mixed media products for this creative challenge. 

The very first step of my wooden heart box alteration process involved adding some stencilled textures.

I mixed the Texture Powder with 3D Matte Gel Medium (as an adhesive) to create a good paste consistency (adding some water in between) and applied it through the stencil.

It added a fine, delicate coarse texture effect.

Then I built up the dimensions in the textures by adhering randominly some Art Stones.

You can glue these stones directly to the project using any of Finnabair Art Basics gels as an adhesive. My personal favourite is the 3D Matte Gel for adhering delicate small elements and Heavy Body Gel for bigger & heavier embellishments.

Once I was happy with the base textures, I dried the box with my heat tool and coated it with a layer of Heavy Black Gesso. It gave me a smooth, chalky primed background to add my next layers.

I added some final textures on the base using the Graphite Texture Paste. It is a transparent, flexible, permanent acrylic gloss medium with natural grains providing textural, dimensional and porous effects.

Next, I built up some interesting sheen contrast in my base with matte strokes of Aubergine Impasto paint, followed by the ever-glamorous Metallique acrylic paint in Dark Velvet to give it a rich velvety look.

I highlighted the details in the stencilled textures with a touch of Spark in Iris Potion.

Then, I created my heavy-dimensional composition, layering the Finnabair Mechanicals metal embellishments along with some found objects from my stash.

I adhered them using my Heavy Body Gel. I love the fact how strongly it secures each metal bit as desired irrespective of its weight or shape.

Then I have used Dark Olive, Dark Brown, Brown, Dusty (in order of application) from Metal Rust & Camouflage Pastes to add a distressed worn look to the embellishments.

In the last step, I contoured the elements to highlight the depths and textures using the metallique Art Alchemy Wax in Vintage Silk and White Gold.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Please enjoy my video tutorial!

So that's all I have for today. I will be back soon with another creative inspiration.

Till then, I'd like to encourage you to think outside of your comfort zone and attempt to do something that you've never done before!

It doesn't have to be anything drastic. It could be as simple as creating some textures with some Finnabair's Art Stones! :)

Happy creating!

Hugs,

Bipasha

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