Art Recipe Challenge

Sounds yummy right?!?! Well it is. Yummy with color and supplies. This challenge was given with the recipe of supplies to use in creating the piece. The recipe was to use these supplies: Watercolor, gesso, pen (black), collage, and washi tape.  The additional color direction was warm colors, but was also optional.

I thought hey, an art challenge fun. It was a challenge. I don't typically ever use watercolors, but I own them so I used them. The other supplies were regular attendees of my art room creation parties and keeping in the warm colors made it a little more interesting to chose a subject.





The supplies the challenge required that I used are pictured to the right:


-Liquitex White Gesso
-Golden Matte Medium and my adhesive
-Black Uniball Onyx Pen (non permanent)
-Reeves Watercolors in warm colors shown



General supplies that I also used for the project include:

-Water color paper
-Brushes
-Scissors



Washi Tape was also on the required list. I store my washi tapes in color groupings on 2 hanging curtain rods..so to take off the 10 I used would have been a little challenging. I love having all of my washi tape out in the open to admire them in all their colorful beauty, as well and to get ideas of what I want to use. I never lose them and I never forget what I have in supply.  I did take a picture of the warm color section that I did use. The 10 I used are numbered on the picture below.

This is the 2nd  watercolor background I made, which I used to cut out my giraffe and collage his spots and various body pieces. I wanted to stick to the color scheme, and I guess I took that pretty literally..but wait till you see how it turns out!  I like deep vibrant colors so that is one area that watercolors challenge me. I did add it quite thick. I used the wet on wet method to help blend the colors and made sure there were different mixes of the warm colors. 

I painted the first watercolor (on the right below) on watercolor paper (Canson Watercolor Paper). As a base I used gesso on bubble wrap to add resist dots. Then after the initial water color, I left it wet and put a brush full of gesso into the water allowing it to burst out into little blurry star spot. 

     

   

The picture above right, is what it looks like after I chose all of my washi tapes. I just lined them up across the page leaving a little space between each one. The first gesso wash over the tapes is thinned with water. I didn't want to lose my giraffe in all the warmness. 

After allowing this to dry, (I generally use my embossing gun, I'm impatient), I used my black pen to outline the tapes in scribbly lines.  Beside it you can see the giraffe collage cut out from the 2nd water color I made. 

Now we're getting somewhere. After the giraffe is cut I had extra scrap watercolored paper that I used to make the spots and giraffe features. Tufts, ears, and nostrils.  I tried to use contrasting colors that were able to stand out from one another.

I added black scribbly outlines to my giraffe to bring out his spots. I used Golden Matte Medium to adhere the spots so they would stay securely put on the giraffe. Below you can see all of the pieces in progress and almost ready to share my finished piece. 

 I had to put it up in my living room next to the beautiful Octopus angel swap I received from a fellow artist Jennie Sanderson. BEAUTIFUL WORK!!! (hers :)) Octopus has the unlikeliest of new friends...giraffe.

This is my finished Recipe Art Challenge piece:

For not loving watercolors, for limiting my colors to warm, for only using a black pen and making gesso and watercolor effective in the same piece..I am overly pleased and so happy I was able to participate in this Recipe Art Challenge. I would NEVER have made or even imagined to create something like this. It was so much fun and I love it! What more can you ask for from your art?
Thanks for visiting!