Now that I’ve given it to it’s recipient, I can post about the latest work. This is Maya, Missy’s sister, who have both left us. I didn’t bother doing process pictures for this because you’ve already seen how it’s done a few times now, but I did do a few things differently. In this one, I framed it from the underside, rather than float the foam on the back of the frame board, leaving a gap. I did this partially because I cut the foam to the wrong size (whoops) and also because the frame back board didn’t really allow for a nice looking background. IIRC, it was weirdly textured and painting it would have been visible. While I prefer the look of the floated board, this way was also nice because it hid all the edges which are the hardest to do, as well as the wonkiness on the cut of the foam. Although with this one, I scored the foam and snapped it, rather than saw away at it, so the edges were more uniform, but anyway.

I knew I wanted to keep the cherry blossoms in to make her match Missy, so I used what I already had on hand for that. I went shopping specifically for the brown (I fell in love with the flower pattern, and reversed it on half her head to show a bit of a difference in colour/shine/texture) but couldn’t really find much brown with white shots through it like her fur. I bought the dark piece under her left eye and right cheek because it had a shot of silver running through, but it wasn’t really visible and not really what I was looking for. I threw it in anyway to add some depth and difference. While I was working with the brown and gold spotted pieces, I realized the backside was exactly the colour and texture I was looking for for her face, so I flipped it and used the back. I had the rest of the fabric on hand, so used some light pinks in her nose and ears, and again that white textured satin for the fur. I broke it up with blocks of white to give it some difference and interest for the eye.

Here they are, together again. Maya was the 4th one I’ve done, and I think is my favourite. Looking at Missy on the left, I could have taken a bit more artistic license with her shoulder and added more like I did for Maya, and less blossoms, but we’re our worst critic. My friend got a little emotional when I gave it to her, and I don’t think she cares about my self-criticism at all lol.

This is Marley, my mom’s dog. It’s probably the best picture I’ve ever taken of her, and I’ve technically already used it once in a painting, but a good reference is a good reference. Don’t mind her spit bubble.

As usual, I made a stencil by using my mom’s bf’s iPad (I seriously considered shelling out over 1k for my own of that size before I realized I’d probably really be only using it for this, because my iPad Air 2 still works fine for what I need it for thankyouverymuch and like, over 1K?? Plus over $100 for a pen? When I can just his use? Criminal), and then cut out each section. You have to be a bit generous with the shapes because it’s impossible to get this absolutely perfect as it’s by far from a realism portrait. Letting loose with art is a new concept for me lol.

I already had most of the fabric on hand, but went out to specifically get the black fabric with flowers, because I wanted it to be a bit different from the rest of her mottled colour. Part of the good thing about buying new fabric for this kind of craft is that there was a sale and it was half off and I paid less than $3 Canadian for a good swatch of more than what I needed for this. On the flip side, a whole bedsheet or comforter cover or shower curtain or whatever is like, $8 at Value Village. Cheaper, way more material, but way less selection. Anyway.

And here’s the finished piece! The background was from a sheet set my mom was gifted while visiting her family in Italy, but it didn’t end up fitting her bed. I don’t love how it turned out, but I wanted to incorporate it somehow so she at least still had a piece of it left. The frame is thrifted from the Habitat for Humanity Re-Store. You want to look for frames that are in-set from the front. Meaning, there’s no glass in front of the artwork, and the depth is at least 1″, or the depth of your piece.

It looks complicated, but it actually goes really quickly once you start putting pieces in. I started tracing on Friday, and finished the piece on Sunday, and probably could have had it done Saturday had I not booked myself a bunch of other things to do on the same day. lol.