, I was eager to try them out. So I picked up a few necessary supplies, grabbed a canvas, found a magazine page I liked, and set to work. I used gel medium to adhere the page to the canvas and gesso to block out the parts of the image I wanted to majorly alter. Then I used a combination of acrylic paint and colored pencils to paint over and recolor the image. And here's what I wound up with:
Alas, I didn't think to get a picture of the pre-altered page, but it featured a young, brunette woman in pink lingerie and a big, gold heart necklace, cuddling a teddy bear. So the pose is the only remnant of the original page that remains.
The biggest challenge was finding something to replace the teddy bear. It just wouldn't look right without something there. The phrase "Engel der Nacht" (Angel of Night) popped into my head shortly after I started working on her, and I knew that was what the title of the piece would be, so I took my inspiration from that and decided to add a lovely full moon. The image was printed separately and adhered with gel medium, then painted to better match the tone of the rest of the image.
Another challenge I faced was a limited range of colors to work with. My studio space is still very much a work in progress and many of my supplies are still in boxes. I searched high and low but couldn't find either of the two full sets of acrylic paints I have, so I decided to make due with the acrylic craft paints that I could find. I used only three colors for the entire piece - black, gold, and a lovely metallic blue.
This was my first time working with gel medium, and I have to say, I'm hooked! I had so much fun experimenting with the different effects it can produce, and I can't wait to play with it more.
This is a technique I'll definitely be exploring more. In addition, I've started working on stock for Phantasmagorium - my hopefully-soon-to-be-open shop. You'll be seeing more about that here and on Tumblr.
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