This piece took me a couple of weeks to create.
I actually got this assignment from a magazine that my husband works for with the title to be Free at Last. (In the final piece I took the words off) It was to be a mixed media piece.
I thought long and hard about what I wanted to show and since I was into doing lots of birds, I chose to do something with birds and freedom. I came up with this concept after seeing a small image of birds escaping their nests. I knew I wanted a striking image so I decided to start it off with a color that I really loved.
- I started with a gorgeous metallic blue for the sky and then put green and yellow paint onto the bottom very thickly for the grass.
- I then did the tree and slathered on spackle (joint compound) mixed with brown paint to create the richly textured trunk. I used a palette knife which allowed me to get great texture. I added darker brown to certain parts to get shading. (below is a closeup of the tree)
- I then placed the 3 images I wanted in my cages on the background and using dimensional paint, drew the cages over these photographs. (money, smart phone and liquor)
- Using some house images as inspiration I cut up fabric I had to contrast with the color of the rich blue sky. After I cut them out and pasted them down, I used black dimensional paint to draw the windows and doors.
- I also cut these flowers out from some material that I had full of flowers and used the dimensional paint for the stems
- To finish it off I found these jewel like pieces that I thought looked like eggs.
- Made a nest out of newspaper pieces and some grassy like material and stuck those high up in the tree.
The reason this piece took me so long to create was firstly because I wans't making it just for myself and I needed to get a message across.
For every step of the way I used photos and pictures to help guide me. I used to think that artists drew from their imaginations and maybe some still do but, I learned that most artists use other pictures to help them along and this certainly was the case.