I made this painting for the wonderful @jemimah in the recent round of the IYP swap. Even though I invited her to swap with me, I was very intimidated by the idea of making art for someone so talented. I really wanted to step up my game. I hemmed and hawed about what I was going to do for what felt like months. If I don’t start, I can’t mess up, right? Right…except eventually I would run out of time! While searching for the right inspiration I came across a fee workshop video from Juliette Crane. I thought this might give me the right kind of depth and texture I was hoping to achieve, while keeping an element of whimsy I thought jemimah would love. I changed the focal animal in my version to a panda for recipient preference.
There are many, many layers of paint and tissue paper underneath more layers of paint and gelatos and iridescent medium - then more paint on top.
The quote is stamped on tissue paper and then affixed to the canvas. I like the way the tissue paper blends into the background a bit but still helps the letters stand out.
Panda close up for fun. The outline is done with a Stabilo All Pencil:
The design wraps around the sides of the canvas:
It was really fun to make and I’ve been playing with this style a bit more. After worrying about this for so long, it ended up being one of my most favorite things I’ve made (so far). Thanks for looking!