Free Spirit

Hello eP friends,  Micki here to share my project using Prima's Free Spirit stencil.  Or to be more accurate, perhaps I should say my multiple attempts of creating this mixed media piece:

My original idea was to create a background using doing a PanPastel Resist, which I had done on a smaller birchpanel board and had turned out great.  So first thing first I applied a thin layer of gesso, followed by adding Distress Embossing ink through several stencils:

Next I swiped the stenciled area withPanPastel:

I continued to add stencil layers using embossing ink and more PanPastel colors,  making sure to leave the center because I knew that's where the Free Spirit stencil would end up. 

 At this point, I wasn't happy, it didn't "speak" to me so I started to go over the sections with Dina Wakley paints and stenciled Prima's Free Spirit on the board in white:

I didn't like the harsh lines from the added paint, but decided to focus on the face next. By the way, were you wondering why I used white paint with the Prima's Free Spirit?  My idea was to color her so that she looked more painterly.   Taking a pencil, I sketched in the lines.

Next I added paint, mixing some White, Umber, Lemon and Magenta on my Craft Sheet for the skin and a little Black Gesso and Umber for the hair. And Blackberry for the headband and flowers.

Well, I decided that this wasn't going to work for me, especially with those harsh lines from the blocks of color I had added earlier and the hair was completely wrong.  What does one do now?  More paint!   I added more blocks of color.  Only  I would add more color, then painting with white over the still wet color paint.  I was going for a variegated look.  And because we are in our first heat wave of the summer here in Kansas, I was having major issues with the paint staying wet, so I solved that by adding a little Liquitex Glazing Acrylic Fluid Medium and mixed it in while applying the paint on the board.  
Because of adding all these blocks of varigated color, I had completely lost most of the inked stencil design, particularily the two Decor I stencils in the two corners.   I wanted more texture and decided to add Studio 490 White Embossing Paste with Prima's 6x6 Decor I stencil.  For the bottom corner stencil I mixed a teeny bit of Blackberry with the embossing paste and for the upper corner stencil, a little Tangerine was added. 
Next I stenciled Free Spirit again, lining the stencil up and re-stenciling her with black gesso.

In hind sight, I probably should have left the colors showing through the stenciled image.  But I filled her in with paint, coloring the headband, flowers and stems with Splash of Color-Silks Acrylic Paints.  

At this point I almost decided to completely walk away from my project. Start over - completely over, but I had been working on this for over a week and I was determined to finish it (plus I didn't have enough time to start from scratch, lo)
By coloring the hair in Umber, the feathers were completely lost in her hair.  To fix that, I re-positioned the stencil and added white embossing paste over the feathers.  While that was drying I decided to add a darker color around the front of the face.  Just like before, I added Dina Wakley's Heavy Body Acrylic Paint -Night, mixing it with white to blend.  

At this point I added more stencils and stamps for texture (and hoping it would bring this project together).  Next the Free Spirit stencil was ligned up for the third time and black gesso was very carefully pounced around the outline and the face detail because I had lost that when I filled her in with paint.

I used a brown gelato under the feathers which I blended with my fingers to help give some depth.  Distress Stickles were added to the flowers and on the embossed feathers. 

I added some detail with my Fude Ball Pen, filling in where I had missed with paint.  
You know how I always use gelatos or big brush markers to add depth, well, this time I used Prismacolor Watercolor Pencils, only instead of activating them with water, I used a blending stump to burnish the color.  
Found some old alpha die cuts which were painted and glued to spell out "Free Spirit".  And still not completely happy, I decided to stick my finger into white paint and randomly adding paint wherever my finger hit, along the edges, over the embossed corner stencils, etc.

 

I'm not sure if this is completely finished.  It doesn't feel complete yet but I do like how Prima's Free Spirit stencil turned out.  I think it's the background.  I may still change it, but for now she is sitting across from my craft table.

If you are still with me and my lengthy explanation, I wanted to show you what happened when I cleaned the Free Spirit stencil by laying it on a brayered background (my granddaughter had created).  I layed the stencil down, spritzed a lot of water over the stencil, I wiped using a baby wipe and this was the result:

Is that not awesome?  Looks kind of watercolorish, doesn't it?  Problem is I tried to recreate this result with no success, noooooooooo!!!!  

Anyway, thanks for letting me share.  I hope I made sense, sometimes it's hard to remember which step I did first, know what I mean?   As for me, even when a project does not give me that "finished" feeling, or doesn't turn out like I had hoped, I always come away from my craft table feeling I've accomplished something and that is the beauty and therapy of art for me.

I hope you were inspired to create!

Supplies used:

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