A work in progress... well... done now :o)

As I mentioned in my previous post, my daughter took me to see Alice in Wonderland 3-D and I was inspired to do a painting after seeing all the gnarly/beautiful trees in the movie. So here is a step by step progression of that painting.

First I found a shadowbox frame and layered in a background with vintage encyclopedia pages and covered that with a wash of Nickel Azo Gold and a coat of medium.

 Then I stamped the background randomly with some script and Staz-on ink.

Followed by some stamping with gesso and a roller stamp. No, I'm not all that sloppy.. I have a heavy sheet of glass down so I can smear paints all over it and not worry about the table top. :o)

After another coat of medium I laid in a light wash of Pthalo Blue for the illusion of sky and Jenkins Green for the bottom... then another coat of medium.

In order for me to get the proper balance I like to lightly sketch in my tree with charcoal.

Tah dah! Tree!  And I added a bit more wash around the edges with Burnt Umber and Raw Umber and a coat of medium.

Decisions.. decisions.... what color to paint the frame. I decided on black.

Still struggling with the look of the frame I thought perhaps a light suggestion of gold around the edge might be nice so I rubbed on some antique gold.

Hmmm.... too subtle? Let's just lay on a whole lot of gold leaf and see how that looks.

Arghh.... not liking that at all!
I'll save you all the arduous work of sanding it all off and re-painting the black. After that I painted in the Mad Hatter's hat at the base of the tree and a few mushrooms for color. They were both a bit bright so I covered them with a very light wash of Burnt Umber, more medium...... and here is the final piece:

You can't see it in this picture, but I have painted the sash of his hat across the front edge of the frame, and the hat pins are actual pins with beads on them.

I've called it "Impossible Things" and if you've seen the movie then you understand the meaning.

I hope you have enjoyed following me through the process.


Best...

Canace