If you've joined me on Facebook, then you'll know that I've been working on a buck silhouette.
I love deer.
I think they're so peaceful, majestic, and strong.
Here is the first stage of the painting. It's fairly large: 24" x 30" (or so).
I pasted some book pages down using acrylic medium, smeared different shades of brown around, and them finished with a thick layer of more acrylic medium with some stencils.
Then I searched the internets for a buck head shape that I really liked.
I had a large piece of packing paper (the kind that you get when you buy a dish and they wrap it for you.)
I drew the buck's silhouette while looking at the image on my phone. You can see by all of the pencil marks that my drawing wasn't perfect the first time, and I had to adjust the lines. I also shaved a little too much off the bottom and the outer edges of the antlers, so I added in a little more paper for that part.
No big whoop. It's just a guideline.
I used removable double-sided tape to adhere my page to the canvas and then mixed up a dark brown to paint all around the edges.
When I lifted the paper, this is what I had. Kind of awesome :)
Since my background had some brown hues that were not so different from the dark that I had used to outline (see up at the top left?), I decided to highlight the inner edges of the deer with a creamy light brown.
I mixed in some acrylic medium so that it wouldn't be too opaque.
The result is pretty awesome.
I can still make out the book page texture from my initial background, and the edge of the silhouette is crisp and clean.
I'm going to paint a rich black around the edges of the canvas itself (it's a 2" deep canvas, a real showpiece!) and then sell it.
Any tips on shipping artwork would be very welcome! I've only ever sent small pieces and journals!