Mixed Media Silhouette

I love color — super bright, bold colors. The problem with such a bright background palette is trying to add a subject that doesn’t get lost in the rainbow of my page. My go-to, when I can’t bear to mute things too much, is to add a silhouetted subject so it has enough contrast to draw focus.

Last night, for Day 2 of my #100DaysofCreativity, I opened my art journal to a page I had previously started. It was covered with collaged “under paper.” That’s brown kraft paper that I put under my art as I work. It becomes its own inky, painted, piece of work after a while and then goes into my box of collage materials when it feels thoroughly wrecked (or when I have to clean my desk for a guest ;). I love using under paper for a number of reasons – it’s interesting, unplanned, and colorful; but, it also evokes memories and feelings of the bits of art I recognize on it.

Apparently I had been in a more-colorful-than-usual mood at some point, because in this unfinished page I found in my journal I had used every fluorescent paint I own to cover my already wrecked under paper. It was covered with a patchwork like this:

Because more is more sometimes, to add more layers, I got out a couple of Stencil Girl stencils. The one that looks like a string is a Stencil Girl stencil that I don’t think is offered anymore, but this ribbon stencil is close enough. I also used Rae Missingham’s triangles. Then, I colored the girl with the balloons with a black brush Pitt Pen and I had this:

It was too bright, even for me, so I mixed some white paint with matte medium and painted the entire surface around the girl. That made her the focal point, but kept the background visible. I added some black splatters to the bottom half and some white to the top half. Lastly, I edged it with black paint. So my finished piece looked like this:

I love how she pops off the page. I think it could use a good quote, but I’m going to think on that. In the meantime, I’m glad I finally got this idea in my art journal and that I completed day 2 of #The100DayProject.

If you want to learn more about #The100DayProject, check out my Day one post. You can start it at any time, so join me. You’re not too late!