Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Mix media: Working with metals

This is a work of art that I made last fall.  I`m finally getting around to posting it!  I really enjoyed trying these new techniques: embossing metal, hand carving in metal, adding metal elements to canvas, using metallic felts and shaping metal wire.

I really enjoyed creating this one. It was full of new discoveries. This is a semi-abstract painting about a forest.  And its all about exploring texture in metal.

Metal Forest
 Here is a side view so that you can get an idea of how dimensional it is.  You can really see how the green metal wire pops out of the canvas.

Sideview
 This next picture shows parts of the two metals pieces that I embossed using an embossing tool. I added little details such as the little circles in the middle of the lozenge by poking the underside of the metal with the round end of a needle.  Careful: if you press to hard, you`ll make a hole!  I also added metallic colored paint on the metal.  To make it adhere better, I had to sand it down a little.  The second metal piece (bottom one) was also embossed using an embossing tool and painted with metallic colors.

Closeup
I made this ''fleur de lys'' using a stencil and a crayon-like embossing tool.  I followed the edges of the stencil, and chose not to fill in the middle.  I also punched out a hole in each corner.  To adhere the metal plate to the canvas I used a glue gun.  Once it dried, I colored over the glue with a permanent gold metallic felt.  I really love how it looks.

Closeup
This next picture shows the trunks of the trees and some grass growing in front of the tree line.  The trees were also cut with normal scissors and then embossed. I made sure to emboss in different directions to create some diversity.  I put the trees against the lighter side of the background to create a greater contrast.
The bottom grass background was created by embossing with a tool and the grass itself was hand carved out of the metal.  I lightly added paint to the grass to contrast with the background.

Closeup
Finally, I added these four metal pieces which are eyelets into the canvas.  I really liked the glue on the ''fleur de lys'', so I put some around the eyelets too.  I added a touch of gold glitter glue in the middle, and some stars over the forest were created.  I also added some wired mesh under the green wire.  This has an aesthetic function as well as a practical function.  I needed something to keep the wire in place.

Closeup

Hope you enjoyed!

Krysthle Poitras

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