February Art Challenge

The very last challenge of February and of the twelve months we've spent together on 12 Months in View.   The Art Challenge is to make a mask inspired by the Venice Carnival.

I decided rather than make a mask that could be worn I would make a page in my journal.  When I was making my page at the beginning of the month I wiped the excess gesso off that page and spread it on this journal  page.

I painted over it with 3 colours of acrylic paint.

As soon as the acrylic paint was touch dry I used a baby wipe and a stencil to remove some of the paint.

I thought it was too bright so I scraped some grunge paste over it.  It would probably have worked with gesso as well but the grunge paste has a chalky texture to it and I thought it would be more reminiscent of the crumbling walls in Venice.

 For the mask I found this piece of paper which originally was watercolour with cling film.  When I was doing the February page I used this paper to dab of the excess ink.

I printed out a mask outline and traced it on the back of the paper.  This way I wasn't worrying about which bit of the painted side was best.

Then I went mad with stickles!

I stuck the mask down on the background and then drew round it with a black pen as it had disappeared into the background!

Thanks for stopping by
Bernice