Mixed Media Owl

Well I can't spend 2 weeks here at the cabin without making an owl can I!

........ok maybe I'm just a little Owl crazy but when you hear them hooting all night it gets to you.....

I decided to finish the samples I made while at the Fernie workshop. 


I found some great natural items to add to this portrait proving that you don't need to visit the store for supplies just use what's around you.















MATERIALS REQUIRED:

- a substrate, which is a fancy word for a base, here I used a framed canvas but you could use a piece of cardboard or a wooden board
- acrylic paint
- spackle
- cardboard
- tissue, cheesecloth, burlap, or anything else you have lying around
- tacky glue, glue gun
- found items
- Mod podge

So like I showed in the Fernie post I textured my canvas using spackle and a number of tools to create designs.

Let the canvas (substrate) dry.  Mine was covered with lots of texture as I was showing all the different possibilities.    I then painted it with acrylic paint.

I then let this base coat dry.

I came in with some more paint and did a dry brush application to pull out the details of the texture.  Basically with a dry brush you want to come in with light paint if the base color is dark or dark paint if the base is light.  Apply lightly with a dry bristle brush,  I keep my old beat up brushes to use for this.

Put aside to dry.

I had a piece of corrugated cardboard from which I cut out the basic shape of my owl.  I applied some gesso or you can use glue and stuck on some tissue and cheesecloth to give it texture.  Again this was my leftover sample so I had a little bit of everything going on.  When dry paint with acrylics.

I found a nice big pine cone on one of my walks so I took some of the scales off starting from the bottom.  I also made sure to pick off the little barb on each scale so they were easier to work with.

They looked feather shaped to me.

 

I then painted them with acrylics to look like owl feathers.

 

I had my husband cut some rounds off a large fallen branch to use for eyes.   I sanded them smooth.

I also lucked out and found this neat beak shaped rock.

 

I then painted them.....didn't want my eyes perfectly matched.....like them a little kooky.

 

Using tacky glue I glued all the pieces in place.

 

I painted a branch on the background for my owl to perch on.

I then glued the owl onto the background with a glue gun.

 

I then sealed the whole thing with Mod podge.

 

Let dry and you have a great mixed media portrait for your wall.

See you next time!