Bloom

Sometime last year I registered for an online Donna Downey class, to create the above painting.  I loved how Donna used a stencil to create the face...seriously, so much easier than drawing by hand, and how her hair was primarily constructed of flowers...me, faces, and flowers?  Why, yes, that's a fabulous combination!  (You can sign up for this same class here)  This stencil is called Three Quarter is was designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  You can see a video of Julie demonstrating how to use these stencils here.

 

 While I was really happy with my final results, a year later, I can see so many areas where I would have done things differently.  However, the one area that I adore is actually the canvas background, which was created by first randomly applying Wendy Vecchi's white embossing paste.  I love how the paste looks once you apply paint (after the paste is dry)...like a chipped wall in an old building...be still my heart!  I also added some stenciling using another Wendy Vecchi item, the Classic Words stencil (one of my favs!)  The Bloom is from the Artful Thoughts stencil.  I'm also really partial to all of the dots on the flowers...adds such a fun element.

Overall, I really enjoyed this class and am looking forward to finding a place to display my blooming lady...