Waste Not, Creating something beautiful from left over materials

This morning I sat at my desk ready and raring to go!

I got out a good pencil, opened up my art journal...... and nothing!

So I pulled down a canvas got out some paint, fresh water and a brush...... and again nothing!

I so wanted to create something but could not find inspiration!

I could not get myself to make a mark on a blank surface, nothing was connecting!

Fortunately (or rather unfortunately) this has happened before and I am prepared!

Whenever I am working on any project I always have a canvas near by,

I will smear left over mediums through stencils, slather leftover paint on it,
scrape paint off my pallet with a card and wipe it on,
I will clean my stamps off by stamping off excess ink, I have even put embossing powders and heated them,

and my favorite thing to do is glue my used paper towels down for an instant background,

I call this mash of mediums on this canvas my 'Waste Canvas'.

This is the result of a waste canvas I have been adding to for a few months, 

You can see all the texture that has been added to this piece, the paper towels added beautiful bumps and rides to the surface.

I had excess molding paste mixed I added the diamond pattern through a stencil,

I added the paints by cleaning out my overloaded brushes and cleaning my pallet.





When I cannot start from a clean slate, I pick up a waste canvas and my mind has a starting point










I look at the random marks and images appear. As soon as I see what is hiding in the mass of colors and textures I have a place to start and my block is gone.







I picked up the canvas and quickly found what wanted to come out, laid down a light layer of acrylic paint to create her form so she could peak out.



I only used one color, its actually a very light lavender, to block her in all the shadows you see are from the background,




If you look at the waste canvas picture above can you see where I got her shape?




I keep building color \until the features of her face and hair emerge, allowing the original shadows to be seen.










Because the background is so bold and full of color I don't worry about making her so bold, I keep her simple and smooth in contrast.

I add more details to her face and pull in the metallic from the background to her hair and eyes. 

I also use my Faber-Castell Pitt Pens to shade around her face and hair, softening the lines by smudging with with my finger. 

The ink sits on the texture from the background adding more interest to the piece.

I finish her by adding my favorite phrase once again using my Faber-Castell Pens.

This is by far my favorite way to get my creative juices flowing and because the whole process starts with random colors and textures I never known what will want to come out of the canvas!

I hope you enjoyed my little walk through!

big hugs and mushy stuff!!

-Shana