Getting Started

I bought Altered Surfaces (below). I took it back. It's very colorful, lots of interesting ideas... and very superficial. I have been looking at The New Acrylics: Complete Guide to the New Generation of Acrylic Paints instead, and will probably pick that up with a 50% off coupon. Seems to me that AS is intended for crafters, and TNA is aimed at artists. I fall somewhere in between, but AS is $17 with 51 pages; TNA is $25 with 160 pages, and it has far more in-depth information about what you can do with acrylic paints, not so much project ideas.

SO! After talking to my mom, who used to paint, and picking her artist's brain, we agreed that the best way to approach my brain-on-fire for this idea of mixed media on canvas was to do it. I saw this great dragonfly pendant at Michael's and decided to use that as my jumping-off point.

I am working on an 8x10" canvas board, and I have my first paint colors on the board, along with a crackle finish coat. Once that's dry, I'll paint on my second pair of colors and wait for that to dry and crackle. The dragonfly is pewter in color and has some Deco styling. I used turquoise glass teardrops and hung them from the holes in the wings, and broke off the loops that were intended to suspend the pendant. I bought some dried reeds I may or may not use, and some mirror tiles. I thought about using vitreous mosaic tiles, but decided against it, because I want to use extra-heavy gel medium to create texture in what will be air and water, and didn't want to take away from the space I want to create movement. Mulberry paper may also appear in there somewhere, but I haven't decided. 

I'll post pix when I have something to show for all this mania.