Layering on Canvas: Ideas for Embellishments

Do you enjoy working with watercolor? Do you enjoy working with oils or acrylics? Do you enjoy creating collages?

If you've answered yes to any or all of these questions, why not create a piece that incorporates all of your interests? Here's a simple project to get you started in this direction.

Materials:

9x12 piece of canvas (board or stretched)
acrylic paint
watercolor paints (for this project, tubes work better than cakes)
brushes in assorted sizes
palette
water
handmade or recycled paper
scrapbook embellishments
found objects
ephemera
gel medium
sponge brush

Instructions:

• add your acrylic colors to your palette as you normally would; thinning them a bit with water
• decide on a theme for your work and paint your canvas
• allow paint to dry until "tacky"
• using the recycled (or handmade) papers, paint on them using watercolors (according to the theme of the rest of the painting)
• let papers dry completely
• using gel medium, adhere the papers to appropriate places of the acrylic painting
• using gel medium again, adhere the scrapbook embellishments, found objects and ephemera*

There's a lot of opportunity to explore ideas with layering, textures and using interactive pieces. You could choose to create something completely abstract or you could create a more uniform "scrapbook-like" look. This is completely up to you, the artist, how this piece will turn out. Another option to consider is adding text using rubber stamps, stickers or die-cuts. Adding texts gives the piece further dimension and, in some cases, added interest depending on the theme and purpose of your piece.

*Adding ephemera gives artists another opportunity for painting an element before adhering it to the piece. If you're working with photographs, receipts, book pages and things like that; consider painting them with a Walnut colored paint to give them a vintage, aged look.