Getting Ready for Halloween-A Sneak Peak

Been working on some Halloween canvases- making a series of 3. None of them are finished yet. The glare in the photo is actually part of the background that didn't photograph well at all...I put down some matte medium and then rubbed silver glitter over it. The artificial light  I used for the camera created the glare. 

Its interesting to work on a black background and still try to keep the feel of the piece dark. Since it is a Halloween themed piece-spooky, scary, and maybe even a little creepy can't be bright joyous colors. While working, I  also need to keep in mind that when I put the pieces on my living room fireplace mantel, where I plan on "hanging" them, I don't want them to  look like plain black panels. You have to be able to see  images on the canvases. 

That's why I decided to use some silver glitter; it brightens up parts of the background but still looks appropriate for the subject.

The skulls in the background were made by stenciling some clear soft gel paste, letting that dry and then stenciling the eyes and teeth in yellow heavy body acrylic paint. I die cut the spider webs in the top left and bottom right corners- to give the piece a little texture.  That's the same reason I used  the die cut tree on the bottom left. The tombstones are from my stash. I had a bunch of these silly wooden painted tombstones which worked  once I painted them over with black paint. Then I scribbled with black paint over them using a fine line applicator.

I think I might need to brighten them up a bit, once I figure out a way to do that without them being too bright. Maybe some grey shading?

I learned about these applicators in the Dina Wakely class I took a couple of weeks ago. Since the store where I took the class was out of them, I ordered a pair off of eBay. They work great for fine detail painting. I can make little paint dots or scribble some writing in paint. I just put  paint and water in them, shake them up, and that's all there is to it! I have one  black and one  white (you buy them in packs of 2) because those colors are pretty useful for most every project.  I want to get a few more and try some orange paint for Halloween and red/green for Christmas projects.

I'll post the other 2 canvases in this series another time, and even show you this one once its finished.

And I promise I'll try to get a better photograph too-I think working in indirect natural light with the glitter is the way to go.

Thanks for visiting today.