Wednesday, March 24, 2010

"Upcycled" Portrait Work in Progress

You may call it "Upcycle", or "Recycle" or just makin' fun stuff out of old junk... but regardless of what you call it, for the frugal crafter/artist it's the way to go! Not to mention saving trees and keeping waste out of the landfills =).

Lately I have really been thinking about ways to make my art a little bit more "green". Finding ways to use something that may otherwise have been tossed away. Hubby and I are in the process right now of cleaning out our storage unit, and I am finding loads of treasures! Old baby books that were damaged... or chewed on. The board books will be especially fun. Books of poetry and classic stories that had been water damaged. An old dilapidated bookshelf that I have already had hubby cut into perfect canvas sizes and layered with gesso. The possibilities are endless!!

Right now I am working on a beautiful portrait.... but if you saw the "canvas" beforehand you would have thought I was crazy!

Upon going through the boy's old baby toys I came across several board puzzles with missing pieces. I was able to pry the top cutout layer off of one of them, leaving a lovely piece of sturdy thin particle board. (i'm pretty sure hubby thought I was crazy) The only problem..... it was covered with animals =).
After a layer of Gesso, this is what I had.


You can still kinda see the animals peeking out. I'v been working hard on her all day, and am really loving how she is coming out. She isn't finished yet.... but this is what I have so far. The background looks black... but it's really Burnt Umber.


I will post more photos when she is finished.
Thanks for looking!

3 comments:

Diane said...

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL--I love what you've done!!

swanriverstone said...

wow she is beautiful! great work-looking forward to seeing more

Dena E's Blog said...

Your painting is beautiful Sweetie, just popped over to say HEY and thanks for adding on to my blog!!! Do come by and leave a note when you can every now and then..Love your talent, God is surely blessing you!!!
Hugs from Iowa~~~Dena