StencilGirl and Andrea Matus deMeng = A Great Blog Hop

  Hey everyone… I’m back again for another Blog Hop.  This time StencilGirl is introducing Andrea Matus deMeng as a new designer and announce her new stencils. Andrea is a fantastic artist and an amazing teacher. I know this because I’ve taken a class from her before and I will again at Art Is You in Stamford this year. Just amazing. Today, I am using Andrea’s face stencil called “Abigail, A Timeless Woman”.  This is the first face stencil I own and let me tell you, I was excited to say the least.

I had my idea rolling around my mind for a while. Had it all planned out. This will be easy, I told myself.  Can I just tell you….. it was NOT.  Why, you ask? Well, I thought, make a background, which I did.  Stencil the face on the background, which I did. Then make her hair look wild and colorful, which I did.  But it did not go as fast or as smooth as I had planned.  Why am I telling you this?  Well, we can be tough on ourselves as artists and I was on this one, for sure.  I’m being honest and so you know the behind the scenes is not always a breeze.  It’s so true that practice practice practice is very key.  I wanted to take this beautiful face and do it justice.  Did I accomplish that? You tell me. Ok, enough of the whining Judy. Chop chop…let’s get teaching.

I started with large piece of Bristol paper.  Got my paints ready to squirt down and let some magic happen. Spray some water for more movement of the of the paint.  This definitely went through some ugly stages. I said to myself.. “self.. DON’T JUDGE”.  I covered up the purple and pinks; you’d never know they were in there.

Added bubble wrap stamping.  Then I used some air brush paint and sprayed water. Too much water? Paper towel to the rescue. Dripping color from the top of the page.

Ok.. not so bad, but there are a lot of layers to get to a happy point. Over an hour has passed. Tick tock, people.

Now, comes the face stencil. Lay it on the background after it has dried. Use cosmetic sponge with black paint through the stencil. I used a beige/buff paint for the face.  Now mind you, to me, I am not a face artist.  Eyes are probably my best, but when it comes to noses and lips… fuhgeddaboudit.  So, this was also a challenge for the skin tone. You know, I didn’t want to make it a big deal here, but once you start, you want it to look good. Okay, so not so bad, right?

    

Time for some Portfolio Crayons. My favorite. I started to shade some areas. I used acrylic paint for the eyes, however.  Abby is coming alive.

Next up, what I’m going to show you is how I made the “headdress”.  First, Light Molding Paste on plastic wrap on a piece of cardboard.  Next time, I’ll use palette paper. In each plop of molding paste, I added acrylic paints. The yellow is a Folkart paint.  Don’t use that. I could really tell the different. Icky. I took pieces of stencils (also from StencilGirl) to make flowers all over her head. I tried to find stencils that had full flowers, but I only had a couple to choose from (no, I don’t have all of them).  One was from Terri Stegmiller, Garden Swirl and the other was Maria McGuire’s Butterlfy Duo. I used a section of the wing for most of the flowers.  I decided to cut apart the butterfly duo for ease of placement (don’t be mad at me.)

 

So, back and forth with colors of molding paste, making sure they are looking good… not always easy, especially in a crowded area.  I added some of my “bellishments” of polymer clay that I made.  Added rhinestones to the center of the flowers and slap on my clay butterfly and here she is…. Meet Abby.

Well, she is not perfect, but she was sure fun to create.   She sort of looks like if Frida and Carmen Miranda came together.  I kid I kid.  I just crack myself up sometimes.

Thank you, Andrea for creating Abigail. I hope I did her justice for you. I think I need more lessons.

Next, it’s time to HOP… join the rest of the Creative Team and see what they did with Andrea’s new stencils.  But, first the giveaway… and a video to get you excited for THE HOP.

Giveaway = Two winners-one will receive a set of the new 6″x 6″ stencils and one will receive a set of the new 9″ x 12″. All comments on the hop are eligible for the giveaway. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win. Giveaway will close on Sunday, April 6th at 11:59PM Central Time.

StencilGirl Talk

Andrea Matus deMeng

Mary Beth Shaw

Mary C. Nasser

Linda Kittmer

Carolyn Dube

Paula Phillips

Janet Joehlin

Kirsten Reed

Judy Shea

Julie Snidle

Maria McGuire

Again and again, I thank you for stopping by and choosing to subscribe to me.

Happy Spring (if it ever gets here).

Judy ♥ ♥ ♥