Left of Centre Challenge #138 - Animals

Here we are again - those 2 weeks flew by didn't they? I'm back with my next project for Left of Center Creative Challenges.

This week's challenge requires an animal to feature and our sponsor for this week is Delicious Doodles.

 

  

I chose the blue tit from the lovely digi stamps available. I have a big reason for choosing it. I had a family of blue tits with a huge batch of eggs in a nesting box on my front porch, and someone knocked the box down, destroying half and then came and stole the rest. So- upset and angry about that, I thought that I'd transfer that into my art, and came up with this. It's premise is that nature is never ending and perseveres regardless - whilst humanity is a small blip on the conscious of the world. 

I found the perfect paper for a wonderful 
background at Paper Lozzy on the gorgeous paper pack Mixed Media, it had the right colours that would coordinate with the coloured image.
I used Promarkers to colour the bird and branch, layering up colours from pale to bright yellow, cool grey, and three shades of blue plus black. The branch is a mix of cool grey and two different browns.

The MDF pieces for the nest and the skull with roses are from a wonderful lady called Jac and her company is called Things to Alter. I left the nest as it came, such wonderful detail. With the skull, covered it with Liquitex Heavy White Gesso and used my finger to rub it over the area, then a baby wipe to take off some of the thickness so the details still show. I added a bit more gesso on a baby wipe after it dried to whiten it up a bit more. Once dried, I used Promarkers to colour the skull, teeth, and the roses. I used my finger to blend the colours together on the roses, and added deeper colour to the cracks and crevices in the skull.

I ripped the A4 printed background around the edges to give it an aged look, and used a deep pink ink around the edge to take away any white. Once stuck down, I added some Liquitex Heavy White Gesso in places with an old credit card. Once dry, I used a brown Promarker to add a trunk along the left hand side of the page. I added the nest so it would be in the background for perspective and placed the coloured and fussy cut bird slightly staggered and down from it. To fill in the area between the trunk,  bird and nest I used Petaloo Botanical Mini flowers in Pink. The skull was placed at the bottom and a shadow added with brown Promarker.

The two layered die cut pieces of card in deep orange canvas effect and plain white are from my stash, as is the stamp I used for the quote.

I hope you like my latest project. Don't forget to pop along from 8pm Saturday 9th July for challenge #138 - Animals. I look forward to seeing your makes.

I will also be submitting this project into the following challenges:

A Bit More Time to Craft - #23 - Anything Goes
Dream In Darkness -a July - Anything Goes
 Art Journal Journey - In My Garden
Altered Eclectics - July Anything Goes 
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge - #285 Anything Goes
SLS Lines Digital Stamps Challenge - Anything But A Card 
Paperbabes Stamps- #37 Anything Goes

Thanks for coming by.

Michelle xxxx