For Christmas in 2014, I decided to do something special for my best friend Heather. She is really into guns and shooting and there was one picture of her aiming that I thought looked really cool. I just had to turn it into art for her.
First, I distressed an 8x10 Canvas to make it look like camo.
Next, I printed the photo on regular printer paper and tore the edges to make it look rugged. This also ensured the green background would be somewhat visible. I glued the photo onto the canvas using Mod Podge. This caused the distress inks on the canvas to smear a bit, which actually made it look more natural and less distracting, in my opinion.
Finally, the tedious and time consuming work began... Painting over every detail of the printed page with paint, pastels, gel pens, paint pens, anything I had handy that could give me the effect I was going for. Plenty of trial and error happened with this project because I'd never done a realistic portrait before. I think I completely covered her face with paint and started with a blank canvas (so to speak) at least 10 times before I was satisfied. After hours upon hours of meticulous work and a lot of hair pulling, the original printed image was no longer visible- just the torn edges of the paper. It was 100% covered in paints and other mediums.
To this day, I consider this one of the coolest pieces I've ever done and I learned so much from it. Heather love love loved it!
