MODERN ART PAINTINGS : A Family Portrait Using A Wood Burner
Family Portrait With A Modern Twist
My nephew, Jesse, and his new wife, Megan, got married several months ago and have been living in Costa Rica. I wanted to make them an art piece for their home but wasn't sure about what it would cost to get large canvas art painting to Costa Rica!
Well, they are "home" for a visit and I decided last week that I would do them a smaller portrait--one they could fit into their luggage on their way back to Costa. In my supplies, I found a wooden plaque and came up with the idea of using my wood burner to burn their portrait into the plaque, something I had never attempted before.
I found that using a wood burner was a lot more difficult than a pencil or paint brush to get the portrait to look like the people! Overall, I'm pleased even though it doesn't look as much like them as my other portraits.
When I gave the art to Megan and Jesse last night at a family get-together, they seemed really happy and very surprised which put a big smile on my face and satisfaction in my heart.
As with most art projects, once I begin, the project starts taking on a life of its own and winds up different from the picture I initially imagine. The piece of wood I used had a couple of interesting knots that I wanted to show. So, after I burned in the image, I decided to mix red acrylic paint with a medium that looks like a wood stain. (It's called "DecoArt Staining Antiquing Medium" and I bought it at Hobby Lobby.)
Once I applied all the mixture, I took a cloth and wiped the excess. I'm not sure what happened...maybe I did it incorrectly...regardless, the wood wound up looking like a rustic, unkept, sun-bleached deck on someone's trailer--very washed out! I wasn't happy with it at all. So, it was time to regroup and do something else!
I wound up mixing more red acrylic paint with "Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel" Medium (for added texture) and applied that to the un-burned surfaces of my portrait. And with that I was happy. I added black acrylic paint to the edges and back. Then sprayed the whole piece with a clear acrylic high-gloss sealer. With that, my work was completed.
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