Pretty/Tough Mask by Linda Edkins Wyatt

Hi! Linda Edkins Wyatt here, with my interpretation of StencilGirl's mask theme. I thought long and hard about what kind of mask to make: a Halloween or Mardi Gras festive mask, a Tragedy & Comedy mask, or maybe a medical mask, since I spent the last 10 months wearing a medical mask daily for my job in a New York City public hospital.

 

But, as I was paying the cashier at my local drugstore, I saw a poster of an eye makeup ad that was really bold and unconventional. It got me thinking about how we use makeup, hairdos, tattoos, clothing, and jewelry as part of the mask, we put on daily to present ourselves to the world. Some people go with a natural look, using makeup to enhance their good features and minimize the imperfections. Others take things a few steps further, with extreme eye makeup, striking tattoos, and elaborate hairstyles.

 

An an oil self-portrait from around 2005 was the basis for the mask

I thought back to an oil self-portrait that I had painted years ago, around 2005, when I was having some serious health issues. I looked sullen and unhappy and painted myself exactly the way I felt. I had been taking a medication that had the side-effect of being unable to sleep without a sleep-inducing medications. I was frustrated and bone-weary. It was a vicious cycle of exhaustion and anxiety. Fortunately, I had photographed the painting, so for this project, I printed two copies of the painting from my inkjet printer, using one for the canvas and saving one for the mask.

A printout of the 2005 portrait was trimmed and glued to an unfinished 12" x 12" canvas

I took an unfinished 12"x12" canvas that hadn't turned out the way I envisioned, and glued one portrait on top using matte medium. I added recycled, empty teabags to join the printout to the canvas, then stenciled until it merged  and I could no longer tell where the printout ended and the canvas began.

Recycled, empty teabags were glued to the canvas, uniting the background and the printout

The printout on the canvas with all teabags added

My Spiral from the Lemurian Garden collection was added with Speckled Egg ink to soften the darkness of the teabags

To further lighten the teabags and unite the elements,
the Tapestry stencil was added using Spun Sugar ink

Once the background was complete, I cut out the face from the second printout

My idea was to create a removable mask for the portrait: a tough but pretty mask. So, with the second self-portrait printout, I again used matte medium, but this time adhered it to a piece of rusted fabric. I used flesh-toned paint the way you would use a makeup base, and pinks (the way you would use blush and lipstick). The eye makeup was inspired by one of the makeup ads I saw in the drugstore.

Rusted cotton was the background for the removable mask.

The eyes were enhanced using Posca Pens

Paint and Posca Pens simulated foundation, blush, lipstick, and eye makeup

A comparison of the finished background with the unfinished mask

I gessoed over the glasses perched atop my head in the original painting,
then added wild blue hair. After trying several stencils for a neck tattoo,
I settled on part of a Sacred Heart by Laurie Milka

 Once I had the face and hair painted, I used a plate to draw a circular shape and added extensions at the side to attach the mask to the canvas.

I pinned the painted rusty fabric, along with some felt padding and a purple batik backing, and cut the circle, leaving strips at the sides to attach the mask to the canvas.

Here you can see the "quilt sandwich" layers in the mask

I lightly quilted the mask and stitched the edges closed, adding pink chalk lines and pink stitching radiating out from the face.

The pink chalk lines were intended to be guidelines for the quilting, but I decided to leave the pink chalk, and also use pink for the thread to contrast with the blue hair.

A few spots of Velcro on the side of the canvas and on the mask tabs made it easy to remove and attach.

Velcro tabs were the perfect solution so that the mask would be easily removable.

It was pretty bizarre to try outlandish makeup, hairdos, jewelry, and tattoos on myself! I tried various crown ideas, a few different stencils to suggest a neck tattoo, and gave my mask-self wild blue hair. You can see in the photo below that the features on the mask and the canvas under-painting match exactly.

On the right, the painted canvas, with an understated version of me. On the left, the mask shows what I might look like if I let loose and embraced bold makeup and hair. You can see that the two versions match perfectly since they were based on the same self-portrait painting.

 The final touches were adding a crown, made from Gwen Lafluer's Art Deco Borders stencil done with embossing powder on rusted fabric, fake blue and green gems around the edges of the mask circle, earrings of Turkmen Jewelry Parts from Gwen Lafluer's website, a few strips of turquoise washi tape, and a cross atop the crown, formed from a section of Laurie Milka's Pilgrimage to the Renaissance.

Here's a video (with music) on the whole process, start to finish. Enjoy!

Stencils used:

Linda Edkins Wyatt, Lemurian Spiral

Kristie Taylor, Tapestry

Gwen Lafluer, Art Deco Borders

Laurie Milka, Four Sacred Hearts

Laurie Milka, Pilgrimage to the Renaissance

Additional resource:
For the jewelry, I incorporated bits of Turkmen Jewelry Parts from Gwen Lafluer's website
Inks, paints and Posca Pens from The Ink Pad NYC

 

New Stencils from Nathalie Based on Signals, Cities, and Art Eras!

Oh, the backgrounds you'll create when it's time to paint in your art journal! 

(Of course, you can use Nathalie Kalbach's 8 new 9" x 12" large stencil designs 

beyond backgrounds and beyond your art journal.)

 

Space Age Modern

The snappy Mid Century pattern of Nathalie's Space Age Modern Stencil is based on vintage roller stamps. It's a little bit funky, a little bit abstract, and just the right touch of old fashioned modern to keep your art journal, mixed media pieces, and artwork hip.

Signals

The stencil design of Signals is based on vintage roller stamps that Nathalie found in an antique shop in Germany. Its subtle pattern of delicate and irregular marks calls to mind the blips and beeps of a telegram, radar sweep, or the music for a player piano. 

Kyoto

The beautiful, historic city of Kyoto inspired Nathalie to create this stencil. This balanced field of abstract lines and hash marks captures both the traditional pattern motifs and the quiet simplicity of the city. 

Tokyo

Nathalie’s travels in Japan and the complex city of Tokyo inspired this stencil. The lively abstract pattern of lines and marks captures both the frenetic energy of daily life and the love of traditional arts in the city. 

Art Nouveau Wallpaper

The charming bloom design is alternated here with a bold fan shape, perfect for creating fields of pattern with the Art Nouveau Wallpaper Stencil. 

Art Deco Summit

The sunburst design with bold solid fan shapes of the Art Deco Summit Stencil was inspired by the art deco and architecture of Nathalie's neighborhood.

Art Deco Empire

The uplifting sunburst within a scalloped fan shape in the Art Deco Empire Stencil is perfect for creating fields of pattern, continuous backgrounds, and luscious layers in your art journal, mixed media pieces, and artwork.

Art Deco Fairview

The Art Deco Fairview Stencil, full of meandering curves, was inspired by the street names in Nathalie’s neighborhood and the gorgeous architectural and ironwork patterns that adorn many of the buildings in the area. 

You will find all of Nathalie Kalbach's stencil designs here.

Honoring Mother Nature (including video tutorial!) by Cheetarah Cheda

Hi everyone! It's Cheetarah here and I'm so excited to share with you my first post ever for StencilGirl® Talk as part of the creative team! This month we let ourselves be inspired by a theme which is "In honor of" and I have made a watercolor Art Journal page inspired by Mother Nature and honoring her. We as women can have a really strong connection to mother nature, the moon phases and all that comes with it. When we honor our goddess within that connects to it all, we serve mother nature as well. This sentiment has inspired me to make the above art journal page and I have recorded it for your viewing pleasure! 

It's about 20 minutes long and sped up (but you can adjust the speed at the settings) and I'm showing you the process of this page. So get a drink/snack and watch the tutorial at your leisure :)

Most of my art journals are intuitive, so there was no real plan in the beginning. I was mostly experimenting and all I knew was that I wanted to use the gorgeous Celestial Grove Stencil and waterproof inks mixed with watercolor and create some kind of forest setting for my goddess. I have to tell you, and you will see this in the video, I really struggled with the leaves to get them just right! Perhaps it's because I used the gorgeous Art Deco Peacock Feather as a leaf base and I just kept thinking "but this is a feather! not leaf!" LOL! But it was also good to push yourself to use the stencils in other ways than designed for, right? In the end I did get the leaves to look the way I wanted! Though - and oops here-  I forgot to press record when I added finishing touches on the page - but no worries, in the video I explain what I have done to get to the end result. And if you have any questions on the process or materials I used, feel absolutely free to ask, here or on YT  and I'll do my best to answer them.

Here are a couple of process shots for you:

The waterproof ink seeped through my stencil, but that just gives it a lush forest look and the whimsy of nature! The Magical shaker colors are super saturated colors so a little goes a long way to make the colors just pop! 


After I traced the feminine images from the Sacred Feminine stencil with the waterproof ink in my Pilot Parallell pen, I then added a light layer of grey waterproof ink mixed with a bit of water. The sheer effect you get is just awesome!


Added some white highlights/accents with a gel pen. 


In the end I added bolder accents with a semi waterproof black lettering marker (the Saruka pigment marker- semi waterproof because when it's wet you can move it a little bit with water. When dried it's completely waterproof.) and the Jane Davenport white paint over pen. 


Did the same for the lettering in the sentiment and added little highlight dots with the sakura gelly roll white gel pen. 


After trimming the piece I used double sided tape to adhere it in my mixed media letter sized art journal. This picture was made during sunset and somehow the color variation and shimmer at the bottom just popped in that light :) In the video you can see the shimmer and under layers a lot better. 

The StencilGirl® Stencils I used: 

Celestial Grove by Kae Pea


Sacred Feminine by Carol Wiebe


Art Deco Peacock Feather by Gwen LaFleur

Other materials I used: 

The watercolors were decanted in pans, which you will see in the video. The distress ink and blending tool I used to edge the piece after trimming so it blended the stark white edges to a softer grey. Oh, and on top is the Tombow eraser which I erased the pencil sketch lines with. 



Thanks so much for stopping by today! I hope you liked watching the process of this art journal page. Have a wonderful creative day and catch you on the next blog post!