This piece began as such an ugly painting, but it reminded me that no matter how much you want to give up on a piece, DON’T. It can always turn around and be salvaged. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of the entire first layer of this piece but here is a close up of the crow and the surrounding area. It looks like rough to put it nicely. The crow began as an image transfer and I decided it looked a little too cartoon-like.
This phase was about trying to tone down all the ugliness and craziness that was happening in the piece. It is still very rough looking at this point, the only part that is working is the top 1/3 of the piece.
This mixed media piece has a ton of layers on it that I lost count of how many. I just remember it changed a lot, and many times before I was even starting to like it. The photo above was the turning point. There are book pages collaged in, masking tape, and scrapbook paper. It’s mostly acrylic paint, with a little oil pastel. I also ended up painting on top of the crow to make it look a bit more realisitic.
The trick to this piece was toning down all the craziness that was in its original layers; finding the right balance between soft or quiet areas and the loud attention getting areas. As you can see a lot of stuff from the original photo has been covered, hence me saying there are a ton of layers.
This piece ended up getting purchased.
Here it is hanging in it’s new home!