Stenciled Self Portrait

 

For the latest project organized by artist Tina Walker, the StencilGirl® Self Portrait Collaboration, I couldn't wait to get started. I love portraits and self portraits and Tina's ideas always inspire me to create wonderful work.

My original idea was to build the painting around a gelliprinted photo of myself.This summer my cousin had snapped a candid photo of me on a visit to upstate New York. Using Photoshop, I applied a filter that gave it a graphic look in sharp black and whites. After printing a few copies from my laser printer, I got out my paints and made some gelliprints on deli paper. I chose the best one and glued it to my 12" x 12" canvas. Off to a good start, I thought.

A candid photo was changed to a black and white graphic image, printed, and used to create the purple gelli print on deli paper.

I have been doing a lot of collage using vintage images and flowers, so I thought that would go nicely with a self portrait.

The purple gelli print was added to the canvas, along with more collage elements. Once skin tones were added, the effect was lackluster.

The results were underwhelming to say the least. The purple face didn't mix in well with the collage elements. I decided to paint my face and see if that would help. It didn't. It was pretty hideous. So, I decided to paste some paper scraps over the face and rethink the portrait. (bottom right photo above)

An art foamie face stamp caught my eye at my favorite shop, The Ink Pad NYC. I tested it out in my art journal and really like the look, so I decided to use the idea on the collage background.

A quick journal page using an ArtFoamie stamp inspired me to continue working on the canvas.

The problem was that the stamp was way too small. So, I stamped a crisp black and white image, scanned it, sized it bigger, printed it, and tested it out on my collaged canvas.

A print of the ArtFoamie face was enlarged, trimmed, and used as the basis for a new self-portrait.

Once I had the size I wanted, I trimmed it, then glued it to the canvas.

It was time to add stencils, and what better way to express myself than by using my own StencilGirl® designs? I started by using the Lemurian Spiral from my Wyatt ATC MixUp to create the idea of a blouse, as I had done in the journal page a few nights before. I also added my 6" x 6" Lemurian Leaf as wings. I used a white embossing powder, thinking that if I added more paint the hardened embossing powder would act as a resist but still be visible.

I didn't love the white wings, nor the hard black spirals on the shoulder. So, I softened the spirals with paint to give them a muted look. I also started working on the face, hair, and eyes, adding flesh-toned paint, yellow for my hair, and yellow to one of the glasses lenses just for fun.

Softening the hard edges of the black spiral helped unite the stencils with the background.

 

For the wings, I decided they needed more punch. I stenciled the Lemurian Leaf on black paper using a VersaMark clear ink and gold embossing powder. Then I cut it out and glued the wing to the right shoulder.

I didn't want to have exactly the same thing on the left, so I placed the stencil back on and used the center section of the stencil with black embossing powder. I experimented with adding elements like bingo numbers, words, and a crown as well as adding an eye to the yellow lens. I decided against the words, crown, and numbers and instead added leaves. I used olive-green acrylic paint on a vintage German-language book page with my Lemurian Leaves, and fussy cut the leaves. 

Leaves have showed up in my artwork and doodles for years and years, so they felt important. I had worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and layout designer for many years, so having text added another layer of "me-ness" to the portrait.

After much puttering with the leaves, I finally decided to put a few in my hair, a few around my neck to suggest a collar, a few floating in the background, and one on the right ear to suggest an earring.

I WAS concerned about finding the right balance on the face: somewhere between young, unlined, and beautiful versus old and haggard. I didn't want to look 20 (well, that would be great but unrealistic!) and I didn't want to look ancient like a dried apple doll. I knew I needed lines and some wrinkles and a few gray or silver hairs in the blonde. I didn't want to look too young, or heaven forbid, too old! 

Here's a few detail shots of the final version. While my self-portrait is not an exact likeness of me, it does capture my dreaminess, my love of nature, and my creative spirit.