MMM: Vintage Children

"Dance Now"

8 x 10 Canvas Panel 

Well, it's no surprise that I would be excited about this week's Mixed Media Monday challenge: Vintage Children. I find that I use a lot of children's imagery and illustrations in my art; especially those that have to do with fairy tales, children's fables or nursery rhymes.  However this week (because I knew you'd expect it), I steered clear of those altogether and instead, tried to capture the  feeling of Vintage Children (and their surroundings) by creating a bright and whimsical background for the "fairies" in the foreground. 

I have been reading Kelly Rae Roberts' wonderful book, Taking Flight and was eager to try some of the background techniques outlined in chapter 3: specifically, using a brayer to create depth and add color to a collaged surface. I created a subtle wash with blues and greens and to this added another element she suggests, a shampoo lid to create the white acrylic circles. 

In addition to the tips above, I also used magazine cutouts for the first time. The fairy bodies are from a children's catalogue and the ice cream cone was cut from a family magazine. The child's head (that sounds weird) was taken from the cutest vintage Kellogg ad and the house and birds in the background are also vintage. Both were from Art Freebies. Final touches included water-soluble oil pastels (loving these lately; they add such bold, blendable color), white pencil (Sharpie white china marker), glitter, swarovski crystals and snippets of a poem, Spring Child by Caroline S. Kotowicz.  

The text reads, "Sip now from the chalice of laughter / Dance now to the song of the breeze. . ."

Kristin xo