Always Believe by Gill Humphrey

This week I have a 12" canvas to share with you. I know its large size can be off putting for some but the size of the door in the door and elements mould from Magic Forest really does allow you to create a large piece relatively easily. 

I tend to break my makes down into easy steps - firstly I chose my focal images and position them on the canvas so I can see how they look and then I take them all off to and create the background. On this occasion I have concentrated on using mixed media techniques to create the background rather than using paper/rice papers. To do this I added some Modeling Paste through a Bricks stencil. This stencil has two different brick formats allowing me to add the small ones in random areas to the top 2/3rd of the canvas as a faux wall and the larger ones to the bottom 1/3 as a cobble stone effect. At the bottom I also added some texture by tapping a palette knife into the paste so it lifts up.

Next and only once the modeling paste was completely dry I added the coloums and bricks from the Columns rub on set before using Rust Vintage Patina to colour my "wall" and the Grey to cover the ground area.

The frame around the door was painted with Allegro White and the door itself with Mahogany acrylic paints and then once these had dried the Grey Vintage Patina was applied over the whole piece and wiped back before it had dried. I added dry brushing to the frame and some gold metallic wax to highlight the details on the wood door. 

The gargoyles were painted with white and distressed with the Grey Vintage Patina. For the leaves I used Garden Green distressed with the Grey Vintage Patina and the key was painted with Mahogany distressed with the Grey Vintage Patina before gold wax was added to highlight the details.

The completed pieces were then layered onto two Coffee inked strips of paper layering with assorted imagery from the ephemera set. I also chose two of the sentiments from the diecut assortment pack. To ground the piece I then scattered assorted sizes of 3d Balls along the base of the door and imagery.

I still felt my wall looked empty and used coffee ink with the Bricks from the stamp set with the same name - choosing to not place the stamp on a block so that I could free hand partially stamp it in the areas I wanted. Finally I added splatters with watered down white and black acrylic paints.