Ooops, Wrong Way!

1. Collage beginning

On the first day of the Tara Grim workshop we started with 3 colors of tissue paper, the first layer was the light blue, the second layer was the yellow connecting the light blue and the third layer was the mid-tone blue.  We were to try to make our torn tissues different sizes and shapes. I found it difficult to tear tissue in different shapes because it wants to tear with the "grain" of the paper into rectangles, cutting was the only option for me in that regard. The papers were attached to our substrates with gloss medium.

 2. Adding stamping

We carved out own stamps from a soft flexible material while the collage dried. Then we mixed up some acrylic paint and stamped over our collage. 

 3. Add contrasting elements

OK, this was the part where things started to go in the wrong direction. We were to add some contrasting elements to our collage. Granted, this was just supposed to be a fun, getting started piece, not something serious but I really didn't like my results. I needed to do something with it, I just couldn't let it sit around. So, the following week...

4. Ooops, Wrong Way!

I covered most of it over with acrylic paint and used cut out stencils to mask out the fish so that the under painting would show. I also used a shaper tool to remove the wet acrylic to make the seaweed. You can still see a lot of texture under the acrylic paint from the tissue and paper collage. I think the fish are varied and interesting from the under painting. One fish is traveling right and all the others left, which is why I named it what I did. Also because the painting took a "wrong" turn at the third step and needed a do-over.