Many of you might be familiar with Oscar Wilde's famous novel the "Picture of Dorian Gray" in which a young, handsome youth is granted the wish of immortality, with one catch of course? that all of his sins, vices and age would be made apparent in his portrait. This class uses that novel as our inspiration. We are going to expand on this theme and create our own portraits that can perpetually transform and reveal secrets, dreams, virtues or sins? the choice is yours.
These personal stories begin with a wood substrate on which we will paint, collage our portraits, add multiple doses of compelling imagery and infuse with sins or virtues. We will be using nooks, hinges, and hiding places to cleverly disguise our subject's secrets, as well as exploring different textural effects that we can add for richness. At the end of our day of Wilde exploration you'll have your own portrait of revelations, with all of the secrets hidden in plain sight.
Supply List:
- Cradled wood panel, my preferred size is 12"x24", however you can choose the size you want to work on (or that will fit in your suitcase), I strongly recommend no smaller than 11"X14". The panels can be purchased at several art stores or online at DickBlick or Wallacks Art Supplies (please note since we are going to be altering these panels quite a bit, I strongly recommend the cradled panel, you will limited in the techniques you can apply to a flat panel)
- Two or three identical copies of the photo that you would like to use for the project - please make sure they are photocopies and try to have them copied onto glossy photo paper if possible. The face should fill the space of an 8 1/2"x11" sheet of paper. (I'll have some extras just in case)
- Paper, ephemera and collage items, think textures and symbols, sins and virtues, also remember that we are working fairly large, so consider enlarging a few of your favourite collage elements
- Paint: Golden Acrylics fluid or heavy body (white, black, any blue, red, and yellow, plus a couple more of your favorites)
- Paint Palette (a paper plate will suffice)
- White Gel pen (I prefer Uniball Signo or Sakura)
- Black sharpie extra fine tip
- Paintbrushes: bring just a few in different sizes
- Water Container
- Foam brush
- Matte medium (liquid not gel)
- exacto knife or scissors
- E6000 Adhesive
- A rubber brayer I?ll have extras so only bring one if you already have it
- Found objects, chains, old jewelry pieces just about anything
- Empty matchboxes and/or small empty tins (like altoid tins or smaller)
Teacher will bring:
- Paper towel
- Nails, Screws, Bolts
- Tools for attaching found objects
- Misc. Collage Items
- Molding Paste
- Portfolio Brand Pastels
- Other mark making tools
A Little About ME
Andrea is a mixed media artist from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her creative career began at the University of Waterloo and led her to the world of graphic design and teaching Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers. Art like life, does not always evolve in a straight line and after disappearing into the world of computer “geekdom”, Andrea has returned to her creative roots and taken up the pencil and paintbrush once again. Captivated by the human face, with all of its phenomenal subtlety and uniqueness, Andrea’s work most often portrays an emotional narrative of the human condition. Much of her current work involves the fusion of digital and traditional mediums to uncover new and engaging methods for expression in illustration and dimensional mixed media collage.
