frog dog studio: The Splendor of the Holidays

Tis the Season to be Merry!!!

Once again Frog Dog Studio has come up with a killer, jam packed kit!!! Enough product to make so many projects. The Fabric from Tim Holtz, the modeling paste, and Silks are divine!!! The other products are perfect for a focal point or accent.

Start out by creating your background. Stamp, paint, Distressed Stains.......

I sketched a tree, cut it out and mounted it to the background. I started to paint the tree, around the tree, and more on the background. Silk paints are sheer and glisten with magic!! You can achieve a little more opaque look by adding a thicker application of color. But it is not totally opaque. I used a combination of Clearsnap Colobox original pigment ink along with the Silks. I like floating the silks on top. The tree I painted with an olive paint but used the Silks to highlight areas and add extra glimmer.

I used an old brush to add the modeling paste as snow to the tree. I didn't want the tree to have too much snow, so the old brush helps me control how much paste I apply. The paste is perfect for stencils, dimension, and painting on top of! I believe the term is Impasto, where Impressionist artists painted on dry plaster. This can be done too, even collaging on dried paste.

The mound of snow is deeper and more concentrated, so I used a palette knife to spread the modeling paste. Sort of like icing, but with areas of extra texture to look like snow.

Here is a close up of the snow. It has some smooth areas, blots of paste for texture. Look and see how the Silks help to shade the snow in some areas.

Here is the whole tree with the snow finished and the shading/highlights. When I first studied art, other than drawing people and cartoons, I loved realistic nature. A tree in winter is so beautiful!