Skull and Roses

For the Dare to Create challenge by Andy Skinner and Tracy Weinzapfel I made a spread in my Dylusions Art journal.

Deco Art Products used : Americana Acrylics in Lamp Black, Titanium White and True Red. Deco Art Media Gesso and Ultra Matte Varnish. Americana stencils: Pixelated and Short Circuit.

 First I Gessoed the page and let it dry.  Add a thick layer of white paint and before that has fully dried start adding black,  wipe over the paints using a baby wipe creating a stripey grey/white/ background.

Next you should start stenceling but I forgot that part because I could not wait to paint my skull (yah impatient I know).

 So I painted my skull and realize I forgot the stencils , it can be done after painting the skull you just have to mask the skull a bit :-)

I did the black paint and the pixelated stencil first and next the white paint with the short circuit stencil.

I never expected the skull painting to work ( I am pretty new at painting) so I was afraid to ruin it when painting the rest. I fixed that by adding a  few layers of ultra matte varnish, this protects the background and makes it possible to wipe away paint when making mistakes without getting the paint in the backgroud off the page.

Then the Roses had to be done, I used black paint to outline them ( no I did not sketch them first using pencils I went strait to the paint), the barbed wire I did in white.

Next is painting the roses red (Queen's orders, roses have to be red, so you better paint them if you want to keep your head), add some shadow using a bit black and make the leaves grey.

paint the barbed wire using black and add highlights to the roses and white to the leaves

Add the details and shadow to the leaves and around the roses.


Stamp the quote and paint over the stamped letters using black paint. Protect the finished page with utra matte varnish

I like how the skull turned out the roses needs more practise but for a first timer I am pretty happy with the result :-)