Skullduggery

Hello again!  After my little play with one of Seth Apter's woodchips - generously given to me by Seth himself at the big trade fair, Stitches, the other week (thank you, Seth!), I've got another Stitches-related project for you, this one made with Tando greyboard, and it could scarcely be more different from those Windswept Grasses.

I was so happy to get a last-minute place on one of Andy Skinner's classes at the NEC show (thank you, Andy!), and I thought I'd share what we made with you.

As usual, I went slightly off the track we were supposed to be beating, but Andy's used to that with me by now, as you'll see.

The substrates are greyboard by Tando - and we got some bits to take home and play with in addition to what we were working with in the class.











I delayed putting mine all together so that I could add some of the takeaway pieces into the design when I got home.  In fact, all these photos are from my playtime at home - I didn't take any while at the NEC.

We used DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics and Antiquing Creams to create the background, and it was lovely to play with some of Andy's new stamp releases.









This animal skull is not really my usual fare, but I do covet it... very cool, and so detailed.  I may have to indulge at some point..

 It works really well for a naturalist/collector/apothecary vibe, and that does crop up in my work every so often.













And the Specimen stamp is a must, I think (soon, soon).














I love these numerals too, but I do have some fairly similar ones (they've just been out to play in my Windswept Grasses, as it happens) so I really will try to exercise some willpower, at least temporarily.

The usual suspects - Transparent Yellow Oxide and Quinacridone Gold - give you the fabulous rusted look around the edges.












At home, I added some additional white to the image of the skull to make it stand out from the background.  Now you get a nice deep shadow in between his jaws!

Since the stamp set is called Skulldoggery, I'm guessing it's a dog's skull...









Andy was coming round showing people how to use Quinacridone Magenta to add colour to the white background.  I asked if that colour was compulsory and he said that he'd already been looking for some Prussian Blue for me to use instead... how well he knows me!

Since the Prussian Blue Hue seemed to have gone missing, I mixed some of the paints we had in front of us - Paynes Grey with some Cobalt Teal or Cobalt Turquoise (can't remember which of the two it was now) - to add the colour wash to my tag.








The small tag followed a similar process, but on both tags I went freelance again, adding fine vertical lines to give an impression of woodgrain somewhere underneath the paint layers.

We were given some rusty wire to attach the two tags but, as I say, I wasn't done yet, so I popped it all into my bag to carry on at home.












Once home, I used a wash of white to draw attention to the apothecary's skull.













And I also took one of the cogs from the takeaway bits and bobs and gave it the rusting treatment with some DecoArt Misters and some more Quinacridone Gold and dirty washes involving Payne's Grey and Raw Umber.

Then I cut the cog in half and used it to raise the smaller tag up nice and high to give me plenty of dimension.

I preferred the whole piece offset from centre, which meant the main tag hole got covered up.  Rather than try to thread anything through the smaller tag, I decided to "attach it" with one of the nail heads also included on our takeaway panel.











I thought the whole apothecary/specimen theme needed a little extra something, so I crackled up a brown glass jar and added it to the bottom of the tag.














There's another rusty bolt and screw for good measure.  See if you can spot the bonus skull, just slightly highlighted in white.













And of course there's plenty of white spatter to finish the whole thing off.

Huge thanks to Andy for another fabulous bit of inspiration and teaching, and my apologies for never sticking to the script!

Thanks to all of you for dropping in, and I hope you're all enjoying lovely weekends.

It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.
From The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle





At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge they'd like us to Make Your Own Background
And at Emerald Creek Dares, the March dare is to Splatter Some Fun