"Troisième Presenting" a Canvas Diptych - Peacock & Ballet Inspired

Good morning everyone!  Today I am very excited to show you a painting project.

My daughter is my biggest fan to say the least. She makes me smile, giggle, feel loved and I adore her like any mother would. I have been wanting to do an art piece for quite some time for her room that she could keep forever. We are military so painting her walls is something she can't keep with her.

"Troisième Presenting"

An Acrylic Painting with Pastels on Canvas

Troisième Presenting 2' x 4' (Click on image to see larger)

This painting was inspired by my daughter, her face, her body, her eyes and her passions. She loves to dance and for almost two years now she has loved peacocks and everything that has to do with peacocks. It started with a Peacock Princess Costume for Halloween in 2012. Then her love for the bird and colors moved into making Peacock Ornaments for her little Christmas tree she gets to keep in her room. I started to see a trend in her clothing choices from pink to peacock colors as well. In 2014 her birthday party was an international theme with the focus on India and the colors of a peacock. Now we have moved to a new home, in a new state and one thing we did for the kids was let them redecorate their rooms to help them get excited about our family's transition. Can you guess what she chose? She calls it...

 "Vintage Peacock" 

Troisième Presenting Diptych Piece #1

Troisième Presenting Diptych Piece #2

This painting was created to go in her room, solely inspired by her. It is called "Troisième Presenting" because her arms are in the third position for ballet (bringing in her love for dance) and the representation of a peacock plumage in all it's glory with the hair, peacock feather stencils from The Crafters Workshop, the colors chosen and the peacock feather in her hair.

Close Up of "Troisième Presenting"

My daughter had input through almost every step of the process this piece went though. She even made the suggestion to lightly color in the eyes to match hers, a beautiful light blue.

"Troisième Presenting" close up of half of face

The peacock thing has gotten out of control here, but out of control is how we have fun in our family. I too went as a peacock for Halloween the following year using her tail we extended with longer feathers. I have made a Peacock Tutu Halloween Costume with coordinating hair piece. I have made an adult sized peacock tail for a local art gallery owner. Her peacock costume inspired an entire altered dress, pair of wings and a peacock crown that was created for +Elena Lai Etcheverry at +Charity Wings for the Live Stream from CHAW (The Winter Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show). The Peacock Couture Outfit was again used during the CHA Gift Lounge at the 64th Emmy Awards. It is currently entered into a craft awards called "The Craftys". You can go vote for it there though the 26th of May.

I created this piece while taking two online Bloom Girl classes from Jamie Dougherty. They were her Bloom Girl Workshop 2 class and her Bloom Girl Elements class. I highly recommend +Jamie Dougherty 's classes. She gives thorough instructions and support. She teaches how to use acrylic paints, PanPastels, India Ink and other products properly within her project.

Thank you all for your time. If you desire to learn how to make such a project then please check out these classes. I would love to know your thoughts about this project as well, please be so kind to leave me a comment below and follow me here on my blog or on Facebook on my artist page L. Grace Lauer Artist.

Mixed Media Artist and Paper Crafter
Coordinator for Party Time Tuesdays Challenge Blog

A Penny Saved, is a Penny earned...

Hello Everyone!
A few weeks ago I posted a project where I recovered my extreme coupon binder. Today, I am showing you a project that is an extension of this one.
This is my coupon cabinet. I bought this at a garage sale for $15 can you believe it? I love this small cabinet to contain all my coupon goodies. Inside one of the doors it had a white board that had marker on it that would not come off! So I decided to recover the white board... of course!
I was so excited to use the new Maya Road Cloth Dress Form, and of course I just love the Helmar Crackle over the template, from The Crafter's Workshop, I used to make the center design. Not to mention, I was so excited to create a paper dress after seeing them at the winter CHA. I just wish this one was bigger so I could make it more detailed.

Here is the before of the cabinet...

I took off the stickers with the Helmar Adhesive Remover (test this in a hidden area to make sure it is good for the surface you will be using it on), cleaned it up and spot stained the scratches.
Here is how I recovered this door. First I lightly sanded the white board and cleaned it with water and a towel. Once it was dried I began the adhering process, with Helmar Craft Glue because it works great on metal (that is what a white board is made up of). Be careful, this is a solvent glue and sometimes can damage surfaces like the finished wood! If you are concerned please test it in a small area you don't normally see. Or be very careful with how thick you put it on this project and where you put it.

Putting several strips of Helmar Craft Glue up and down the length of the paper then fallowing it quickly with the next step before the glue dried.

Using a Pampered Chef pan scraper (I have a few of these in my scraproom) I smoothed out the glue under the paper. Then repeated these two steps until the pages were fully adhered to the white board.
After embellishing the background and using stickers for my quote, I created a fun paper dress on the Maya Road Dress Form. I just love how it turned out. I love it so much I will probably make a larger more detailed one. I just fell in love with this idea from CHA! In this photo you can see a bit of the layers of crackle and the puff paint I used to add depth to the center design on the background.

What do you think? I just love making my home more beautiful and Helmar makes it so much easier!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Have a Happy Scrappy Day!