Sunday, April 21, 2019

A Beautiful Sun mandala - Video Tutorial

Hello, Its Bela here today!



I am super excited about today's DT post as the subject is very close to my heart. if you know me then you also know that off late I have been very high on Mandalas. Mandala is a form of doodle or zentangle. I have tried a very different mandala this time.

Importance of Mandala
The word Mandala basically means circle and it represents a wholeness in a cosmic diagram that can remind individuals of their direct relation to infinity. A mandala can also symbolize the idea of life energy. The circular design in Mandalas can represent the life force as a whole and how it retains a never ending energy. it can be a tool for spirituality and also used for meditation.
Since I was getting loads and loads of questions about ...how I start, how I finish, what products I use to create them I thought of giving a detailed tutorial as my DT post.

So without further ado lets start the process. For the base I have used a beautiful Little Birdie watercolor panel. These panels available at the store are completely handmade with 100% cold pressed paper. I have used 8x8 ... however, there are various sizes available at Itsy Bitsy.

First I drew a circle in the center with a pencil and made quite a few equal partition just eyeballing it.... you can also draw one straight and vertical line running through the center and then bisect the angle and get equal parts. These lines are my guide to make symmetrical shapes and perfect size.
I have always been asked if I use stencils or trace my shapes.... so the answer to this is 'No'.... I use guidelines and then whatever I draw is freehand.  I  then water colored it in the shades of the sun. Once I was happy with that, I started building the mandala with an uni ball 0.8mm black pen. I drew  around it by making circles bigger than the previous one. I have kept the design very simple yet intricate (to the eye) as I wanted the focus on the water colored sun. I didn't do bold lines on purpose. There, my mandala is done!



Once I finished the creating mandala around the sun and reached the edge I thought of adding the black watercolor on the empty areas on the edges. This was a very impromptu decision as I had never done this before and it could backfire. However, I always believe in going with my creative flow otherwise that idea bothers me till I don't give it a try. I was blown away with that decision. My sun and the mandala both started looking vibrant and it gave an amazing pop to the whole art work.
I am sure you all with agree with me!

Few More Pics:








Love & Hugs
Bela

Video link























Thursday, April 4, 2019

Altered Rings in Watercolors - Home Decor



Hello!

How are you all? Bela here! Today I have an amazing altered decor project made with rings and watercolors.  We usually use mixed media or decoupage to alter an object... but this time its totally different! I was amazed at the results when I used watercolors and the beautiful embellishments to alter the rings... You can use embroidery hoops too.

So lets get started....


I took three wooden rings of different sizes to start my project. Primed all the rings with white gesso to prep them up.  Also added a watercolor paper in the same size at the back to work on.





Then, I selected my embellishments and started painting them with watercolors.
I have taken individual pictures to show the detailing of the shading on the embellishments. Have a look...







Once the painting was done and I was happy with the way they looked I painted the watercolor papers which I placed inside the rings.

On the first ring, I painted sky, tree, bushes, and some foliage to make a background to compliment my embellishments.




On the second ring, I placed the window embellishment in the center and drew wall and shrubs with tiny flowers around it. I also painted the inside of the window to give it natural look.



Lastly I painted the smallest ring in evening tones and kept it simple because this ring was the smallest.

Once this step was done I just placed the embellishments on the ring appropriately and Bingo! My beautiful and cute project was done.
Sharing some more pictures with different backgrounds.







Thank you so much for stopping by. Hope this post creatively inspires you.

Love & Hugs

Bela








Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Spooky Altered Mask - Mixed media - Video tutorial






Hello All,
This is Bela and today on itsybitsy blog I have  an altered mask for you... Yes its spooky !!! totally out of my comfort zone as I am a person who never watches horror  movies... let alone movies I cant even watch a trailer...

I had bought this mask from a fair long time ago and it was lying somewhere in my stash and i took it out few days ago so that i can work on it... and one day when I got up in middle of the night for a drink of water i saw it and for a moment I got scared... ha ha ha... then I told myself... come on Bela its just a mask which you bought ... That's when the thought came that i can make it more spooky than it already is n here I go... I have also made a video tutorial for the same. Hope you enjoy the process.

Here's the step by step Instructions...

I gave the texture to the whole mask with tissue paper. I used deco magic glue to adhere the tissue in such a way that it had wrinkles so give the added texture to my mask.
Primed the whole thing with black Gesso and dried completely. Embellished the sides of the mask with some steampunk, wooden and metal embellishments..... left side i kept it more heavy then the right.....

Also added die cuts on forehead and left side of face near eyes n right side of face near the chin . Once was happy with the compilation i covered everything in black gesso again.
Now it was time for the coloring part... I chose metallic . I started dry brushing in various tones of green, blue and purple n pink also added touch of gold and bronze to it.....

There my mask was ready..... I was somehow wanting to convert it into a decorative wall piece for home decor... only mask would do that work but that to add a panel behind it and also a beautiful fan for the added decorative value.... for that i took 3 layers of 8 mm mdf ring with width of 1.5 inch... stuck it on a 2 mm mdf 12 inch board. i needed the depth where my mask will fit. I primed the rings base n masks with Gesso .







Kept the ring plain black so my mask n fan become focal point... After priming the fan with black gesso i just colored the folding strips with all the colors I have used for this project. I have also added a bulb by making a small hole in the back of the panel base... so at night can serve as night lamp which is gonna scare the hell out of you.  wink wink.... not you all but i m sure me...
I hope you like the project which is very different than my normal style....

Few Pictures:-











With Light Inside it






Video Tutorial Link :- 




Thank You  for stopping by 

Love & Hugs Bela

















The Positive Vibes Hop - BLESSED - An Altered Telephone in Mixed Media Pictorial

Hello !!! I am Bela shah. Welcome to The Positive vibes hop. The purpose of our blog hop is to start the new year on a colorful & ...