Ripper Street at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges

Servus, hi and welcome back to another project, done for our mid-month reminder over at my SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenge blog!

Our challenge theme is the usual one - "Anything Goes - Steampunk/Industrial"...so loads of ways to approach this challenge and have some messy stamping, painting, doodling, crafting,...fun. ;)

My make is a make-over to be precise. You may already have seen these guys on facebook or over here, when I was sharing the "work in progress" picture...but I decided that they deserved better than just being neatly sketched onto a mixed media board. ;) So here's my finished mixed media portrait! I hope you like it!

I tried to also capture the feel and design of the TV series...and even if the portraits are not to the point (with noses being too big and eyes not in the perfect spots), I am still quite content with the outcome.

I have done some steps images...so if you would like to learn more about how this was done, simply read on. If not, simply click HERE to get to the challenge post with the makes of my wonderful Team B ladies!


I simply started out with glueing torn dictionary pages and other scraps from old magazines to an MDF panel using DecoArt media Matte Medium.

Then I added a layer of diluted white DecoArt Acrylic Gesso to tone it all in.

Once that was dry I went over it with a wash of DecoArt media English Red Oxide and Transparent Yellow Oxide for a vintage look.

I used an image from the internet as my model and roughly sketched the shaded areas using a soft brush and diluted DecoArt media Raw Umber fluid acrylic paint.

Then I added the finer details with Raw Umber using a detail brush.

Highlights were painted using DecoArt media Translucent White.

...and that was also the state I previously shared my painting in on facebook and over here on my blog. I liked it, but I didn't think it was a real stunner or any "special". Just a piece of portrait painting practice...


Sometimes I have to put paintings aside and let them "rest" until I decide whether I want to add something to them or leave them the way they already are. In this case I wanted to add that special vintage and steampunk-ish feel to it that I so love with the TV series.

I started with stippling on gears borders with a bristle brush. I used an Andy Skinner stencil and DecoArt media Quinacridone Gold and Titan Buff.

Then I used a thin acetate sheet as a mask and stippled on more Quinacridone Gold, creating shaded and layered rectangular shapes.

After that was done and had dried, I added a wash of DecoArt media Prussian Blue Hue on top.

I let that dry thoroughly before I went in with a scratching tool and some sanding paper to give my painting a really heavy distress treatment.

As I had sanded off the hats' silhouettes I went back in with more Raw Umber and re-painted the hats.

I also sanded the edges of the MDF panel to create a kind of border. The sanding also highlighted the edges of the layered paper scraps...which added perfectly to the design. Done!

Some close ups to show the cool textures and layers:

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to see play along and share your beautiful steampunk and industrial art with us! Once more the link to our challenge blog.

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx