Assimilated - an SASPC Project for our June Challenge

"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile!"

Welcome and thanks for stopping by to take a closer look at today's project I have made for our June challenge over at SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges!


Oh, my! I loved watching the Borg and Captain Jean Luc Piccard and his crew from "Startrek - The Next Generation". You too?

So when I saw the cool "eyepiece" chipboard kit from boozybear it made me feel quite nostalgic and I immediately had to think of a Borg themed project for the June challenge over at our Steampunk challenge blog.

Doing a background that is one completely crackled surface was inspired by the awesome "Crackle Masterclass" over at the MixedUp Creative Academy.

I used DecoArt media white Crackle Paste on a thick wooden panel that had some chalk letter quote on it (from the sales section of a home decoration store) . I always browse the sales sections of these stores for cheap alterables. ;)

I spread the crackle paste with a palette knife and made sure I didn't cover the panel too evenly. This produced a beautiful mix of differently crackled areas.

I stamped an eye onto a paper tissue in black archival stamping ink to use the top layer of the stamped tissue and decoupage it on top of the crackle surface.

But first I had to draw the missing parts of the face. The eye surrounded by the "eyepiece" was put in place first as this was my focal element. The nose and mouth were added with a permanent black ink PITT marker (I used the medium sized tip marker and the brush tip marker).

Time to glue the stamped eye in place. I used DecoArt Paper Decou-Page this time as it is more liquid than the matte Decou-Page and therefore does not tear the tissue when you glue it in place with a soft brush.

Then I misted the dry panel with DecoArt media Misters and also some dark brown Distress Stain spray. I added, dabbed off, sprayed some water on top to dilute the added paint sprays, dabbed off again, added more....until I was content with the look. Heat drying was no problem at all as the crackle had been done a day earlier and obviously was completely dry. Also none of the crackle came off during this heavy treatment with loads of paint and water. Really cool!

To make the face more prominent I painted in the highlights with a soft brush and DecoArt Americana Snow White acrylic paint.

Then I went in with a wash of DecoArt media Quinacridone Gold fluid acrylic paint to paint the shades.

The irises were painted in DecoArt media Cobalt Teal Hue fluid acrylic paint.

The finished face so far. 

To paint the eyepiece I used DecoArt matte Metallic paints Pewter and Aged Bronze.

On top of some of the parts I added a wash of Carbon Black DecoArt media fluid acrylic paint.

While the eyepiece was set aside to dry I die cut the letters for my Steampunk word (using the cool "Wonderland" font die from Tim Holtz) from thin greyboard. The letters were painted using DecoArt media fluid acrylic Transparent Red Iron Oxide.

Then I drew the shades with the black permanent PITT marker before I stamped some faux rust texture on top using black archival stamping ink and an Andy Skinner stamp.

I found the eyepiece needed another metal tone, so I painted some parts with Silver DecoArt media fluid acrylic Metallic. I diluted the left overs on my palette and loaded a brush with these to sprinkle them on the dry eyepiece.

I lightly smudged the edges of the two smaller pieces from the eyepiece chipboard kit with DecoArt Silver Sparkle Metallic Lustre. A very thin wash of media fluid acrylic Quinacridone Gold was added on top of all the pieces.

Some washers and screw heads from my beloved Calico Craft Parts MDF Mini "Hardware" sheet
rounded up the design just beautifully. I painted these in Silver and Quinacridone Gold.

I used DecoArt matte Decou-Page and Tacky Glue to glue the eyepiece, screw heads and letters in place.

Some detail shots:

Over at the challenge blog you will find more inspiration made by our amazing design team! I hope you like my Borg inspired project and I also hope to see you play along with us this month. Two prizes are waiting to be given away to two randomly drawn winners among all proper entries...and of course our players' entries are worth taking a closer look at too ;)

I just love how our players and the design team always share so many amazing steampunk designs and ideas over at our challenge blog! Together we are all making SanDee&amelie's Steampunk Challenges such a special mixed media steampunk and industrial style place to meet at. And this makes me very happy and the proudest challenge blog owner ever! Mwah! XXX

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx

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