Happy Accident - Sunflower Painting

I had an idea to frame a painting inside another frame.  I couldn't find 2 frames that looked good layered so I thought I could make a frame out of IOD Trimmings Mold.  It was Wednesday night and I needed to do my weekly live on Facebook so I decided to just paint a frame and with the help of a mixing bowl I could create the look of a circle frame.  The results were so good.  I'll show you how I created it with some step by step photos.

I used a page from my sketch book but you can use whatever flat surface you have following the same steps.  I painted the surface with DIY Gravel Road and blended in a little Vintage Linen for a light gray background.

After the base color is dry find a large circle and trace it onto the surface.

Using a darker color paint the circle - do not have perfect edges, just use your brush to cover the pencil lines letting the brush run out of paint so the edges are frayed.

Using the IOD Mixing Ink, which is a white permanent ink, and the IOD Ink Pad ink up the Sunflower Stamp.  You can't see it in the photo but I drew a up arrow on the back side of the stamp so I remembered which way the stamp was used.  When we get through a few more steps you'll see why it matters.

Using DIY Paint I filled in the sunflower just like a coloring book but made sure I covered up the white lines.  DIY Cherry Picked was used for the center of the sunflower.  Yellow and Orange were used for the petals with a little white for highlights.

I did not make the petals perfect, there was no plan for what colors went where it's just what looked good to me.  You can add as little or more colors in your painting.  It's you art make it how you want.  This does not look real good at this point but we're getting there.

I watered down some DIY Old 57 onto a Thin Mount.  DIY Paint is highly pigmented that when you water it down you will not lose color.  Old 57 looks great with the yellow and orange sunflower.  Set the bowl into the paint until the entire rim is covered.

Set the bowl on top of the sunflower.  

I did this twice and removed the Old 57 from the petal edges so it looked like the circles were behind the sunflower.  You could do the circles before painting the sunflower also.

In this photo you can see the sunflower petals painted over the circle.  Using IOD Stone Gray Ink we are going to stamp the sunflower again.  Make sure the paint is completely dry at this point.

This is why the arrow on the backside is extremely helpful.  Finding the correct orientation of the sunflower is harder than it looks but the arrow helps.  Line up the stamp as well as you can and lay it down on the painted Sunflower

Using the Old 57 and the bowl's rim make some more circles going over top of the sunflower this time.

Make as many circles as you want making sure you are moving the location.

You can be finished at this point, but during my live this week I wanted to try some alcohol inks I had in my stash for a while.  I had no idea how to use them so I just went with it hoping it would be a happy accident.

I misted the entire painting with water and dropped the ink or Making Powder into the water and let it bleed into the painting and run as I picked up the painting.  

This process in the project was so fun.  The details I really like are the circles being in front of the sunflower and in back.  The dark gray circle and those circles gives it depth

I also used the IOD Butterfly Stamp. 

I used DIY Making Powder for this painting and they worked the same.  I just watered them down and splashed the painting and watched it bleed and run.  

I can't wait to try a snowflake.  What stamp do you think will work for this type of painting?  

I hope you will try this process soon.  BUT be warned.... it's a bit addicting.  

If you need any product make sure you check out my website at The Painted Photographer and I'll ship them right to your front door.  If you're local you can find all these products at Meford's Fourmens Farm Home.  

Until next time........... Happy Painting