Renaissance Steampunk!

I first got the idea for these 5x7" panels last October  at a workshop with Anne Bagby.  We did clowns, but even at the time I thought it would be fun to try some with other themes.

The steampunk plan came to me a couple of months ago, and I figured on using Victorian line drawing faces as the substrata for the clusters of ephemera.  But after much searching, I didn't find anything that spoke to me.

Just last week, I had one of those lovely "A-ha!" moments and decided to use Renaissance portraits.  My all time favourite (I use her constantly) Raphael's La Fornarina", Leonardo's Ginevra Benci and the man with the unfortunate nose the Duke of Urbino by Piero della Francesca.

I printed out the pictures and then adhered them to the panels with matte medium.  I covered the backs with decorated paper and then rubbed the edges with rust coloured ink.  I then used a very small amount of gesso, dry brushing over the surfaces of the pictures to give them a softer look.  A length of Tim Holtz tissue tape was added to one side of each panel.

Then the fun began - delving into my stash and pulling out lots and lots of steampunkish embellishments, arranging and rearranging them on the pieces and finally affixing them all with heavy gel medium.

We all know that feeling when we've had a picture in our minds what a finished piece will look like and then it doesn't quite.  But we all also know how glorious it is when it turns out just the way we imagined.  This was one of those times and I couldn't be more pleased.

These will be available at the Paso Robles Festival of the Arts 

on May 25.  See you there!