How to create one of my mixed media ‘Little Angels’.

Posted on by Kylie Fowler
My Little Angel #4

 This is what my wood plaque looked like when I took the plastic off. I brought it from Spotlight, a fabric/craft/decor shop.

 These wood plaque are great to work on, particularly for mixed media pieces. They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

 I first decided where I wanted my angel to be placed and sketched her in.

 Here you can see the wing template I made (out of card) to trace around. I use this so that both wings are the same. This is not necessary, as you may want them to look slightly different and that would be perfectly ok. However I always seem to draw a great right wing and the left always looks wrong, hence using the template.

 I wanted her halo to be perfectly round so I placed a small bowl exactly where I wanted the halo to go and traced around it.  You can use any circular object, it depends on how big or small you want the halo.

 I started to add some colour using my Caran D’Arche water-soluble crayons.

 I added colour to the body and to the background, making sure not to use too many colours and to use complimentary colours, ie orange is the complimentary colour to blue, etc.

 I pushed the crayon colours around with a wet brush, blending sections here and there.

 I worked on the colours some more and added some purple to the left hand side of the body to add depth.

 Here I added the hair colour as well as her headband. Detail was also added to the face.

 Using my wing template I traced and cut out some beautiful wings from an old hymn book. I made sure the text that appeared in the wings would relate to the angel somehow. The text in the left wings says, ‘with thy spirit’ and the right wings says, ‘glad at heart I am’.

Almost finished here. Just missing my felt hearts that I add on at the end. In the finished product the edges of the plaque are painted black, but I usually crop these out when I scan the final piece in to the computer, just like this one.

Things you’ll need:

  • Wood plaque
  • Graphite 
  • Watersoluable crayons
  • Acrylic paint
  • Gell pens
  • Old hymn book pages
  • Water jar and brushes.
  • Time and effort
  • Any other materials you see fit.
Good luck. If you try this, I’d love to see the end results. 
Best wishes,
Kyles =D
 Post sponsored by:
                                      Blick Art Materials

www.DickBlick.com

31 thoughts on “How to create one of my mixed media ‘Little Angels’.”

  4. Oh wow! Comments already. Thank you ladies.

    Lissa, I'd love to see your version, if you create one.

    Kristin, Mwah! Thank you so much. Only four days to go. OMG. I'm still deciding on what to do. See I have my whimsical artwork and then I have my more serious portraits and then I also do caricatures. I'm not sure if I should open up a store for each specialty or put them all together. Any thoughts?

    Theresa, Don't let your crayons go to waist. They are so versatile. There are several ways to use them. Experiment and find what suits you best. I hope to see you version of 'Little Angels'.

    Thank you again ladies. I REALLY appreciate your comments. I really do. May the three of you have a wonderful, creative day.

    Kyles =D

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  7. Kyles, I had no idea the caran d'ache crayons would work on that type of substrate. I wonder if they will work on the birchwood? Anyway, those colors are gorgeous together. Your angels are so sweet. I really like the musical wings you do – great idea! Thanks for sharing your process!

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  9. Hello lovely Jess,

    Thank you so much.
    The Caran D'Arch crayons are so versatile. You can draw with them and then paint over them. You can wet your brush and paint directly from the crayon, or if you want thick intense colours you can draw quite firmly with them. Even more intense is when you dip the crayon in water first and then draw firmly with them.
    I have found that you have to draw firmer on wood than you do paper, to get the same coverage.

    Kyles =D

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  11. Thank you for posting this tutorial, and it's my favourite angel. It is so generous of you and I shall certainly have a go.

    Now I am opposite to you, I would draw a great right wing and the left would be out, I find I tend to turn my work upsidedown to try and even it out.

    Good luck with your grand opening!

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  12. Hi Linda,

    Thank you very much. Your comment brought a smile to my face, when I read that you turn your work upside down to even it out. I try this also. I did this several times with my first angel and I never got it right, hence the template.

    I would love to see you 'Little Angel', if you decide to give it a go.

    Kyles =D

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  15. G'Day Heather and Diane,

    Thank you very much for your lovely comments. I'm so glad you liked viewing it.

    I was a little worried about the length of the post, as with my previous post 'Hot To Create a Landing Page for Your Facebook Fan Page'.

    Thanks again,

    Kyles =D

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  20. WoW, this is all so exciting. I found you via tam's NING (willowing) in a discussion thread promoting etsy shops! And your's is brand new and so PRETTY! It's clear how much of yourself is in all that you do and I wish you much love and luck.

    I really enjoyed this tutorial and didn't feel it was long at all. Off to check out some of the other posts and be sure to visit! 😀

    – vicki xo

    PS just posted a lonnng tutorial today – lol. hope you like it!

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  22. Thanks for sharing your process. I will have to try using wooden plaques for my base on future projects. Do you use any gel mediums to blend your colors or do you solely use water? Great color blending and shading!

    Sandra

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  24. Hi, now I've answered my own question to you on Milliande's.Great tutorial! I must admit I don't use pencils too much, I like the way you manage to blend these, but still keep the colours clean.

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  27. @Lynn
    Hi there again Lynn, Thank you for commenting on my 'Little Angel Tut'. I made four of these angels. They were a lot of fun to create. I will be teaching a class in Life Book, about creating angels.
    Kyles =D

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  30. Hi Kylie, she is so adorable! Thanks for sharing the techniques to make one of her… I think I need one of these cuties in my studio so I am off to look through my canvas bin for a suitable size and get started…
    Hugs,
    Beth

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