Tutorial - Stencil painting

Friends of mine asked me to explain how I did this painting in one afternoon, so here is a quick tutorial

Ok so first off I did my base coat in a lovely turquoise colour, almost nearing aqua but not quite, followed by touches of purple (I added some violet to the turquoise, note the pallet) using a near-dry roller brush.

 

I use a hair-dryer to speed up the drying process 

I had a bunch of images from magazines copied onto overhead projector sheets, so I used one as a stencil by cutting out the negative space with a blade (pictured) and initially traced around the outside of the image, giving me a silhouette which was later filled in.

Using a spatula I placed a mix of violet, magenta and white on the canvas in rough wing shapes. By working in one direction only with the knife you can 'stretch' the paint over one another, sometimes creating bubble like spears. These smears actually do replicate butterfly wing markings beautifully. I then filled in the silhouette, ensuring I have a nice clean line down the side of the body along the main wing. 

 At this point I attacked the canvas with metallic and glitter glue pens. I love glitter, it just adds some magic - and seriously who doesn't enjoy sparkly magic?!

After I am over my sparkly glittery moment and have a relaxing cup of tea, I return to the work and replace the overhead on the silhouette, this time using the roller brush to put skin and clothing features on the painting. Finish off with a bit of gold/pink for highlights and depth. Lift off stencil, set to dry.

Et, voila! 

Feel free to give this a try!

Let me know how yours work out in the comments section below!

x Kristi