A Zom{nom}bie Original!

Today's Oddity:
A one-of-a-kind Zom{nom}bie!

The NorVA Centre in Flin Flon is always up to some neat stuff. This year, I had the pleasure of taking part in their annual Square Foot Exhibit. Artists are encouraged to paint whatever they want for this fundraiser -- as long as it fits on a 12"x12" canvas!

It was a great excuse to take a break from my usual projects and put together something for fun! I'm really happy with the finished piece:

It's definitely almost 100% probably not poisoned ... :)      © dStallard, 2019

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While I was at the Exhibit opening, I got asked a question I hear a lot: how'd you do that?! I'm always tempted to answer that question with; "I put paint on the canvas and moved it around until I figured it looked good."

It's totally true! ... But that's not a very satisfying answer. Luckily, one of my mentors got me in the habit of taking "in progress" photos. I figured I'd share some, so you can see exactly how I "did that!"

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BEHIND-THE-SCENES

​Making a Zom{nom}bie!

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Summoning My Muse ...

I always start with blocking in my picture, just to make sure it's going to fit nicely on the canvas.

I started out wanting to do a princess-in-the-tower theme (you can still see the pencil of where I was going to paint a princess on the left-hand side), but when the paintbrush hit the canvas, something else started to morph into sight. I decided not to fight the creative muse and went with it!​

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Choices, Choices

I like to keep my paintings looking uniform by choosing a couple complimentary colours as a base, and one accent. In this case, I've chosen black/cream and grey/violet as my base palette, with bright cherry red for an accent colour. 

​I'm also starting to explore some details at this point.

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Colo​ur Blocking

Time to lay down a layer of paint!  I find that covering up the white gesso with a "primer" layer of base-colours helps keep the top layer of details from washing out. Painting on top of a complimentary base is how I get my tiny faery paintings to pop with such bright colours.

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Adding Some Details

Now we're having fun! At this point, the painting's about half-way done. I'm layering in some textures, as well as smoothing out any shading (like in her cape's shadow).

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Pop!

I should have finished the grass first, but I got bored, so I jumped ahead to outlines  and my favourite part -- finicky little details!

Check out those bright red bootlaces! They were so much fun to paint!

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Mucking About

The painting's pretty much done here. At this point, I usually leave it alone for a day or so, then come back with a "fresh" set of eyes to catch any finishing details I want to add.

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Final Touches

I decided the apple needed a drooly face! Now it's just finishing up a few details and cleaning up a few lines. Once that's done, it's time to think up a fun title and let the painting run free in the wild!

... and that's it!

It's definitely almost 100% probably not poisoned ... :)      © dStallard, 2019

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I finished up with a photoshoot. My favourite tree was gracious enough to lend a few colour-appropriate leaves and twigs for atmosphere. 

It was strange working on a larger canvas like this -- I'm so used to tiny paintings! -- but I'm pleased to announce that this zom[nom]bie's out to auction!

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