Jazz Baby

Here is "Jazz Baby", my first Petite Dolls painting from Suzi Blu's class (see previous posts). She's all finished except for the beeswax. I wanted to get a photo of her before and after beeswax. I'm a little nervous about using the wax since I've never worked with it before. But I'll give it a whirl tonight. You can click on each photo to get a larger view.

This next photo is a closeup of the painting showing the background detail. Her hair has pearl mica flakes in it. For some reason the photo makes it look like glitter but they are actual chunks of mica. To her right is a music note that I made with a stencil and some molding paste. Then I painted it and adhered gold leaf to it. It stands out more than the photo shows. You can kind of see the iridescence of her pants in this photo. There is a blue-purple mixture of iridescent paint and some purple glitter thrown in for good measure. ;)

Here is one more closeup (sorry about the blur) of the mica flakes and the background. After I finish applying the beeswax I'll post one more photo of the completed look.

The whole idea behind the Petite Dolls paintings is they are supposed to be your dolls that have been placed onto a "shabby" background. That means lots of layers, lots of paint, collage, etc. Then you add some BOOM (gold leaf, glitter, mica flakes, iridescence, etc.). And that's a Petite Dolls painting, Suzi Blu style!

Since this was a bluesy, jazzy style of doll I wanted the colors to be darker and deeper. I went with the color palette of purple, gold, black and white. Wish me luck with the beeswax. You can drip on as much or as little as you like. I'll see where that leads me.

By the way, Suzi is starting a new class: The Poet and the Goddess on July 15. It will cover drawing more lifelike portraits and incorporating them into a painting, along with some poetry thrown in. Her videos are awesome and she's a wonderful teacher. And, yes, I've already signed up!