I am the Queen!

mixed media canvas~j. N-L

Well, here it is!

Jerri's self portrait!

Here's how I made this little piece of art squared.

First I painted the canvas using a mixture of bright green and yellow acrylic paint.

Then I hand drew the body on a piece of cotton fabric that is designed for use with making printer copies. I used acrylic paint and sharpie pens to color in the detail. Acrylic sealer was applied to seal and protect the color.

After I cut the body out of the cotton fabric, I adhered it to the canvas using gel medium.

Creating the face was a bit tricky. I took a digital photo of myself, which I resized and then printed onto a piece of that cotton fabric that's designed for use with inkjet printers.

I had a little cabochon that I had already made with "Delight" modeling compound. It was necessary to sand it down a bit in order to get it to the appropriate size; but that didn't take too long! After the sanding, I applied a little gesso to the cab and then adhered the cotton printed face over the cab using a two part epoxy. Once that had dried, I applied another coat of acrylic sealer to cab's surface.

Ok, so now it's time to adhere the face to the body and this time around, I used gel medium. I also adhered the crown (formerly a charm on my daughter's charm bracelet) using gel medium.

I printed the words, "I am the Queen" on 140 pound watercolor paper (on which I had applied a wash of yellow/green acrylic color). I used gel medium to adhere the words to the canvas.

Small 3mm Swarovski crystal accents were added to the belt and shoes. A small royal scepter was created using some vintage green beads and a yellow flower sequin with a red Swarovski crystal center.

So there you have it!

My self portrait!