Canvas Book

A little while ago I completed a project for a trade with a lovely texan artist and I was itching to write a post about it here. As she has received it by now I am finally free to publish it here.

I was drawn to the theme of opposites, to be more precise to the theme of Day and Night, Sun and Moon. But to just simply paint a sun and a moon would not have been a complete mixed media project in my opinion, so I used a little Pinterest inspiration and made my trading partner a book out of two canvases back to back.

One side is the Sun

The other side is the Moon

I added two lovely antiqued hinges to the side and below you can see the outside of the opened canvas book.

I continued the theme of Day and Night on the inside by placing a fabric origami butterfly inside the sunny side and a fabric moth inside the dark side. 

To make the fabric more workable for my purposes I used version of a technique called paper fabric. Originally you would use diluted pva glue and different layers of papers and tissue to make a sort of fabric. I used fabric and stiffened it with diluted pva glue for the origami butterfly and the moths wings. The antennae for both were made with curled wire.

I drew flower in the corner onto tissue paper and then coloured it with watersoluble crayons and matte medium before adding it into the canvas. The whole project was varnished with a waterbased satin varnish for protection as a final step.