Jazz Baby

Here is my first Petite Dolls painting from Suzi Blu's class. 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 doing the wax; I've never used it before. But I'll give it a whirl tonight. You can click on each photo to get a larger view.

Here is a close-up of the painting before I added the pearl mica flakes to her hair. All of the closeups with the mica flakes in the hair make it look like glitter and it's not. Anyway, this was the best photo of the background detail.

Here is a closeup (sorry about the blur) of the mica flakes and more of the background. The music note to the right of her doesn't show up very well on the camera but it is raised above the wood. I used molding paste and then painted over it. Looks a lot better in person. I also wanted to show the irridescence of her pants. That doesn't show up too well in most of the photos either, but it does in this last photo:

After I get the beeswax on, I'll post one more photo of the complete look.

The 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, etc.) all of which I've added here. That's a Petite Doll painting -- Suzi Blu style. I think I captured the look pretty well.

Since this was a Bluesy, jazzy style of doll I wanted the colors to be darker and deeper. I mentioned before that I had chosen the colors scheme of: olive, purple, gold, black and white. The olive doesn't show up in this final version but it is subtle in the background. There are a lot of layers to this piece and every once in a while you get a hint of the olive color.

Wish me luck with the beeswax. You are just supposed to drip it here and there. I won't cover her hair because of the mica flakes but most of the rest of it will at least receive a drip or two.