Summer Music vol.3 - Shape of My Heart

First of all, let us tell you how impressed we are with your response to our Adele Summer Music Challenge!

We received the first submission only two days after announcing the topic. :) And all the artworks that you sent are so thought-provoking, very emotional and beautifully executed... Thank you so much for joining us!

This is the last episode of our Music Challenge and we'd like to say farewell to summer with this beautiful song by Sting...

You can create artworks inspired by the music, lyrics, the video - anything that moves you and sparks your imagination.

Ad here are the amazing interpretations of our Design Team...

I'm a person who belives in the meaning of cards. Preparing to make a work inspired by Sting's song, I decided to trust my intuition and cards ... and again it turned out that cards know everything. ;-)

The cards that Ichose randomly, perfectly reflected my emotions and the situation at the time of creating this piece...

I've painted this page with acrylic paints using the diamonds cutouts made by my son. I used them as masks and as shapes for glueing. It gave an interesting texture to my work.

Next, I glued cards chosen randomly from the deck. When everything dried, I added some scribblings with watercolor pencils and added some white spots here and there.

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

I guess I have listened to "Shape of My Heart" about a thousand times in the last few weeks. I wanted to make this piece but I had a hard time deciding what kind of interpretation to choose.

Finally, I decided to focus on the fact that I usually also feel (like Sting probably ;) ) that I have a different shape of the heart than most of the people. ;)

I don't care about money, politics, wars, career... I want to be honest and true - to myself and to the others.

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

This beautiful song turned out to be difficult to relate to for me. But yet - very inspiring.

This art journal spread is not very complicated technically. I just covered it with Art Basics heavy white gesso and added some masking using black gesso and Tattered Lace stencil. Then, I simply had some fun with stamping and doodling - it's that easy but also giving a lot of joy.

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

For this month's song I've created this piece and I also have a step by step tutorial for you - I hope you feel inspired!

Here's how I made my canvas:
 

1. I cut a heart from cardboard which served as the base, to give it its shape with the aluminium foil. 

2. I covered it with masking tape to allow the Powertex to adhere.

3. I made a paste with Powertex and with 3D Easy Flex. Having covered the heart with it, I used a stencil to give some texture. I sprayed some Bistre on the paste, this product allows the paste to crackle.

4. While the heart dries, I covered my canvas with Gesso.

5. I glued some scraps of papers on my canvas

6. To give even more texture, I added some super heavy gel medium with a stencil. 

7. I covered everything with black Gesso.

8. I painted my canvas using the technique of "dry brush" with several colors of Silks beginning with the darkest. I ended with a light touch of golden wax.

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

I knew this song but like with so many others, I had no idea about the lyrics. So the first thing I did, I googled the lyrics and listened to the song at the same time.

My first idea, just based on the title of the piece, was to make a set of cards. But while reading the lyrics the overall mood of the pieces and also the topic shifted completely.

I felt really inspired by the chorus part about the different suits:

"I know that the spades are the swords of a soldier. I know that the clubs are weapons of war. 

I know that diamonds mean money for this art. But that's not the shape of my heart."

The color scheme of the ATCs is partly inspired by the movie the song belongs to - "Leon the Professional". I've seen it once and remember it as dark and distressing. Even though the movie isn't black and white in my mind I've turned the imaginaries to the monochromatic scheme. So I used mostly black India ink to the cards. The series have just one source of color, the heart.

The suits are cut freehand from a piece of thicker cardstock, colored and then coated with Glossy Accents. All the other suits are mat and colored with India Ink and PITT pens, but the heart is hot shiny red with Luminarte pigments twinkling underneath the glossy layer.

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:

This song by Sting is one of my favourite songs ever! It walks with me all life long. "Shape of my heart" triggers a lot of different emotions and feelings - you can see them in my art journal.

I wanted to create a flat page so I have used many different media creating lots of layers - below you can see them all and I didn't use any 3D objects.

 

 

The very first thing, I do with my art journal pages, is priming them with clear gesso. It ensures that my media will stay on this page and do not soak through. And then the fun begins :)

Supplies from Mixed Media Place:



And now, let's meet the winner of Adele challenge (you should really visit each of the links added there - every piece being absolutely unique).
The work that got the most votes from our DT is this touching creation by...

...Siona Snel...

Congratulations! Please contact us to claim your prize: store(at)mixedmediaplace.com

So, now it's time for you... :) We would love to see your mixed media creations inspired by Sting's "Shape of My Heart".
Simply add a link to your work using the inlinkz tool below. We'll be waiting until October 19th. 

One work chosen by our DT will be awarded a prize (a discount coupon to be used in Mixed Media Place store).