Third time’s the charm

When you think mixed media, you should think Riikka!

Our super talented girl is able to make amazing works from only few art products. She turns everything into most inspirational art! Don't you think?

 

Long time ago in a faraway land… Um, no. Not a fairy tale this one. But well over a year ago I made a heart canvas inspired by my favorite band (http://mixedmediaplace.blogspot.fi/2014/07/heart-of-turisas.html). When I then started to think about new workshops it popped into my mind, maybe partly because it hangs in my work space. As people were asking me to turn that one into a workshop I answered the call and created a canvas workshop based on the first one. 

Last month I kept the workshop for the first time and of course needed to create a sample for it. So that was the second time for me to do the piece. And this one is the third one – started on the workshop, finished at home.

For this piece I used blue color scheme and that really was a struggle for me as I strongly see the piece in its original colors – red and black. But I managed to make myself to grab the blue and turquoise mists instead of red ones. And that’s telling a lot because it’s usually just the other way around – I gravitate towards the blues and need to push myself with the reds. Funnily enough, I didn’t quite feel the piece in blues so the big difference became when I added just a few hints of rusty brown to the canvas. First I added a few sprays of mists and then made the gears around the edge using a stencil and ink.

To finish this piece I went “Finnabair” and added rays of light coming from the lightbulb. Somehow she manages to make those streaks always so stunning but mine weren’t that good just by using a brush. So I took a finer tool and finished the rays using a white Sharpie.

If you take a look of the original one (http://mixedmediaplace.blogspot.fi/2014/07/heart-of-turisas.html) and this, which one is your favorite? I believe you can guess mine!

Xoxo Riikka

Materials:

Turisas

Drawing, painting skills and addition of mixed media love!
We adore Riikka's masculine creations, one in kind and so creative! 
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You may or may not know that I’m a metal head so to say. While I can listen to many music genres, I really prefer heavy metal above all of those. And one of the great loves I have amongst the genre is Turisas, a Finnish ‘viking metal’ band though they themselves prefer not to be called that.

About a year ago I shared a canvas called “Heart of Turisas” here in Mixed Media Place and now it’s time for another Turisas themed creation. This time I was inspired by the new gig set up the band has – a giant banner with the band members stylized in icon-like way. I’ve been looking the banner design some time now and decided to make my own take using that and the singer of the band as my inspiration.

I started by sketching the face lightly and then added the colors in using acrylics and black gesso. I painted most of the cape red and the face with different flesh tones and the hair with brown and then treated the whole background black with gesso.

 

Next I started adding the bibs and bobs to the canvas. I tried to keep it manly and thus not adding any flowers and also tried to add music related things in the mix. There’s a pick, a piece of a speaker, some guitar strings and a headphone in there. I added the pieces to the canvas using 3D Gloss Gel. After letting the medium dry, I then painted everything first black and then started bringing the colors again in. This time I used acrylics mixed with Mica powder, mists and lastly PanPastels. The face of the character is drawn using PITT pens and a pencil.

My great intention is to give this to the band if they want it, but let see how it goes. Until now the warlord has been staring me from a shelf above the TV. Maybe it’s good to have him there watching over us, guarding like an iconic being should?

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