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Sugar Skull Painting

Hello! I am SO excited to share this project with you. I have been wanting to share it for a while, just haven't had the time. Back in December (I told you it was a while!), my son's former teacher commissioned me to do a painting of a sugar skull for her daughter. I had given said teach a card with a Bombshell Stamps sugar skull on it, and her daughter absconded with it and proceeded to hang it in her dorm room. So, she thought a painting would be a great gift for her. I was overjoyed. I had not painted anything in so long, and I missed it so much. Here's the completed painting, then I will show you the steps I took to get there.

What do you think? It was requested that I use teal and orange, as those are the color's of the girl's dorm room. I painted on canvas board, and the size is 8 1/2 x 11. I used acrylics.

I did some research on sugar skulls, looking to see what types of designs I liked best. How many flowers? Do I want a spider web? And it goes on. When I finally made some decisions, I drew the images on with pencil.

I painted the background first, as I wasn't entirely sold on what I had drawn on to the skull. Plus,  wanted to be sure that I got that orange - teal combination that I needed. I loved blending the background colors.

Then I worked with the parts of the skull that I knew I was keeping. I liked the web, I was happy with the eyes. But the nose area looked off to me.

I painted the flower on the chin, as I was happy about that part. But those swirls around the nose..... I must have changed them 4 times until I was happy. You can see that they are different in this picture.

And here's what I ended up with. Much better than what I had started with. I was really happy with the end result.

I painted the whole thing in about 5 hours. I loved it. It was so therapeutic  I think I may need to make some more of these....what do you think? Thank you so much for stopping by today. Have an inspiring day!

Comments

Jenn Borjeson said…
Alison, this is just stunning! You really did a great job - I'm sure she is going to love it! xoxo
Laura B said…
That is so cool! You did an awesome job.:)
This is awesome!!! Love it! The skull is great!

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