Renaissance Mens! 2nd post in 2 Days!

   When I saw Anita Houston's challenge over at Frilly and Funkie, I was utterly fascinated by her idea and promptly got distracted Googling all her references and getting lost in art all evening (and watching chunks of the Olympics) I 'ummed and aarghed' about what to make and in the end decided to have a go at a canvas... not, as you will know if you follow my blog, my usual route at all. I'm quite proud of myself!

   A while ago, I bought a pad of canvas pages, I thought they might come in handy to stamp on and cut out for this and when I found the pad... BONUS! the drawing on the cover was Leonardo da Vinci's Vetruvian man (c.1487) albeit chopped up into 3 pieces... hmm... after about half a seconds thought the pad was in the photocopier providing the first piece of my homage to the Renaissance! It has been chopped up, wetted, distressed and torn and now resides proudly in the top right quadrant of my canvas looking like it has been there for hundreds of years. How lucky a fnd was that? 

   My main aim was to try and recreate the look of a Fresco/stylised working drawing using works by the Renaissance giants Anita Houston cited (Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael)  2 extra influences here... One of my first jobs was in an Architects department of my local Council and I loved the style of architects drawings (still do) the second, my love of all things Holtzy... which has now extended to those amazing new stamps by Mario111 with those awesome 'working drawing' lines. How neat are they? He has inspired my daughter and I so much. Alas, I got so into merrily chucking every art supply I own at this canvas that I totally forgot to take photo's until I was most of the way through it DUH!

   I reckon I paid homage to everyone Anita mentioned. The cherub (bottom right) looks much clearer in real life but twas a be-atch to take a piccie of with my little camera!. Also, the pointy hand (Graphic 45) is paler in real life.My piccie makes it stand out like a sore thumb!LOL. Again, the real thing is very heavily textured and, still glowing in the proud aftermath of having my first article published in Craft Stamper, I was actually so chuffed with this canvas that I squiggled my initials at the bottom of it.

   I was pleased with all my rulers...'cos I made them! They are made from an Xcut embossing folder, embossed (well, what else!) Perfect Pearled, Distressed and chopped into pieces. Some got treated with the 'faux leather' technique... I am so loving this at the moment. Honestly, I'm like a puppy rampaging thru Blogworld. I even worked in a few Latin quotes... one of which is the motto of my town!

I'm so chuffed with this canvas, it makes me miss the days when I taught crafts... Wanna go back to it so much! Ending this now. Tim Holtz has posted his August tag, tis awesome... and I want to play. I don't think I have many of the ingredients and I can't wait to improvise. I hope you all have a good day. EDITED! Yay! I just found a little silhouette stamp my daughter got at a craft fair for a pound.... Happy Dance!

This is my entry for the Renaissance challenge over at Frilly and Funkie... do go check it out, there are some amazing pieces being posted. Renaissance Men Challenge

I managed to get a better photo of my little cherub by holding the canvas up to the light in the garden. I like the effect of this, I used the mask and swooshed clear embossing ink around it and then embossed it using Ranger Ultra thick Embossing Enamel. I wish I could show the depth of this finish, the canvas is sooh tactile and chunky.

As it has one of my favourite Tim Holtz sentiment stamps in the middle (Life is the Art of drawing without an erasor) I am also entering this into the 'what do you say?' challenge at Simon Says Stamp and Anything Goes at Fashionable Stamping Challenges