I was asked to create a pair of tiny angel wings for a family for very personal reasons that are not mine to tell. But I will say that it was a blessing and an honor to create this heavenly art, and to pray over the family as I worked on it.
Painting is therapy for me, and often it is my prayer time. Even more often than that, I am praying for the person that receives my work.
For that, I am thankful.
I wanted to create a heavenly sky showing light and hope and the promise of everlasting life.
To be honest, that makes me want to paint bold and big; however, I needed this particular scene to be soft and delicate.
It was challenging at first, but once I found a few inspiration photos to pull from, I found my direction.
What I really love about this canvas was I created every color you can see with four basic primary colors!
Red, Blue, Yellow and White (for this project I used Dixie Belle's chalk mineral paint in Honky Tonk Red, Cobalt Blue, Daisy, and Fluff).
Mixing paint colors is always intriguing and never boring!
If you usually just paint with colors straight from a jar or tube or bottle, I encourage you to CREATE your colors from basics.
I bet you will be surprised at how empowering it is!
I chose an 8x8 canvas (just in case you want to give this a try).
Make sure you have several good brushes in various sizes.
You'll need water nearby, and something to blend your colors on.
I started at the bottom and added a deep purple that I achieved by mixing blue and red with a touch of white.
I just worked my way up the canvas by adding more white to each layer.
Once my canvas looked the way I wanted it to, I began my heavenly rays.
I just moved my brush upward and outward like sun rays, pulling the wet paint colors that were already there.
Afterward, I used my mop brush to blend/blur out the hard edges of the rays before adding a touch of deep blue and white to my brush and layered a few rays in that color.
Again, by blurring the lines of the rays with the mop brush.
I did this by watering down my yellow until it was quite thin, and blotting it just above the area of the sky where I wanted to lay the wings.
I continued to use my mop brush to keep my outer edges of light, rays, and clouds blurred.
Clouds were now added one at a time in various colors of the violets that I had mixed.
I even mixed white with red to get a soft pink (because pink clouds are gorgeous)., and I hope Heaven has them!
I continued this until I was satisfied with the placement of the clouds.
Once my clouds of all colors were complete, I began to add an extremely watered-down yellow to accentuate the glow everywhere that I imagined it would peek through.
In all honesty, the glow was so important to me!! The glow is hope! Hope for better days. Hope for healing; lots of healing.
I even added the yellow "Hope" to the rays. Rays of hope!
Once this felt right I introduced highlights of white.
I used this on the edge of the clouds, and to add reflection in the water. This is done with the tiniest detail brush you can find!
And this is what I hope Heaven looks like!
Now I need to create the precious tiny angel wings.
I drew them out with chalk first just to check placement.
Afterward, I used Dixie Belle Mud in white, and a tiny spatula, to create the layers of wings.
I let this dry overnight.
The next day, I painted those tiny little baby angel wings with one of the soft pinks I had used in the sky before dusting them with a fan brush using white to accentuate the feathers.
And for the final touch, I dusted the wings' edges with Gold Gilding Wax.
This representation of hope has a tiny name drawn into the clouds.
That tiny name earned her wings. I wonder if they were pink?
I'd like to think so.
XOXO,
Tracey
Drippy Angel Wings
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