Dove Tree Mandala

'Dove Tree Mandala'

copyright 2012 by Shiloh Moore

Mixed Media on Canvas

14"x14" square

I've had this piccie in mind for a long time.  In early July I made a scribble that had the beginnings of the idea:

I wanted to use the tree as a circle in a square like a mandala.  I've been looking at art by mixed media artists so I wanted to experiment and use different media and textures. 

In the foreground I made doves using the design I created for the doves in "Be Free" (Sunday Feb 12, 2012 on ByShi).  I made them from beautiful black and purple musical manuscript papers by 'Alison Ellis Design - A Formal Affair'.

In the background, to make the circle in the centre, I glued down some out-of-copyright manuscript within the circle.  Then I scrunched some tissue paper and glued that down, before doing the wash with watercolours in greens.  Here is the paper with tissue: 

For the sky around the tree I glued down text from a book I bought cheaply from a thrift shop.  Then I covered this with scrunched tissue paper and then coloured it using watercolours.

I joined the two backgrounds together and outlined them in black:

Then I thickened the outline in pen and added design to the sun and the trunk of the tree.

I liked it as is, but as it's such a large canvas I thought it still needed a foreground.  So I went ahead and added the cut out doves and outlined them in pen.  I put tiny doves in the corners and added the wavy lines to the corners to give it a finished look and so the corners didn't look bare.

 'Dove Tree Mandala'

copyright 2012 by Shiloh Moore

To me this symbolises peace, freedom, beauty, earthiness, nature and love.  

SpiralKittyLove

'SpiralKittyLove' copyright 2012 by Shiloh Moore

12"x16" Mixed Media on Canvas

Started 6/8/12 completed 16/9/12

I love animals and pets.  I have a lot of friends who have gorgeous precious kitties and I wanted to create something dedicated to their wonderful furbabies, continuing in the style I used for the painting 'SpiralBird'

I'd like to show you the development of the painting:

1) Firstly I was doodling until I had an idea of how I would express what I wanted to create: 

2) Then once I had an idea of what I wanted to draw I developed that picture:

I could envision the final product already and knew all the steps to take, but it took time doing every following step, and I had to pace myself so I didn't overdo things physically.  So it took 10 days working on it bit by bit (and banning myself from working on it more than was physically healthy for me.)  I was itching to get it done and see the final product, but I had to contain my enthusiasm and practice patience, and work on the piece bit by bit, only when able.

3) The next step was to put the coloured background on the canvas.  I used pearlised purple acrylic paint with hints of other colours seeping through (secret technique I love: using a squeegie!)

4) Then I painted silver paint onto some bubble wrap and then printed it to add some silver to the background:

5) I then ripped and glued on some of the gorgeous paper that inspired my colour palette, one of the beautiful papers in the 'A Formal Affair' scrapbooking paper range by Alison Ellis Design (copyright 2011).

6) Then I photocopied my final cat drawing and enlarged it.  I cut it out and placed it on the canvas using repositioning tape to keep it secure but not glued down, so I could draw the outline of the cats onto the canvas (another technique would be to trace or use carbon paper but I chose this technique as it was quite simple and a carbon outline could be difficult to see on the shiny dark surfaces.)

7) Then I drew the outline with a permanent marker:

8) Then removed the paper drawing:

This is what it looked like:

9) Then I painted the cat silhouettes in silver:

10) And finally, I drew on the kitty faces and the spiral/love heart design to the bodies of the kitties using permanent markers:

Finito!  Sending spiralkittylove out there to all those cat lovers! 

Love Yourself

'Love Yourself'

A4 Pen and Watercolour on Paper with Computer Vignette

copyright 2012 by Shiloh Moore

"Love Yourself" 

5/9/12 copyright by Shiloh Moore

Take time out

Smell the flowers

Appreciate the beauty.

Look within

To the place it touches

And Love Yourself

'Love Yourself'

original line drawing

copyright 2012 Shiloh Moore

'Love Yourself'

line drawing with computer editing

copyright 2012 Shiloh Moore