Birthday Portrait

Sadhna’s Portrait 46cm x 84cm Mixed Media Collage

It is finally done!  The portrait is finished, it has traveled up to Hamilton and Island and back undamaged and best of all she liked it.  Amazingly enough I am happy with it as well.

Sadhna with her portrait

It hasn’t photographed all that well, but you can get the idea.  It turned into a collage with the paisley design raised up so it floats above the portrait.  It is made in three layers.  One is the background which is acrylic paint with pencil over the top, then the silver ink pattern.  The middle layer is the portrait again acrylic paint, pencil and ink and the final layer is raised 4mm above and they are pencil and ink paisley cut out and stuck on.

sadhna-preliminary-sketch

I have been wanting to try some raised collage for awhile and am pleased to get the chance to use it on this picture and I love the effect.  It brings a new feel to the work.

As you can guess my friend Sadhna is Indian and loves the teal blue.  she is very beautiful and loves the pretty pastels, paisley and bling.  I wanted to show her love of design and pride in her heritage in this portrait and to give her some of the glamour of the vintage posters.  I feel this has achieved it.

Detail of the Paisley 1

I really enjoyed doing this, though you know I grumbled, (see earlier post) it was a different direction but a fun learning curve.  I have another couple lined up by people interested in having their portrait done in this way.  So I am open to commissions.

Detail of the Paisley

But most of all I am happy that I was able to give a great and generous friend something really special for her birthday.

Karen