artlessons11 fantasyhouseportraits swider edited

fantasy house portraits

art lessonsCOllage & paint series volume eleven

BY staci swider


Fantasy House PortraitsBy staci swider

clotHPaPerscissors.com1© F+W Media, Inc. All rights reserved. F+W Media grants permission for any or all pages in this document to be copied for personal use.

i own a home in a historic urban neighborhood

where the houses range in age from around the

early 18th century to 1930. i distinctly remember

shopping for property in this neighborhood because i

instantly fell in love with the old architecture, and was

even moved to tears when i stepped into a turn-of-the-

century cottage. it felt like i was inside a Victorian

playhouse, complete with nooks and crannies for

storage and display, fancy woodwork, and other little

details uncommon in modern houses. i wanted to buy

every house in the neighborhood. after a quick reality

check, i decided the next best thing was to create my

own fanciful neighborhood with paint and paper.

i started by photographing a roofline here, a third

floor detail there, plants, iron fencing from my front

courtyard, vacation photos of Brazilian sidewalks,

stone walls in Virginia, and anything else that could

be a potential landscape element. For instance, why

not use persian rugs in place of sidewalks? i printed

these photos and assembled my own fantasy house

with every tiny detail i wanted.

Staci Swider lives in Aiken, South Carolina, with her husband and extremely large chocolate lab puppy that eats paintbrushes.

Website: staciswider.com

Blog: staciswider.blogspot.com

Email: [email protected]

facebook.com/staciswiderartist

@staciswider

Materials yOu need

• pencil

• ruler

• panel, hard (i used a 16" x 20" piece of MdF.)

• photos, printed: house or building for base image and a variety of other architectural elements.

• Matte medium

• paintbrushes, a variety

• gesso

• palette

• paint, acrylic, varied colors

• Container with water

• Watercolor pencils

• sharpie, black

• gel pens, black and white (i use uni-ball® signo Broad un-153.)

Optional

• scissors

Watch Staci plan her fantasy house portrait!

http://clothpaperscissors.com

http://youtu.be/JdBj9DFCUKc

http://youtu.be/JdBj9DFCUKc

https://www.facebook.com/staciswiderartist

mailto: [email protected]

http://staciswider.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/staciswider

http://staciswider.com




1. Use a ruler and pencil to draw a horizontal line across the board, parallel to the top and bottom of the panel. Use this line to correctly orient the house and lay out the other photos. ( F i g u r e 1 )

2. Use the matte medium and a paintbrush to glue down the base house image, aligning the bottom of the roof on the pencil line.

tip: avoid placing the house in the center of the board. instead, imagine the board divided into four equal areas and place the focal point in one or two overlapping areas.

3. Audition and adhere the photos of architectural details like sidewalks, fences, gates, and outer buildings such as sheds or garages.

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4. Arrange the photos of landscape details around the architectural details. ( F i g u r e 2 ) Place small-scale items near the pencil/roof line, and large-scale items toward the bottom of the panel to give the illusion of depth and distance. Do not worry about filling the frame with images

at this time. Once satisfied with your arrangement, glue the pieces in place with matte medium.

tip: think of other subtle details when arranging the photos, like a portion of a tree overhanging at the top edge to frame the house.

[2]

http://youtu.be/dJ7OS9HF6Q4










5. Use a wide paintbrush to dry brush gesso over the piece, focusing on the exposed areas of the panel and preserving small details you want visible. ( F i g u r e 3 )

6. Thin the acrylic paints with water to the consistency of watercolor paints, and add washes of paint over the photos and the background.

[3]





7. Once the previous wash has dried, fill in any empty spaces with varied shades of green; these areas will become trees and shrubbery. ( F i g u r e 4 )

8. Use a large paintbrush to paint washes of blue for the sky. Allow the paint to move around freely and puddle here and there to create clouds.

[4]

9. Use the watercolor pencils to add pops of color over the greens to create flowers, details to the house, and highlights to the clouds and trees. ( F i g u r e 4 )

10. Continue drawing over the painting to add details using Sharpies, pens, and other drawing media of choice. Work back and forth between materials.





11. Outline everything with the fine-line black pen. ( F i g u r e 5 ) This layer will create unity and cohesion in the piece. The more detail you add over the painting with the black pen, the better the results.

12. Use a white gel pen for highlights to finish the piece. ( F i g u r e 5 )

[5]





tOOl highlightUni-ball® gel pensuni-ball gel pens are one of my favorite supplies. they write beautifully across a variety of surfaces. i especially love the white and metallic colors for creating high-lights on my paintings and collages.

these gel pens:

• Flow smoothly on all kinds of paints, gel medium, gesso.

• transition effortlessly between glossy and rough paper.

• Have ink that is opaque and crisp, creating just the right amount of dimension.





BOnus art

don’t want to create a fantasy house? try this technique with other photos. i mixed photos of flowers with fabric and collage to add extra texture.





BOnus art


artlessons11 fantasyhouseportraits swider edited

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hard i

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base house image