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I love Chris Cozen's use of nature in her pieces so I am totally thrilled to have received this wonderful POD stencil set from Artist Cellar. BTW Chris's new book with Julie Pritchard is incredible.
This coming June, Chris will be teaching at Spokane Art Supply and I cannot wait to see how she uses these stencils!

When I get a new stencil I like to see how they look just outlined in black so that is always my first step. Once I saw this I knew I wanted to draw them in pencil in mass. Come back and see this as a full page in my doodling journal later this week.

I use a lot of figures and I make my own templates sometimes  using magazine cutout and them painting them with plain acrylic on both sides then coating them with matte medium and then Micro Glaze. This makes them tough like vinyl and the Micro Glaze keeps them from sticking together. If I end up loving the image I cut out a REAL stencil from acetate.

These two look kind of beat up but they work fine for an outline in pencil. I chose Strathmore Mixed Media board for this project....it takes everything so beautifully.

so I outlined them and started applying this thinned fluid acrylic (Golden)

Here is the finished base color

Then I drew the pods piling them up in pencil.

Building up levels and usingdifferent values of  pencils to add depth

Then I added more color with Copics and sharpie poster paint pens

I like to add highlights with the sharpie poster paint white

Here is the coloring part way through

Thanks so much to Chris and the Artist Cellar for including me in this Blog Hop!

To celebrate the release of Chris' stencils of course we have PRIZES All you need to do is leave a comment on this post, including your email address, to be eligible to win one, four-stencil set . Comment by end of day on May 18th, at which time I will chose the winner randomly.

OH MY.... there is more to win! North Light Books and F+W Media are  providing copies of Chris' new book written with Julie Prichard Acrylic Solutions: Exploring Mixed Media Layer by Layer AND a copy of Chris' workshop DVD Acrylic Painting: Color, Texture and Value. Another LUCKY person will be chosen at random to win both the book and DVD.
AND .......I will be offering to yet another lucky random person a YEAR of the My Newest Secret Blog which begins in June!

Tomorrow on to JANE!

5/12 Artistcellar
5/13 Seth Apter

5/14 Mary Beth Shaw 

5/15 You are HERE!

5/16 Jane LaFazio

5/17 Pam Carriker 

5/18 Jeanette House

5/19 Chris Cozen

That is it...done & done....Come back by anytime!