El Mariachi - Dia De Los Muertos Mixed Media Canvas

Hi friends!  I hope this finds you all well.  Today I have a new canvas to share with you.  I'm very excited about this piece because it's a first for me. Recently I was asked to do a custom piece featuring men and you all know I've only painted women right.  This piece is very important to me because it's for a family member so I wanted to get some practice in before starting their canvas.  I set out searching for images of men that inspired me and I found some great Dia De Los Muertos and mariachi photos to help me get started.  So here is my very first canvas featuring a man:

Meet "El Mariachi", this is a 30x24" canvas and it is for sale so if you're interest message me on FB or shoot me an email (artist.normagomez@yahoo.com).

I started out by stretching my sketching muscles in my art journal.

Then I moved onto building the background.  I used all types of acrylic paints and Crafter's Workshop stencils with Dylusions spray inks to create layers.

Once I was happy with the background I transferred my sketch to the canvas.  I used a projector for this part but I think I would have better off just sketching it again.  It was kinda hard to see my projected image and I ended up having to make lots of corrections to my sketch.  So I think it might have just been easier to sketch it on.

With the sketch down, I slowly began painting my mariachi.

Here's a side by side progression of my mariachi.  It's fun see the photos next to each other.  You can really see what it took to get to the finished piece.

Can I tell, I love the way he turned out!  I think he's very handsome and mysterious all at the same time.

Here's a closer look at the detail on his sombrero.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this guys so don't shy.  Good or bad, either way I wanna know what you think so please share.

If you're interested in a print, I'll be adding them to Etsy very soon so keep an eye out for that.

Thank you for stopping by and have a beautiful day, Viva El Mariachi!!

Prints now available on Etsy!

Muerta Linda Nicho - Dia De Los Muertos Shrine

Hi everyone, let's keep the shrines rolling!  I hope you're having a wonderful day.  I wanted to pop in and share another one of my new Dia De Los Muertos shrines.

For this shrine, I tried to experiment with different ways to create texture on metal.  The left side was my attempt at embossing on metal.

This shrine is adorned in roses, glitter and a Virgin Mary charm.

It also has a bit of bling and tinsel just for fun.

This beautiful little shrine is available for purchase over on Etsy.  Thank you so much for stopping by, have a beautiful day you guys!!

Hope - Mixed Media Assemblage - Dia De Los Muertos Nicho

Hey everyone!  I'm back to share another one of the nichos I've created recently.

I've been busy creating, posting to FB and Etsy but have fallen behind sharing here.  So I apologize for the blogging delay.

This beautiful little shrine reminds me of a cross between a mission and a window.

Hope just seemed to be perfect for this shrine.

I'm using Ranger's Patina line to paint my shrines.  The paint goes on great and I'm able to use acrylics on top of it with no problem.

Doodling just seemed like the way to go on this one.

I added some bling and jewelry findings from my stash to finish it off.  The beautiful broach up top is a vintage find from a local flea market.

This gorgeous shine is available for purchase on Etsy.  Thanks so much for stopping by & have a beautiful day!!!

Dia De Los Muertos Sacred Heart Shrine

Hey there, I hope you are having a fantastic day!  I wanted to share one of the nichos I recently created.  Nichos are small shadow boxes usually made of wood or tin.  They originated as a take on the Roman Catholic retablo tradition of painting saints.   So nichos are little shrines or mixed media assemblage pieces.  I really love working on these little guys and sometimes create my own out of cardboard and found objects.

So back in November during el Dia De Los Muetos, my husband and I did a little shopping in between all the festivals/celebrations downtown and I found these awesome tin nichos.

These are authentic tin shrines from Mexico.  I knew right away that they were PERFECT for my art.

I bought them all and then they sat in stash til recently.  I finally got around to working on them and I'm loving these little treasures.

The outside is painted and then I drew the flowers.  Next I added bling and the inside features a copy of my original canvas entitled Bendita Mujer.

I've created two more that I'll be sharing soon.  Thanks so much for stopping by, letting me know if you have any questions about my process or the products I used.

Take Care!!

Muertos Tag: Paper Wings Productions Anything Goes Linky Party

Happy Friday!  Today I'm playing along with my friends over at Paper Wings Productions.  This year they've added Linky Parties so we'll have a chance to share our Paper Wings Productions creations on their blog.  This month's theme is Anything Goes so I pulled out my favorite PWP stamps and got to work.

I've been trying to reorganize my studio lately and one thing that has become abundantly clear is that I really need to use up my scraps.  So almost everything I used is from my scraps stash.  This tag was in my drawer.  It was a failed PWP design team project but I thought you what, it'll work for a mixed media tag.  It already had the beautiful yellow and pink inks and stamped papel picado from the Dia De Los Muertos Hombre stamp set.

I grabbed the Liquitex Glass Beads just because I hadn't used them in awhile.  All I did was spread it over the tag with a pallet knife.  Then I added some fusible webbing that was left over from the Fall Nesting Components kit.  After all glass beads medium dried I started layering and completely forgot to take progress pics, sorry.

The next step was creating the heart. I used a Heidi Swapp stencil to guide me a bit.  I added three rows of the roses also found on the Dia De Los Muertos Hombre stamp set.  I actually embossed the roses with fine detail black embossing powder.  I wanted to continue with the textural feel of the tag.  I added a bit of color to the roses with Dylusions inks.  I applied the ink with a water brush.  Then I outlined the heart with Liquitex ink.

The honeycomb pattern is the sticker outline from one of the very first Paper Wings mixed media kits.

I used a mask to arrange the muertos close together and colored them in with Distress Markers.  I fussy cut them and then just slipped them in.

I also added some found jewelry, patterned paper scraps, leaves, roses and ribbon.

The heart up top is actually an earring, pretty cool right.  The stud is going through the hole in the tag and the chain is connected to the earring's backing.  Well thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll join the Paper Wings Linky Party too!  Here is the link:  Anything Goes Link Up Party.  One lucky participant will win a $25 gift certificate so go get linked up!! 

Hope - Dia De Los Muertos Art

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope you all are enjoying a great start to the weekend.  Today I have another Dia De Los Muertos inspired canvas to share with you.

Meet Hope, she's the latest addition to my Dia De Los Muertos art series.

I named her Hope because this is my hope for you:  Whenever you find yourself doubting how far you can go,  just remember how far you have come.

Hope started out as a sketch in my art journal.

I worked on her whenever I had to sit and wait on my son.  Once I was done, I knew she HAD to go on a canvas.

I made a copy of my sketch to help me transfer my image onto the canvas.  I didn't wanna have to sketch her all over again.

Once I had her transferred I began adding the base colors.

She started out kinda blonde but that changed fast although I'm thinking I should make a blonde haired blue eyed girl for you guys.  Let me know if you'd like to see that ;D.

With her pretty much done, I moved onto the background.  At this point I had no idea what I was gonna do.  Thankfully Pinterest is full of inspiration!  I found a photo of a gypsy that inspired the background.

I added drapes stenciled with tiny flowers subtly blending into the folds.

I have to admit, I'm EXTREMELY happy with the way she turned out.  I think she is absolutely GORGEOUS.

Here's a nice close up of her face.

I'll be adding her to my Etsy shop, LittleHoneyBeeStudio sometime today.  Thanks so much for stopping by, enjoy your weekend!!!

If you're interested in purchasing Hope, click HERE.

Celebration Dia De Los Muertos Mask

Hey, hey, hey everyone!  Happy Friday!!!  I have a new Dia De Los Muertos mask to share just in time for the release of The Book of Life.  My son and I are so excited to see this movie.  I love seeing our beautiful culture making into the mainstream.  So go see it peeps!!

This guy has flaming suns for eyes, lol.  I wanted to give it a different shape since I always go with the scallops.  I have admit, once I did it I was like"hmm....I'm not sure about this".   But I believe in only moving forward on my projects so I kept truckin' and trusted that it would all work out.

Next came this shape and I was still like "I don't know".  So I decided to add bright colors and on went the magenta.

Once I began layering the bright colors, it really started to come together.

I made sure to tie in all of the colors for a cohesive look.

This mask is just so happy to me.  He is ready to celebrate!  If you're interested in purchasing this mask, click HERE.

Okay folks, I've gotta run so I'll let you go.  Thank you so much for spending a piece of your day with me.  Have a wonderful weekend!!