I used some punchinella, several different sized circle stencils and some lace, along with pink and green spray ink to create a basic background. Then I cropped my pen sketch from my Moleskine reporter, erased the erasable pen grid and placed her on the page using gel medium. I used Neocolour IIs to add a green background and added some white acrylic to make it more permanent and slightly lighter. I made sure to go over the edges of the picture to ensure that it ‘disappeared’ into the background, rather than looking like something I’d just stuck on.
I used some smooth mulberry papers in lime green, forrest green and rose, and some wrapping paper that had a pink, brown, and green flower pattern on it, to collage onto the background. I also edged both sides of the layout with some bright pink scrap paper with pale pink circle on, to continue the circles theme. Over that I used my green Neocolour II and white acrylic mix to blend the pieces into the background. I wiped some areas off with a paper towel to leave just a thin coat, toning down the bright pink scrapbook paper. Then I used a dark brown Neocolour II and white acrylic to lay in the basic skin tones. Then I used a dark pink Neocolour to lay in the base colour of the flower, black for the hair, dark brown for the eyes and light brown/lavender mix for the lips.
To finish the portrait, I used Prismacolour pencils. Various dark browns to add depth to the skin tone, dark brown and black for the hair, and various dark reds and pinks for the flower. A little white acrylic for the eyeballs and reflections, followed by Prismacolour pencil shading in the eyeball, then a little Sakura gelly roll glaze pen for the earrings and a few highlights and shadows in black and white Uniball POSCA paint marker, and the portrait is finished.
I wrote on the left side in dark pink Sakura gelly roll glaze, adding definition to a few key words in an olive green by sketching a box around them. I used the same olive green pen to write a title and challenge info on the portrait side, so as not to detract from the girl.
Finally I pulled out a dark rose red oil pastel and ran it round the edges, smudging it with my fingers, bringing the whole thing together.
