Painted Pendants

So I had a thought that I should do something a little different, yet stay true to my basic theme.

I like how these turned out, but I don’t know that I should do any more.

My basic theme for my work is listed as “original art by Jennifer” because there is only so many characters you’re allowed to have. It’s mostly nature inspired paintings and drawings. So these kinda fit. I think. What do you think?

I don’t even know if I should leave them in my shop. Not sure if they fit the rest. Speaking og the rest…I’ve got to really buckle down and stick to a theme. Which is why I’m so on the fence about these pendants. They can stay for now I guess.

So I bought these wooden discs with the intention of turning them into pins.

It was a good idea, until I decided that I didn’t really want to do that. Ugh.

So I was still unsure what exactly I wanted to do with these, but since I like bright colors, I painted a bunch yellow to start. Well, to be honest, since they are wood, I had to prime the surface with gesso first. I tried without, but the wood was too porous and the yellow wasn’t as bright as I wanted.

See that black tray? That came from these colored pencils I just bought (http://amzn.to/2tGiOYf) and they’re PERFECT for a drying tray!

I had been brainstorming ideas for what to paint on them, and I had a decent amount of ideas, but only a few realistic ones. These are just under the size of a quarter, so I needed pictures that would translate well that small.

I decided on three. A pineapple, a strawberry and a mason jar. I made the most pineapples, but I think that the strawberries are my favorite!

Instead of painting, I tried to think of what else I could do. I wanted to draw with colored pencils and go over it with the micron pens. ( Check it here: http://amzn.to/2rxbMUY) I ended up ruining my finest point one, because that was a terrible idea. So what I ended up doing was first drawing with the micron pen, then coloring over that with colored pencil. I think they turned out really nice!

After I had all of them drawn and colored, I sprayed them with Fixatif. Honestly, the drawing and coloring was the fastest part of the whole process of creating these! I thought it would take the longest, but nope!

I think I actually spent a whole lot of time just waiting for various stages in the process to dry. So. Much. Time. Waiting.

Aren’t they cute?

This is probably after I sprayed the front and back sides with gloss. (http://amzn.to/2rwRn2D)

I had taken a trip to Michael’s to find some beads and string to finish these off. I found some really nice hemp on clearance. Not sure what I’ll do if I need more, guess I restart the search again. I must have spent an hour in the store trying to decide what to get. I mean, I like Michael’s and all, but even that was a little excessive for me.

Some fun, bright colors, yeah?

The putting them all together was a lot trickier than I anticipated. I have this great glue (http://amzn.to/2tllgUK) that just holds everything! So I used that to glue the string around the wooden discs.