Sun & Moon Canvas "Celestial Love"

 Hi Antony here!

I thought I'd share another lockdown project with you, this one has a sort of

story behind it, which evolved whilst I was making it. In my previous post

I mentioned that I didn't normally name my canvases... but whilst putting all the

elements of this one together it came to clear to me that the canvas was a

love story, between the Sun and the Moon. And so I named the canvas

"Celestial Love"

The Sun felt alone in the Sky, but every night the Crescent Moon would

show his love for the Sun by laying down a carpet of stars that shone

brighter than the rest of the night sky.

However the Sun was always too late to see this act of love that played

out in the night sky. So the Crescent Moon left a key to his heart, in hope that

the Sun would find it and make his life whole. Months past until the equinox

came and finally the Sun saw what she had missed for months.

The Moon was finally whole and the Sun knew that she was no longer

alone in the sky. She now knew that although she couldn't see the love of the

Moon during the day, it was always there for her.

©2021 Antony James Minnis

As well at the short story, I also created a video too.

Ok... story over, here's how I put canvas together!

Step 1 Using Prima Marketing moulds, I made what seems to be a ton of

embellishments. For these I used FMM Claycraft air drying polymer clay called

"Soft then Strong"

I also cut out a circle using 2mm card, and added texture to it using quick drying

Polyfilla. I sank the Sun and Moon into the Polyfilla whilst it was still wet.

When dry I painted everything using various colours of Prima metallic paints.

Step 2 For all of the polymer casts, I painted them with black acrylic paint and

then used 3 colours of gilding paint from Cadence, to give them their metallic finish.

First I dry brushed on Antique Gold, then Antique Silver and finally a copper colour.

Step 3 I cut some strips of 2mm card to create some interest for the background.

With these I used Polyfilla and various size art balls to create texture on them.

Step 4 For the canvas I cut myself some 6mm MDF and painted it with white gesso.

I also used some structure paste along with some stencils to add interest to the background.

For the colouring of the background I used Liquid Acrylic paints from Prima.

I applied a small drop of the paint directly onto the canvas then water it down and

tilted the MDF canvas so that the colour run. I repeated this process with a second colour

of the Liquid Acrylic paints.

Step 5 Where I had used stencils on the background, I placed these back over

the now raised areas and used a gold gilding paint to lightly brush over. This

helped just show the stencil work a little more.

Step 6 With all the elements painted, it was time to start laying them all out. I never

use glue for this next bit, I just place things until it all balances nicely. When I was

happy I took a photo then removed all the elements. Then it was time to glue everything

into it's final position, using the photo i'd just taken as reference. I used the 3D Gloss

Gel Medium from Prima. It gives plenty of wiggle time and it's a fab strong glue for

holding all of the embellishments.

|Step 7 With all the elements in place, I then painted the stars with a metallic paint

from Imagination Crafts and added a little magenta gilding wax to a few of the

embellishments too.

Step 8 Using some Stampendous Chunky embossing enamel along with a glue, I

created a sort of border round all the 3D embellishments. This was to help soften the

colour change from the polymer clay elements metallic look and the pastel colours

of the background. It also gives the look that the metallic elements have been dropped

into a liquid metal and it's splashed out onto the background.

Hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating this piece.

Until next time, Happy Crafting and please stay safe!

Samantha and Antony