HOOOWWWL!!!! by Claudia

It's spooky time! 

It's full moon! Werwolves haunt the forests and their animal friends join in the gathering. Under the pale light of a cold moon they all unite to sing their sad and melancholic wolves chant...

Calico Craft Parts used:

- Howling Wolf Head MDF Wood Shape

- Howling Wolf Scene MDF Wood Shape - Style 2

- Winter Tree Scene MDF Wood Shape - Style 1

When I saw the amazing new Wolf Wood Shapes over at the Calico Craft Parts Shop I immediately knew I wanted to create a spooky scene with wolves (maybe werwolves?) howling under a full moon. 

The largest size of the Winter Tree Scene fit perfectly into a 6'' x 8'' canvas I had in my stash - so this made the perfect base for my werwolf shadow box. 

As I didn't need two full moons in my project I simply snipped off the larger moon using cutting pliers and a bit of sanding paper.

Then I covered the back of the canvas with scraps of old dicionary pages using DecoArt matte Decou-Page. I also sealed the surface of the glued on pages with a slightly diluted coat of Decou-Page.

Next I painted my moon lit forest background by adding DecoArt media Yellow Green Light, Cobalt Teal Hue and Titan Buff fluid acrylic paints wet on wet with a bristle brush. The bristles of the brush created short vertical patterns that look like forest covered hills in the far back.

Once all was dry I painted on the white moon with DecoArt media Titanium White fluid acrylic paint after I had found the right spot by putting the wood shape in place and tracing it with a soft pencil.

The wolf and forest MDF shapes were dry brushed with DecoArt media black Gesso so none of the beautiful structures would get lost.

I used some heavy black cardstock to cut out some hill shapes to glue the two MDF wolf and winter tree scenes to.

All the black parts for my scene got a wash of a mix of DecoArt media Phtalo Green-Blue, Prussian Blue Hue and Paynes Grey.

Once that had dried I dry brushed the pieces with white DecoArt media Gesso to make all the beautiful inner structures of the MDF parts visible.

And after they had dried I added another thin wash of Phtalo Green-Blue and Prussian Blue Hue on top.

I stacked some sticky foam pads to build my scene inside the canvas and create a lot of depth. The large wolve's head was glued directly to the canvas frame using matte Decou-Page.

The outer edge of the canvas was covered with some washi tape that I added a coat of matte Decou-Page onto so it would not come off.

Using a wide tip black permanent marker I wrote my "HOOOWWWL" and shaded the letters with a white gel pen. I also drew thin white outlines around the inner and the outer edge of the canvas frame for better visual coherence.

On top of the writing and outlines I added another very thin wash of Phtalo Green-Blue and Prussian Blue Hue.

Some close ups:

and once more the whole project in its final state:

I hope you like my little spooky werwolf canvas and maybe you will want to use the background technique for loosely painting a forest background on your own projects. So as always I hope you leave inspired and of course with the extreme urge of desperately neeeeeding those wonderful MDF wood parts. ;)

Hugs and happy crafting!

Claudia

xxx