Circus Canvas Art

 This project is 3 months in the making, I have been working on it off and on since Christmas and have finally finished.  I started really strong, build the ship right away make the circus tents but then I slowed...  The painting needed to be completed in several stages to allow for drying time, figuring out construction of sails etc...  Finally I stopped procrastinating and got it done.  And the final product

Canvas Size 24"x36"

The ship sticks out approx 6" from the canvas.

I added texture with light modeling paste and painted the canvas with acrylic paint.

Lots of layers of paint.

The circus tents are made with thin chipboard, cut, bend and shape into tents.  I wanted the tents to have a fabric look so I covered them with light modeling paste to add texture.  Paint the tents.

To highlight the texture on the tents, painted with watered down brown paint allow to dry slightly then wipe off the excess.  The brown settles into the grooves, nooks and crannies.  Finally dry brush with white paint, the white hits the high edges and highlights the texture.  You now have highlights and shadows.

Love this photo, the shadow the tents and string make on sails.

All tent bases are made with large chipboard gears.  The chipboard gears have two purposes, they look fun!  And the center holes are the same size as the wood dowels so the act as the anchor on masses top and bottom.

Same goes for the gears on the top of tents.  The center holes are the same size as the small wood dowel (flag poles) and used to anchor flags to the tents.

Sails are made from thin foam sheets you can buy at the dollar store, cut to shape then covered with light modeling paste also to give a fabric look.

This part was challenging, positioning the masses just right so there isn't too big of a gap between masses and canvas.  

I wanted the ship to look like it was flying away so it is build with a 6" depth at the back and flat at the front.  This helps when constructing ship because you can see the construction so it doesn't need to look pretty.

I think my favorite part is the rope from sails to railing, creating fun shadows, and that final finishing touch.

This piece is FOR SALE on my etsy store

Used this reference photo from Eve Skylar, loved the tents.  Also used this video from Creative mom to make the ship, my pattern didn't work as good but i made it work.