Floating Hearts!

As a cool Valentine's Day project, we made these Jim Dine-style "floating" hearts. I love how the hearts look like they are popping off the page!


We've made these floating hearts twice before, but I always get requests to make them again! This time I'll show you step-by-step how to make these beauties.



You'll need a piece of 140 lb. 9 x 12 watercolor paper,  bleeding tissue paper in several colors, pencil, acrylic paint, white soft pastels, charcoal pencils (soft), and soft charcoal sticks. 

Cut the tissue paper into squares or strips. Paint the paper with water and lay the tissue over it. Use your brush to paint water over the tissue as well to ensure the color bleeds through it. 

Dry the background with a blow dryer until all of the tissue flies away and the remaining background colors are dry. Draw a heart shape in the center and paint it a few shades of red using black or orange to mix them.

Outline the heart with charcoal pencil. Press hard. Decide which side the light source will come from, and lightly add charcoal to the other side of the heart. Blend the charcoal into the heart and along the edge of the background with your finger to create shadows. Continue to add charcoal shadows, rubbing  and blending as you go. With the white pastel, add highlights to the heart. You can also add a little charcoal to your background for additional dimension and interest. 

You can see our floating hearts from previous classes here and here.

Happy Valentines Day!