When Tina Walker put up a prompt on Facebook asking her fellow artists to make some prayer flags, I was excited to try something new. I had seen pictures of people’s mixed-media prayer flags blowing in the breeze and was already picturing my finished prayer flag full of glitter and fringe and pizzazz.
Then I started to think about what I pray about each day. What are the prayers that sit on my heart and are ever-present in my mind? These prayers are for the ladies of my church. I travel through their lives with their burdens becoming my prayers and their woes becoming my heart’s deepest wishes. These prayers are for peace and calm in a busy lady’s life, courage through health scares, and patience for the mothers of the group. My time spent in prayer to God also connects me to these ladies’ lives.
In this realization, I decided to put women on my prayer flags to represent the women that I care for deeply and pray for daily.
Supplies:
- StencilGirl Art Deco Wallpaper Stencil by Nathalie Kalbach
- Canvas Banner pieces
- Dina Wakley paints: Apricot, Heather, Aloe, Sand, Mineral
- Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks, Set 3
- Stabilo All Marking Pencil
- Gesso or white paint
- Recycled Sari Ribbon, Peach
DIY Prayer Flags Instructions:
Add streaks to each banner piece with Dina Wakley paints in Apricot, Heather, Aloe, Sand, and Mineral. Because the banner pieces are not primed and are made of raw canvas, the paints won’t spread a whole lot and will soak through the canvas. I used the 1 oz paint containers with the small applicator tips, so I added dots of the paint directly to the canvas, then smeared them with a paint brush.
Leave some of the raw canvas visible.
Stencil with the Art Deco Wallpaper Stencil and white paint. I used a sponge applicator, but left some parts barer than others to give it a truly painterly look.
Splatter each piece with some Dylusions Spray Ink in Bubblegum. I like to just unscrew the sprayer from the top and hold it upside down to flick ink onto my work. Be warned: no matter how careful I am with the splattering, I still get spray ink everywhere, stain my fingers, and end up having to wash the entire kitchen!
For this next step, I sketched an oval shape for the face, a long and skinny neck, and a rectangle/trapezoid for the shoulders. The hair is made by making wavy shapes on the page. There is no wrong shape for this hair and I mixed in a few styles into my ladies.
Once you are happy with the sketch of your women, you can fill it in with white paint or gesso. I used white paint, but realized gesso would have worked better about halfway through drawing their faces.
Add a base layer of Dina Wakley paint for the hair, then add some streaks with a complementary color.
As you can see below, some of the ink may come through the white paint. I thought it added to the charm, but if you want to avoid this, then you’ll just want to block the face section with paper before you splatter your banner. No matter how many layers you paint, Dylusions spray ink tends to float to the top and show through.
To draw each face, I drew only the top half of the oval eyes, then drew in a circle for the iris and a pupil. The nose is an L-shape, or upside down 7, connecting to the eyebrows. I outlined each of these in the darkest color of the Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks. I also outlined her hair with a few loose lines, and the rest of her body.
In the end, the eyes were quite dark enough to stand out, so I re-outlined them with Stabilo All Marking Pencil. I also added a bit of color to the iris of each eye by using the Scribble Sticks like a watercolor, using water and a fine-tip brush.
Each lady’s body is just some random scribbles with the Scribble Sticks that I blended with water.
Remember to keep the lines loose. The Scribble Sticks get flat pretty easily, so don’t expect sharp, defined lines.
I hope you enjoyed my prayer flags tutorial and that you are able to paint your prayers as well.
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