2015 | Day 47

Day Forty-Seven

Well, that was disappointing.  I went to grab my bag of torn up blue Unryu paper to work on Wolfy but darn it -- I must have used the end of it.  I can't find it in any of my paper spots...I found all of the other sorted bags of torn paper...even the very end of the blue marbled paper...but none of the dark blue.  Then I found a tiny scrap of it along with a couple of other remnants of blue papers.  I need to make a run to Hollander's in Ann Arbor.  I love going there but it takes so much restraint not to leave with a couple hundred buck's worth of incredible papers.

This small strip is all I have left of the dark blue Unryu paper that I used for Wolfy. 

And I thought I might be able to use a small amount of this paper for highlights or something but it is just too light.

Specifically, I am after Unryu papers.  I seem to use them the most.   Oh well...so much for getting back to work on Wolfy tonight.  Hopefully I can get to Hollander's in a few days.

2012/365 - Day 162

the results of the re-papering and a very unexpected surprise

First, here are some shots of how the Unryu paper (in forest green) dried on the beast.  I like it.  I will need to do more painting on him, but for now I am very pleased with the results.

I had to put the beast behind my monitor so I would quit touching the surface while he dried overnight.  

Even the "problem" area on his left rear leg looks good.

It is so hard to get the little point-and-shoot camera to "see" what I am seeing...it distorts the angles quite a bit when I get in too close...but you can sort of get the feeling for how the forest green paper has blended with the original paint layers and gives a whole new layer to the other paper.

The Unryu paper smoothed into the dips and creases pretty darn well!

Yep...overall I am very pleased (so far).







And now, for the surprise...







Fellow blogger/artist Bridget McAlonan nominated me for Versatile Blogger Award.  I read Bidget's blog and we have some mutual Facebook friends and a mutual real life friend.  I've never heard of this award, but it is pretty fun to be a recipient of it!

This is how Bridget's blog post about receiving it looks.  Here is a link for the blog post.

There are guidelines/rules for this award -- and you know how I am about following rules -- so here goes:

• Thank the person who gave you this award
• Include a link to their blog
• Next, select 5 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly
• Nominate those 5 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award
• Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself

 These are the five blogs I would like to give the award to:
1.  Elin Waterston and her wonderful blog will . love . logic -- this is where I finally decided I needed to do my own 365-blog.  I first met Elin through Art-o-mat.
2.  William Hessian and his boundless imagination/enthusiasm/energy/talent at his main blog Bearded Bunny Blog.  Among countless other things, William is a fellow Arto-artist and the creator of the Miniature Art Hunt...coming to Northville June 22-23!  (This is Bridget/my mutual real life friend.)
3.  Woodie Anderson and her always delightful blog:  taste kills creativity.  Woodie is another fellow Arto-artist...and you really must check out her Etsy shop!
4.  Leann Meixner and her ever entertaining blog Leannderthal.  Leann is another real life friend and amazing artist and eraser carver...as well as a future Arto-artist.  (hmmm...a theme is beginning to develop here...)
5.  Juana Moore and her jam-packed Clea's Cave -- Juana is another real life friend (and hey, Arto-artist) and incredible artist.  Juana was the first person I knew with a blog.  We have collaborated on many Arto-blocks and we are Magic:  the Gathering players, too.   And here is a link to the blog for the Arto-series Juana and I collaborate on:  Penciled In.  (on a side note...William and I are collaborating on an edition of Penciled In, and I am also making a DIY version)

 

And here you go, Bridget...7 things about me:

1. I am a triple Capricorn and most of the things you hear about Capricorns really apply to me -- except for the being good with money and the love of history.
2. I love to turn my tongue blue...cotton candy, jawbreakers, bubble gum, popsicles, candy canes, etc.
3. I wear mismatched pajamas almost 24/7.  I only get "dressed" when I have to.
4. I don't mind dental work because I  * love * nitrous oxide.  Seriously.
5. I am afraid of real life rabbits.
6. I love to spin in circles.  
7. I really hate being outside.

Thanks, Bridget -- I hope you enjoy checking out my favorite blogs/bloggers!

2012/365 - Day 161

Unryu paper to the rescue (again)

I've used Unryu paper to cover up paint messes before.  Now I am using it to cover up/add another layer to the surface I have been papering for the last three days. (I just tried to look that other paper up...I couldn't find the exact one but it is either a Japanese or Thai paper with inclusions...I will find it eventually.)

So this time it is Unryu paper in forest green doing the rescuing.

LOL -- it almost looked like I had pulled off the other paper after the first piece of Unryu was on.

This paper is very very lightweight and fiber-y.  When it became wet with the matte medium (in this particular application) it became very easy to rip and also almost mushy -- so I had to be extremely aware of the pouncing of the brush when I was laying it down...but I still wanted it to conform to the dips and uneven surface...no air pockets if possible.

This is with just the first piece added.

This is when I was done (for today).

This was after I cleaned up the area and set him back on the desktop.

When he started to dry a little I knew I wanted to go back and smooth out the pounced marks.

There was also this trouble area on his left rear leg.  See how the paper is almost melted and mushy?  

I added a few more teensy pieces of paper and smoothed them on with just my gloved finger and matte medium -- no pouncing with the brush.

  

I really need to stop touching it now and just let it dry all the way. 

I can't wait to see how it looks tomorrow because at this moment it looks pretty good -- the forest green Unryu paper is blending back in with the original remaining paint colors.

2012/365 - Day 50

working on the ghosts and monster piece again

I realized this morning that -- duh -- I don't have to only make something out of plaster cloth for the upcoming shows I want to submit things to. Sheesh.


Remember this? The ghosts and monster?


This is how it looked this morning, "before".




The colors are a bit off with this lighting.






Here is the monster "after" a little more work this morning.



Then I moved onto ghost number one.






I have never really cared for the way ghost number one looked...but I wasn't having much luck with the various ways I'd been altering him.

Today I decided to go at him from a different angle and use pink unyru paper to see what that would do in layers.

In this photo I have put on gel medium with my gloved fingers and added a few torn pieces of the paper and then put more gel medium on top. I wanted to get the paper very wet so it would still be see through.

It is difficult for the camera to pick up the textures and the color (apparently) so I am settling for showing the difference in how the paper looks when it is going down...wet on the left and not down yet/dry on the right.

I think the inclusions in the paper will add to the ghosty look.

These two photos are how it looked as I was working...across the canvas, not up and down.






There...the camera is still not really sure what to focus on, but you can see the colors in the very wet paper layers.


In this photo I had turned the canvas and was trying to smooth out the gel medium a little.










The rest of these photos are just progress-while-drying shots.


ghost number one















ghost number two...didn't do anything to him today

















monster















This is a shot of the entire canvas as it looks hanging on the wall. Ghost number one is still very wet.

I'm not done with this yet.

2012/365 - Day 30 -- part two

photos from the construction stages

Here are some photos of the cat-creature changing during the construction process.






Originally I was thinking the head, hands and tail would be a blue color, with the hands being covered by gloves and a sort of glove-like garment on the tail.








And then things started going downhill with the colors and paint. The blue became way too intense with the addition of a glaze.










I was SO stuck on the choosing the colors part. I didn't know what I wanted to do with the clothes.

Then I tried out some different colors of Unryu papers.















I decided that since I was also showing Chime Cat (whose full title is "Chime Cat Visits Cloud City), I wanted to tie the two pieces together thematically somehow.

Then it occurred to me that the cat-creature could be a resident of Cloud City. It made a little bit of sense that perhaps the cat-creature's face could be cloudy and so could her skirt. She needed the gloves and tail cover because it is cold in Cloud City.







Then -- after the first layer of paper -- where the blue was overlapping -- it seemed like I could see things emerging. Sort of like making shapes from the clouds.

I started to darken the shapes I was seeing...then I realized you'd have to be across the room to notice them...you couldn't really see them close up...so that idea got scrapped, but I was stuck with the images showing through.

I figured maybe I could layer paint on and have it look like clouds. After playing around with that a bit I figured out it would be better to layer paper on as clouds and the inclusions in the paper would add to the texture of the clouds.




So my sister and I made a quick trip out to Hollander's in Ann Arbor for some white Unryu paper. It just happened that a new paper was being priced and put out. It was laying on the counter when we got to the register.

I thought wow -- I could (try to) make "clothes" on the cat-creature...but I don't sew and I am not a pattern maker.

I did what I could and it started to come together.











Oooh that paper is just gorgeous!



















The front and back of the top seemed to go pretty well.














The arms were another story all together. But I kept working with the paper and got to know it better and found ways to make it work.

















One night it was just a PAR-TAY in the studio!

















I was still going with the "cloudy" theme.

















Still too "scared" to try the white paper on top of the blue.

















And I was still going with the idea of the gloves and tail garment.














This is the cat-creature laying on the drying rack so that I could work on it.

Oh man...this is where I made the horrible, no turning back mess. And yes, I really do hate to paint. And the paint was getting on the paper and I was really beginning to question whether I would finish before the deadline.





Then the guides arrived and I started tearing the white paper into 19 million little tiny pieces and each one had to be glued and layered to get rid of those horrible colors on the tail. This process took days.














But at one point I started thinking that maybe the tail was also a cloud and that the tail and the clouds on the skirt could blend together.


















And I started liking that you could still see a little bit of blue and yellow in the tail through the paper.














And then I re-gesso'd the face and hands and went with yellow.

I took a photo of the yellow face and played with it in my photo program trying to come up with something, ANYthing.

I stumbled onto something I liked and I asked if any of my painter friends could maybe coach me on how to achieve the look I was going for.







I tried mixing a lighter shade of yellow.

This was in preparation for Peggy to come over and give me a hand.

I showed Peggy the print out of what I wanted and she mixed the colors for me and then figured out how to get the effect and then walked me through applying the paint. Leann was also here for support and encouragement...and a little later that morning Joan and Alex dropped by, too.




While Peggy and Leann were here I painted the face and was very happy with it. Later I did the eyes and ears on my own.

I was going for a different color of green but the lighter shade wouldn't accept the darker second shade and I had to start over. By accident this color got mixed onto the eyes as I was painting and I really love the color. I will never be able to repeat it, but I love it.



It took all night (and quite a bit of sedation) for me to get up the nerve to mark the make up lines and then finish them.


But I think the overall look was achieved.

I was going for a chalkware kind of look with Julie Driscoll-inspired eye make up.









And here are the "glamor shots" from the photo session in the living room. I didn't count on the challenge of taking uncluttered photos of such a tall piece. When I win the lottery I may invest in backdrops and lights...but for now this will do.






That light blue on the cheeks is "interference blue" -- it sort of appears as you walk around the cat-creature and it catches the light.

A number of the clouds on the skirt and tail also have the interference blue added.















































































I spent two days spraying archival varnish on the piece and let it sit for an additional two days (for the aroma of the varnish to dissipate a bit). That is why I chose the last day for my drop off day. Leann helped me transport the two pieces to the Art House and Joan helped Leann carry the pieces up the stairs to the upper gallery.

I am very excited to be a part of the 6th Annual Member Exhibition at the Northville Art House -- and to have Chime Cat on the postcard for the show!