365/2013 - Day 127

a possible breakthrough on the large canvas

Off and on for most of the day I had in mind to work on the large repurposed canvas...the collage with the horse-creature guy.  This canvas/collage is turning into something totally different from the way I have been working on this series.  I originally had a cat-creature girl emerge behind the horse guy...then she morphed into a llama-like creature that morphed into a giraffe-like creature.  I was never fully happy with the way that (and the background) were turning out...and I have put a LOT of work into this so far...I don't mind changing things, but man -- this one is really unlike any of the others or any way I've made a collage before.  So, I was thinking of maybe finding a large picture of an actual animal and tracing the basic outline of it onto tracing paper and then somehow incorporating it into the collage...to totally cover the area that was that morphing creature.

The new "before".  I am happy with the way the various lighter colored papers have filtered out most of the old background.

As I was taking pictures of the "before" view, I was surprised to see a few guys emerging.  I don't know if you'll be able to see them or not, but I need to document them for myself.   I will say what I see, but I am choosing not to outline them/point them out so that they won't get locked into my head...maybe others will emerge.

another giraffe sort of guy is trying to come back into the collage

a long-nosed sighthound type of dog

another equine creature or equine/wildebeest or sighthound...keeps changing

And then when I was about to come over to the computer to write about this, THIS guy jumped out at me -- it felt like he nearly knocked me down...LOL.

can you see him?

closer view of his head/face

I penciled him in a little

He appears to be some sort of "masked" creature (raccoon/lemur?) who is looking downwards and wearing an apron or overalls.

I decided not to go any further with this tonight -- I need to get to know him a little better.  I learned my lesson on this collage with the morphing creature. 

2012/365 - Day 328

flurries and rushes of ideas
It has been a little hard to deal with the bombardment of ideas today.  I have tried (at times) to stop for a second to take notes or sketch the idea -- but you know I am not much of a sketchbook keeper.  I have lots of empty sketchbooks, I am just not all that able to get what I see in my head at the moment onto the paper in such a way that it will make sense to me later.

But today I gave it a shot a few times -- and who knows, maybe a phrase or goofy drawing will trigger something when I come back to it at another time?

First, as I was walking by this large repurposed canvas (canvas #6) I saw a whole grouping of creatures in the half-light of the room.  I had to outline them lightly with a pencil right then because I knew I wouldn't see them again if I looked for them.


the canvas as I walked by it in the dim lighting

(right now as I make this blog entry, I see an owl in the general area)

the grouping up close (and blurry)

a panda-like creature

a cat-chipmunk guy

a fennec








 

okay -- this is where the editing problems start and I am not going to fight with the editor any more tonight...everything from this point will be centered with no captions.  (okay, and now the photos won't center, either.)  ANYway...the real life creature below is a fennec.  The last canvas photo shows how I penciled in the outlines so I could find the creatures when I come back to this again.

  

 

Later in the day I saw this photo by Woodie Anderson on Facebook and I was instantly inspired.  I wrote to her to ask her if she had used gloves.  She wrote back:  "Not gloves, but close. I drew a pattern with my hand and sewed them .. Glove like, I guess ...." 

Which is cool because now -- when I finally get my project worked out all the way -- it will be obviously inspired by Woodie's work, but I will be using vinyl gloves and plaster cloth...so not a direct copy.

Later still, I was reading my book again and drifting in and out of drowsing, and I startled awake with the flurry of ideas and these are a few that I managed to get on paper:

I saw this in my head as some sort of fishy guy (or narwhal or whale or something) 

(okay...so now the editor is cooperating again?  Gah -- I don't get it!)

another page of trying to get stuff onto paper quickly

two details

more of the cut-then-sewn-together-strips-of-fabric idea

I am sure this was inspired by the quilting book Leann brought for us to look at during the last Wednesday at Joan's we had.

I decided to give the cut/sewn again strips a shot.

Aha!  "Inspector 12" is revealed!  It is Bootsy!

I smoothed out two pieces of fabric over each other and drew lines for the cutting.

I went back and marked them with numbers just in case.










dammit -- there goes the editor again!    I wasn't sure if the seams would match up -- that is the reason for the numbers.

(and now it is working again? -- ai-eeeeeee!)

All of the strips cut up and the leftovers are folded together.  And yes, I did allow myself to throw away some small pieces.

Seams sewn for two strips...now to put them together.

   

Maybe this will work!

Yep -- it looks like it is working!

I called Sue real quick and she said she'd gather up some more of the color-changing shirts that are defective or just not selling.  Yay!

LOL -- this fabric cracks me up when I am using it...it takes on my hand print so easily!










Okay -- that's enough wrestling with the blog entry editor for one night! 

2012/365 - Day 135

more experimenting

I am not really sure what the major difference is, but somehow I don't think today was as successful as last night (so far).  I will figure it out, but I did pretty much the same thing to darken the llama/giraffe girl's neck that I did to the llama lady in the other collage.  

Same colors as last night...

"before"

"after"

 

I don't know...the photos look better than the real-life collage.  Maybe I need to make her outline even darker because she is a little farther back than the horse.

Maybe it is that this is just so much larger compared to the other canvas.

It will all get worked out in due time.

2012/365 - Day 133

tweaking the collage

It is going to be a while yet before I feel better...and the weather isn't helping my allergies much, either.  And climbing down out of my sister's very tall truck and back up into it about 30 times on Thursday is just compounding everything today and adding a new twist.  I didn't feel it yesterday...it always hits you two days after it happens, doesn't it?  Oh well.  Moving on...

Tonight I tweaked the horse guy in canvas #6.  I want to make him and the llama/giraffe girl stand out from the background but I don't want to lose the background because I'd like the viewer to possibly see the other creatures I see emerging from the papers...I don't want to cover them up.

I am using Golden Cobalt Blue acrylic glaze over the layers of collage papers and matte medium to add color to the horse guy's shirt.

I want to be able to still see the papers through the glaze.

This is the "before" photo.  Any blue in the shirt in this view is blue collage paper.

Here is a close up of the area when I first started adding the glaze...quite a difference, but you can still see through it.

It is a little hard to see with this lighting, but look at the luscious colors in the sleeves with the teal paper and blue glaze.

I want this shirt to look like one of those baseball jerseys with the sleeves that are a different color from the body of the shirt.  I think they are baseball jerseys.

Overall shot of the canvas "after" the glaze. 

I wonder how it will look when it is dry.  I wonder if I will be able to buff it a little to tweak the color more.  I will probably add a thin black line to separate the sleeves from the chest area of the shirt.

That's enough for now...it took longer than it looks like it did.

2102/365 - Day 109

can a change be big AND subtle at the same time?

I've been trying to find a way to tone down the giraffe/llama's neck area and cover up the blue and pink spots, but still be able to have her neck stand out from the background papers AND look different than the horse's nose.  This is canvas #6.

Last week I met up with Karen Monroe to talk about Art-o-mat prototypes.  I know Karen through Leann and the Artist Trading Card Exchange group.  At the end of our session Karen gifted me with some really great rinsed out and dried tea bags...in two colors (from different tea types) (sorry, I'm not a tea drinker...not sure if that is the right terminology).

Karen said one color was from the kind of tea she drinks and the other is from the one her husband likes.  She hadn't had much luck yet with working with the tea bags for her artwork so she brought me a good sized stack to try out. 

VOILA!  They are JUST what I needed for this canvas!

I am working with the lighter ones on the left.

Here is a long-ish shot of the area I need to tone down.

A little closer...the pink and blue aren't quite right for this canvas.

A close up of the area I will work on.

I've never handled tea bags much -- not to mention used, then rinsed out and dried ones.

They are very easily torn and you can keep the thinly folded over edges in tact!

And best of all for my purposes -- you can see right through them once they are applied to the surface of the collage!

I was able to put on a thin layer of matte medium, cover over the Neutral Gray outline I have and adhere the torn pieces to the areas.

You can see in this photo that the edges of the tea bags make marvelous new outlines for the neck.

AND...

...they alter the surface color just enough, plus it is a whole different texture and weight difference from the horse's nose.

PLUS the areas where the torn tea bags shapes overlap create another dimension of color spots for the giraffe/llama.

Most of the left side of the neck is covered -- see? --

BIG changes, yet subtle changes -- both at the same time!

I can't wait to see how it looks when it is totally dry.


Thank You SO much, Karen!

2012/365 - Day 89

working on canvas #6

Llama-like creatures have been trying to surface all over the place on canvases #6, #7, and #8 pretty much from the first reading. My sister was never that fond of the spotted cat in this one and pointed out yet another llama-like character. I spent a long time thinking about it and looking at the collage and I finally had to agree. Now I hope I don't mess it up.



Here is the canvas at the beginning of today's session...horse guy and spotted cat girl.


















Say goodbye, spotted cat girl!



















Here is the llama-like creature. Now I need to cover up the spotted cat and try to define the llama-like creature.















I moved to the dining room table and put more pieces of the papers I used so far. I am not very good at deliberately adding paper to create negative spaces. This collage has the most deliberately added torn pieces of paper than I have ever done.

Covering up the spotted cat wasn't that difficult...keeping the lines I was seeing as the outline of the new creature while trying to add something other than what is in the horse was pretty hard for me.



I'm not sure I care for the light pink and light blue but they are sort of close to the colors of the flowers in the canvas's original painting. I added creamy colored unryu paper to tone the pink and blue down a bit.




I stood the canvas up and decided to take a break for dinner. This is where I left off -- I also toned down that really dark tall ear on the horse.














Coming back after dinner I decided that the horse did not want a pink mane like I had originally planned...although it might've made me feel a bit better about the pink (and blue) in the llama.








I worked on it for a long time...and this is how I decided to leave it for the night.

I added the dark brown mane and toned down the dark green on the horse's muzzle area (easier to see in person)...it is not so stark of a contrast now. I lightened areas of both ears on the horse.

I tried to add more of the greens and creams to either side of the llama (now giraffe/llama creature) and also on the left of the horse's ear.

I had been fighting a horrible allergy/sinus headache and accompanying annoyances all day and I finally had to give in and take Benadryl just before dinner. It took a longer time to kick in than it usually does, but man -- it kicked in! I barely had enough time to cover the canvas overall with a good coat of matte medium and get the photos up on the blog before I really started going under. I was cracking myself up trying to add the photos -- I kept reloading the same ones and nodding off for a second or two in between...geez.





This is the canvas drying in the drying spot.



















This is the llama/giraffe's neck -- no more spotted cat.












Another view of the piece in the drying area.

From this angle you can sort of see where I lightened the end of the horse's nose and also defined its sleeves.

I am quite fond of this one now. I sort of miss the spotted cat creature, but I am pretty happy with the llama/giraffe (for now).

I think the rest will have to be tweaked with paint...enough of the paper manipulation.