Today I worked on two collages. It was slow going and I don't have much to show for the time I put into it, but there you go.
I wanted to try to bring out the detail I was seeing in the face of the giraffe-guy's companion. If you are standing close to the collage, you can see it pretty clearly. If you are farther away it is just dark. I don't know what else to do because I really like the way it doesn't take too much attention away from the giraffe-guy. This is the first time I have tried working with the dark areas instead of making a solid line...I don't shade well and I didn't want to lose the face I was seeing. I like how it has turned out so far. I like his hand now, too. I found that I had a dark blue fine tip permanent marker and I used that instead of black for the most part.
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| Overall -- "before". |
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| The companion -- "before" |
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| It is hard to see it in the photo, but it is the long nose area and mouth at the edge of the nose...sort of looks raccoon-ish here. |
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| The companion overall - "after". |
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| I like his hand a lot, too. |
The other collage I worked on is the one I turned upside down and tried to salvage with a very basic shape yesterday. I tried to make him look a little fluffier. Then I left it to dry.
Next I went back to the giraffe-guy. I want him to be done, but he isn't. I tweaked his eye just a teensy bit and I found a brown pen to give him an outline.
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| All I did was outline his eye. |
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| I am not sure I can do anything to show his thick eyelashes...I will probably leave them (rather than mess them up). |
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| The collage overall -- "after". |
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| Testing the collage for "done-ness" in the wacky frame that came with the original painting from the estate sale. I just don't know. |
Then I went back to the black monster guy. I cut out paper for his teeth and eyes and played with placement of the eyes and number of teeth. I am still half-considering giving him a set of pointy teeth on each edge (but probably not). I am always so surprised by how different a guy looks just by moving the placement of his eyes. I finally committed to the spots I wanted and put on the initial shapes. Then I went back and put a second coat of paint on. Then I went back in and did a little bit of shaping the edges. Then I went back with black and straightened out some of the teeth...but not too much...a monster would probably not go to the orthodontist.
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| These are a couple of examples of the look I am going for with the collage monster. I make variations on this guy a lot. |
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| Paper eyes and teeth...testing eye placement and number of teeth. |
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| He looks so much younger with the eyes here. |
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| And so different with the eyes here. |
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| I think a compromise is good...wide set eyes and not too low. |
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| This is how he ended up once I committed to actually applying paint. This is the first thin coat. |
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| After tweaking the shapes and coverage. I have a few ideas for this guy...I wonder how long it will be before I get back to it. |
