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.

365 Day 358

keeping busy

Most of my daytime was spent taking things out of my studio that I don't absolutely have to have right in front of me and taking them down to the basement (now that I have room after the giveaway/clear out). I set up two of the 6 ft. white tables and stacked bins on them. I sorted out more things in the studio and by the end of the day I felt like I had accomplished a lot.


Ha -- I think I have finally made pretty darn good use of this storage rack thing. That second shelf has 10 small, sorted out bins on it...AND...I can see into them. Yay.















This linoblock taunts me every time I sit at the computer. I want to carve, but I have to do it in short bursts. I am not so sure anymore that this is totally salvageable, but I am going to keep working on it.










I really like these characters that came out of the automatic drawings in my sketchbook.

I have been wanting to try to make a large-sized one out of plaster cloth, but for now I will be content with...






...this guy filling in as a trial piece.

You can see how this broken up horse statue started out by looking
here and here.










So, this guy mocks me on the "save it for later" shelf daily. Tonight -- inspired by the guys on the linocut block -- I thought I'd give it another go.











The problem I was having previously (I think) was the tilt/turn of the horse's head/neck.












Coming off of the recent lesson(s) with the Scott's Xtreme Rags I decided to try to free form this guy tonight. I just let the rags and tape tell me how to do it.










I was kinda liking the look of this when the nostrils appeared...










...but then (apparently) the guides returned and took over. I was half-feeling like that first nose tonight was looking too horse-like and that I was being kind of cheaty pants-y.


I like this one much better...plus, I am not sure how it will turn out in the end.

And look how much his head is turning -- I was having so much trouble with that before!




I didn't stop to take photos because my hands were reeeeeally plaster-y and because I was working pretty wet so that I could hold the neck in place while it firmed up. (I know that doesn't seem to make sense, but it makes sense to me and if I look back at this I will know what I meant.)










Oooh -- I love that turning head!














In each of these photos I can see a different kind of face.

He is going to need ears. I don't know yet if he is shaggy or smooth or furry or just skin. Will he have horns? Tusks?














another view















Awww...look at his little mouth in this picture...so cute.













Yep, yep, yep...I like this guy now!

Day One Hundred Seventy-Seven

Here is a bit of dressage imagery for today...minus the cat girl's hat...perhaps that is why they placed second.

I can never get hats to work with animal ears.

This is another collage for my Art-o-mat® series called "Animal People".

Day One Hundred Forty-Eight

This is another collage for my Art-o-mat® series called "Animal People".

Day Ninety-Four

Links abound this morning!

I am going to swing by and pick up Juana a little later on and we will be going to visit with my other friends Casey and Jason at the Spring Fling craft show in Ferndale today.

But first, I made this collage for my "Animal People" series for Art-o-mat®.

I really like the pink and muted gold vine-y paper background. I've used it on a number of blocks for this series.