Monday, July 28, 2008

FIRST TRY AS AN ACTUAL PAINTING!




Yesterday was my turn to sit at Gallery Concord, so I took some Tyvek and my liquid watercolors and spent the time doing a painting of my image. This was not intended to be a serious painting. I wanted to see positioning on the page and use some color and figure out a few things. The paper was damaged in that it had some creases that don't come out. This paper is so inexpensive that it is very freeing. I don't need to worry about wasting materials.

I drew directly with a watercolor crayon. These things never photograph well. If you click on the image, you can probably see it better. I started with the nose shape, positioning it on the page where I thought I could get the lower part of the head and some of the garment on before running out of paper. I also wanted room at the top for the lettering. I had to laugh when I realized I had positioned the head with the eyes in the absolute center of the page! I was able to correct the drawing by wetting a tissue and rubbing out the incorrect line and redrawing.

The second image is fairly far along in the process. I used the oiler boiler from Cheap Joe's loaded with diluted blue watercolor to write the words. I had the paper upright so that everything would run. I rather like the effect and I like how the color runs through the hair on the right side. I also like how the image and the background trade places in areas....become somewhat ambiguous. It creates an air of mystery. I also like how the writing is mostly lost except in a few areas. What I don't like is the pose. I have decided I am through working with this image. I am going to use the one on the Strokes of Genius 2 drawing. Hopefully I can get that started tomorrow.

The last image is how I finished it up. I started drawing lines with my Dragon's Tongue brush. I might have gotten a little carried away but I didn't really care. I learned some interesting things from this experiment so my objectives were accomplished. It was a lot of fun to play with and the time passed quickly.

On the way home I stopped at this incredible stamp store in Danville. The place is huge and filled with too many tempting things. I was looking for an alphabet that had large letters so I could try it out on the next version of this painting. I not only found an alphabet, but 3 or 4 other stamps as well. It only took me about 5 minutes to do all this financial damage. Tomorrow I shall put it all to good use.

5 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

Myrna, I find the pose just too disconcerting for some reason. It's as if you've fallen down and I'm looking down at you or I've fallen down and am looking up your nose with your expression saying, "Good heavens, there she goes, on the ground again!!!" I like where you are going with this and love how you handle the Tyvek so I'll look for the next one...

Myrna Wacknov said...

Rhonda, that's very funny! I love your description. Now that you mention it, I do appear to be on the floor looking up. I knew there was something unsettling about this image. On to the next one!

Anonymous said...

I like the way you explore different angles and expressions. It will be fun to see what you do with the letters; standing by!

Nava said...

Whew you've been busy while I was away! That image is very powerful, and very emotional.

To me it looks more like you're just about to sing or speak in public, and you are terrified of the occasion, but at the same time you know you can do it. (I know the feeling very well).

David K Small, artist said...

I know tyvek as what the postal envelopes (flimsy ones) are made of. We use it in quilted art (surface texture and embellishments) as it bubbles and shrinks with very little heat (blow dryer). I have samples of some that bubbled just from sunlight coming in a window. I was shocked to see you paint on it with watercolors. Nice results though. Won't it rub off easily? Where are you getting it in nice sheets like that? I would like to test some see if it is what we use. THANKS.

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