Saturday, March 12, 2011

TRIAL AND NO ERROR!

This started out as a nude from a Don Andrews workshop.  It wasn't terrible but it wasn't ever going to see a mat or frame so it was a perfect candidate for "repurposing" (I love the new phrases that come along!)
The colors were quite nice so I wanted some of that to show through.  I took a sheet of Japanese lace paper that had a very small grid pattern and layed it ontop of the painting.  Then I squeegeed gesso through the weave and lifted the lace paper off.  For some reason, although an acrylic product, does not act as a glue so I was able to get the paper off and let it dry.  It will be reusable many times!  The actual figure was still too obvious so I took some cheesecloth and layed it over the head and squeegeed more gesso over that and lifted it off.  I then proceeded to repeat this last action in several different areas.  When the gesso was dry, reversed the orientation of the painting with the (former) head on the bottom and then I positioned the tissue drawings onto the page, trying out various compositions, and settled on this one.  I drew around the figure with a damp brush and pulled the excess tissue away giving a soft broken edge rather than a cut one.  I glued the pieces down with diluted matte medium and was very impressed with the strength of this tissue paper.  I was surprised to find such a difference in the paper.  
Here is the result.  I like the mottled background with the little squares.  I am anxious to start painting on it.

8 comments:

Kirsten Søeballe said...

Thank you for showing the process.
I am very curious about the painting .
Kirsten

Autumn Leaves said...

I can't wait to see. I love those teeny little squares too! Looks like linen in spots.

Candy said...

Myrna, this is very interesting. I'm excited about seeing the finished painting.

Billie Crain said...

Fascinating post, Myrna. I love working with textures using acrylic gesso and have embedded crumpled tissue paper into it and painted over that with great results. Funny that you should mention the cheesecloth as I have been wondering if I could do the very same thing you've done here. Thanks!

One Woman's Thoughts said...

Great description and interesting process.
The photos are never as good as in person though because I'd like to see the details up close. As good as computer images can be, somehow artwork has it's limitations with clarity there.
I enjoy the way you share your process. I love playing with mixing up the medias and processes. It would be lovely to see all your work in person.

William Cook said...

I am excited to have found your site. I've been reading through some of these processes, and oh this is mighty good stuff. I've been working with similar techniques--only for completely different reasons. I like how you're combining them all in one piece. Oh is this exciting. You're opening up whole new vistas. Thank you so much for your postings. Wm

RH Carpenter said...

You are definitely the queen of texture! Love your experiments and can't wait to see this one coming together color by color, texture by texture.

Myrna Wacknov said...

thank you all for you comments. I like sharing the process. I have found that when I follow another's process ...to the letter...it still comes out differently. So I am hoping you all will try some of these things knowing they will be unique to you, also!

Related Posts with Thumbnails