I had a fairly productive day again today, even with a bit of a late start. Word of advice: Snooze alarms don’t work when you press the off button instead! I tested the paint on the three-piece mixed media art that I worked on yesterday and it seemed fairly dry but I was still a bit leery since it was so thick so I put it aside for another day of drying. No sense in messing it up because I’m in a big hurry. And, to be honest, I’m suddenly a bit intimidated by all the open space that needs work.

I know once I start laying down color that feeling will disappear, so my plan is to MAKE myself do something to the piece tomorrow, no matter what! Since I didn’t work on that today I went back to working on the two pieces I started yesterday on illustration board.I think I mentioned yesterday that I planned to add copper paint to the pieces and so that was my first step.

I painted in random areas around each piece until I was pleased with the amount of copper color.

It still needed a little something else but I really didn’t want to add any other colors to the pieces so I went back in with black acrylic and filled in more “selectively random” areas on each piece until I was happy with the way they looked.

The final step was to peel off the masking tape that I had used to block out a border around each piece. Unfortunately some of the illustration board peeled up with the tape in a few areas, and there was one spot where some paint seeped under the tape and into the white space. Poop. Oh well, they can be matted, I was just trying to save that step (and expense) when I was ready to frame them. It’s possible I could try painting the border, I’m still debating on that. Anyhow, the first piece is at the top of the blog and here is the second.

Once those were finished I started a couple of new pieces. I like having several works going in different stages so I don’t have any down time when I finally have the time & inspiration to work. These are smaller pieces on 6 x 12″ cradled art boards. I rarely sketch before I paint so this was a bit different for me, I’m rather curious to see if I like working this way or not. I’ve been reading (again, some more!) several art books lately and am inspired to try lots of different things. This project was to go through old magazines and look at the photos upside down to find some interesting abstract compositions to jump start a project. I found a few different ones but these two seemed to be the ones I was drawn to the most. The end result may or may not look like the original sketch, it’s more for inspiration than it is to be copied exactly – unless that’s what I really want to do! Here are a few of the steps during the sketching of the first piece:

This is the end result of the second sketch, as well as the end result of my hand after I smudged and smeared the charcoal around until I was happy with it.

I tried different ways of applying the color to the canvases. The first piece I used a brush, spray bottle of water and lots of blending to start off.

After it had sat for a bit I went back in with a paper towel and blotted/blended the colors again.

For the second piece I used a palette knife and applied the paint with the side of the blade as well as the flat backside of the knife.

The final step for both these pieces was a layer of clear acrylic gel to add different amounts of texture to the pieces.

They are both waiting on my work table to continue adding colors and layers. The forecast is still including snow & cold for tomorrow and I decided it sounded like an excellent day to just stay in, stay warm & work in the studio. I re-scheduled a few of my errands and went out a took care of some others this evening. It wasn’t such a hard decision really, anytime I can stay in and make art that’s going to be my choice!

More news & updates tomorrow…

Lynne