Embroidered Collage

This time I decided to try knife painting.  The motivation was to complete four 4"x6" paintings for a swap at Experimental Acrylics, but I realized if I used larger paper I could also get some ATCs in.  And then, I thought that I really ought to try some of the small canvases as well, since this was a good opportunity for batching and doing something different.  I put a thin layer of paint on each piece with a foam brush to provide a foundation and then moved forward.  The above picture shows the evening's work overall.

I wouldn't call anything actually done yet.  Even the orange work in the lower right still needs some stitching in the center, even though the painting portion is complete.  I want to see how the stitches nestle among the rich globs of paint.  The canvas in the upper left has metal bits embedded in that drying heavy gel medium and needs the most work.  The other two canvases will probably get some colored pencil work before I add stitching.  The papers need to be cut down to the appropriate sizes before I can go further.

But the experiment was a great success.   I enjoyed working with the two plastic palette knives that I could find.  I know I had more in the packet at one point...  Having those be the tools at hand encouraged me to think in terms of building up and scraping down, whether it was for covering entire piece with paint or only a portion.  I found myself working more cautiously with the paper than the canvases, which might have been because of size, but perhaps also because the heavy watercolor paper started buckling quickly so I was a bit more hesitant to do unusual things to it.  I'll talk more about the individual pieces as I get to them.

The most important lesson learned - palette knives are FUN.  I need to use them again, definitely.