Embroidered Collage

This entry was supposed to be pics from this months calendar.  But my camera ate them. :( And I mailed it this morning.  So - no pics.

But I do have a drawing.  I hadn't practiced at ALL.  So I spent my time at Amanda's just drawing this time, no new techniques.  The shells ended up being a bit of a challenge, but I think I did a pretty decent job.  It just takes so much focus and so much time....  Weird that someone who does fabric art complains about time, maybe it's the extended period of focus that feels so different.

I feel like I'm moving in the right direction.  My favorite part of making this pair was really moving the pigment around with the water, getting the interesting edges and light coloring.  The colors are a little richer in real life, by the way.  I'm also beginning to wonder if I'm going to want to leave prints as just prints or if I'm going to want to build them up with stitch and collage, just in a different way than the paintings.  Also, would I like some pieces to be diptychs, with both images framed together?  If I trimmed the size down to 11x7 then both could be matted together into a 16x20 frame, also.

So on Friday I tried a larger composition again.  I had purchased the Dover book with multiple photomicrographs of snowflakes, so I decided to play with that.  I was not happy with the result, again.  It look so amateurish, and not in a good folk art sort of way.  But the print - ah, that went wonderfully.  This was Copperplate paper, unsized and a mix of cotton and sulphite.  It soaked up the water and stayed damp.  It soaked up the water beautifully and had a nice feel when dry.

I thought about it awhile and wondered why I was really trying to draw solid shapes like this.  Part of what I like about the technique is that it captures a stage in the evolution of the image.  I don't really WANT the print to look exactly like the finished painting.  Well, likely I'll collage and stitch, too, but even if I don't there should be some alteration.  I also thought about Jacey's comment about my expression.  As much as  I want to draw realistically for my own sake, I don't really want to create realistic art.  So on Saturday I tried something else.

I rather like this one.  It's still a little awkward, but I'm getting closer to something worthwhile.  I used the Johannot Art Paper for the print this time and it was also successful.  It didn't soak up the water as much as the Copperplate, I had to run it under the water multiple times for it to soften up, but it took the print nicely.

I had been going to do a carefully systematic exploration of my 84 colors, but this is what happened instead.  I might have missed one or two, but I've got a pretty good feel for how they will all look now.  I rearranged them a little from the way they came in the box so some of the color families were clearer.  I think the reasons there were so many greys is to give more options in modifying the colors as you put them on the paper, but I haven't gone there yet.

The prints varied in quality, but I definitely liked the paper.  I bought a pad of Dick Blick brand relief printmaking paper for these smaller pieces.  It's thinner than the full sheets and soaks up water nicely then feels dry to the touch very quickly.  I might want to try it a little wetter, or print standing next to the sink.  Some colors only seem to print well if they are applied very thickly.

My husband took a look at these and said "Suns."  I blinked up at him, while on the floor starting a large piece, and he explained.  "That's our sun, and that's Krypton, and that's the Hulk, and those are planets, and that's, hmmm, that's Bizarro World.  The planets are square there."  This cracked me up, though I see his point.

These are the first layers of paint for five 6"x6" abstracts on stretched canvas which, when completed, will each also feature a stone pendant and a little other stitching and beading.  You can see four of the pendants at the etsy listing where I bought them.

Yesterday I felt like my art was a collapsed house of cards.  The optimistic and realistic thoughts followed immediately, but that deflation was painful.

Facts first, then yet more metaphors :) .  I decided that before I did the analytic work with the colors that I wanted to play more first.  I tried doing a landscape - basing it off a Dover image - on the 11x15 paper with my new Neopastels.  blocked in the shapes, then added color, then added complexity.  It looked funny.  Not, hey, interesting abstraction funny, but wrong funny. I added some lops and hoops to change the interest around.  Finally I decided I'd done as much as I could so I went to print.

The thicker printmaking paper I'd purchased didn't soak up water very well.  At first printing I barely picked any color up even though I brayered a great deal.  So I took the paint brush to the drawing and then, with it wet, took a second printing.  Still didn't work too well.  Interesting effect, but not intended.  I ended up taking the brush to the pigment on the print too, something I wouldn't have been able to do with the Japanese paper, and spread it around a little more.

And I sat back and looked at them and thought - yech.  Bleach.  Nope.  And the realization came crashing down that I had been pinning a certain number of my hopes to success in a medium based on DRAWING, which "I can't do".  Yes, I'm working on the drawing thing, but the inner voice hasn't been converted yet, so I cringed.  I could feel the yawning cavern between where I was and where I wanted to be and had hoped to be soon.  And I believed I had greatly overestimated my skills and underestimated the work.  It felt like I'd just completely crossed off an option I was interested in.  That it was gone and I couldn't succeed going that way.

At the same time, though, the other thoughts began.  I chose a subject matter that I had basically no practice in - the buildings were really what was throwing me off.  I didn't plan out the subject ahead of time, even though I was working on a larger scale than I was used to.  This was my first try and had I really expected it to turn out perfect?  Next time would be better.  I really liked the possibilites here and I wasn't going to let go because of one not so good picture.  There were even bits in it I still liked.

So I'll reapproach my intent and try again and it will be better.  And it's very good that I took a risk and leapt, but I definitely missed the rope and got that falling feeling.  I hate that feeling. 

The landing wouldn't have been so bad if my head hadn't been getting ahead of the work of my hands.  I had been thinking that I'd smoothly transition into these slightly larger works and the prints and collages from the paintings would be a great entry into competing in more exhibits and having art to list at higher priced venues and such.  I could complete any given work much faster than my fiber pieces; it would be cool.

Back to the reality of developing my skills.  I'll be working on both pieces further, seeing what I can turn them into using collage or overpainting or other assorted techniques.  Some of my best collages started as images I didn't like.  And if that doesn't work, well, I'm sure I'll find an area worth cropping to an 8x10.   As I start working larger I may need to spend more time with my sketchbook, also, working out issues ahead of time.  And this weekend I'll try an 11x15 again, probably with subject matter I've done successfully small.  And I'll really soak the print paper.  And we'll see.  :)