Artist Perpetually in Progress
A journal about my journey towards the complex, layered work I dream of making.
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Entries from June 1, 2008 - July 1, 2008
Background Beginning for Three Arches
Friday, June 27, 2008 at 11:10AM in Collage 
I'm starting another 8x10 piece with a 11x14 canvas background. This time I began by laying down papers. I could have developed a collage simply from here, but that's not what I have in mind. I have a really cool piece of arched lace that I want to be the focus of the finished piece. The next step is painting and unifying the background so that all of what you see now fades together.
Evening Dawns Completed
Sunday, June 22, 2008 at 03:07PM in Collage 
The bird on a branch piece has a name - "Evening Dawns" - to go with its completion. The muted background and the owlish appearance of the bird inspired the name. This picture shows accurately where the "cropping" ended up when I took the canvas off the 11"x14" bars and wrapped it around the 8"x10" bars. I'm very pleased with how it turned out.
I actually did the last bits a week or so ago, but have been distracted by other things and mulling over what my next canvas piece should be.
See the most recent posts about the bird and the background.
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 10 to12
Sunday, June 15, 2008 at 09:21PM in Drawing I did go back to patterns for some of these drawings. I wondered what would happen if I expanded one ring and added designs to it and also what would happen if I divided the field of the drawing, so I tried two of each.
My mind drifted and I tried something intended to be a landscape. It was okay, but not impressive, so I abstracted and rounded the idea further for the next page. This is more appealing, but I'm not really happy with it either.
I think I prefer the drawings where I'm more careful and regular with my lines and the thickness of those lines is narrower in proportion to the size of the page. I'll definitely be returning to the ideas in those first two spreads again.
See the previous three spreads.
Third Merfolk Face
Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 07:57AM in Minimally Mixed 
Marbled paper sometimes seems to have images in it, so this time I looked for curves that I could turn into a face. The one bit reminded me of an ear, so I started there. Because of the way the design went, I figured I would add the nose and such for the profile in pen, then did my cutting and gluing so the face would fit on the 8"x10" watercolor paper.
I wasn't sure how I'd add stitch at first, but when I realized the "ear" didn't look much like one I wanted to emphasize it in some way. Instead of drawing it out with a line I added jewelry. To keep the eye moving I put in a headdress jewel as well, then put touches of red at the stitching and at the lips.
I'm still not sure how much I like the piece on its own merits, but I am definitely happy with my progression in the series, since I did something a bit different.
Ripples Sketchbook Spreads 7 to 9
Sunday, June 8, 2008 at 07:39AM in Drawing I began adding color by extending the largest expanding circle with the greens, deliberately not letting it intersect the centers of the other circles for more interest. That wasn't quite enough, so I made the center green as well. I was really pleased with this one. The next page I tried to have red and blue intersecting circles make purple.
I added colored lines inbetween black ones and then tried circles expanding through a color progression. This one didn't scan very well.
This doodle with the same idea but a different color range worked better. Then I decided to space out the colored rings, placing them as the ripples traveled outward. Red always looks so good with black and white. The result was kind of blah until I made the one red circle thicker.
Maybe some additional patterning next. I'm not sure...
See the previous three spreads.
Stitched Little Bird
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 at 07:29AM in Stitching 
Apparently my little bird is something of an owl, or at least that's what it looks like with the large eyes. Otherwise, I followed my original sketch pretty closely, using beads for emphasis and adding a little bit of metallics for extra feathering.
Now I just need to sew on the bird and wrap the canvas. And figure out what project I'll work on after this one...