Embroidered Collage

Before I could start the stitching I needed to alter the coloring on the background from the simple paint and collage version in my last post.

I used ink pads, just stamping the full squares into the canvas with an uneven pressure so the whole rectangle was not printed.  I also used a few bits of print blocks I'd carved for other projects.  I thought it looked great.  A few days later I tried to use matte varnish to seal everything in and the pigment ink started running!  Aaargh.  So all the colors ended up blended a bit more than I intended.  Next time I need to either wait longer, use a spray fixative, or find a spray acrylic.  I was still pleased with result, but I liked it better the other way.

I started the stitching by outlining the tree shape, because that was the part I was most certain I wanted in the piece.  I had originally been thinking of a pale beige, but with the reduction in value contrasts caused by putting on the varnish I went even lighter, to an off-white.  I had also been thinking of whipping the back-stitch, but decided I liked it the way it was.

For the leafy bits I wanted to pull out some of the bright green that I started with.  I picked feather stitch for its organic look and the ability to twist and turn a bit, similar to the tendrils in Marissa's printed papers.  At first I only did the lengths on the left and the one on the bottom right - and then my mind blanked, even though I still had time to stitch that evening.  I thought that might be all I needed, but it bothered me that there was no greenery in the upper right.

A couple nights later, when I had time to stitch again, I knew where I wanted to put the stitching.  Instead of one long strand I'd do two shorter ones.  The grassy bits at the bottom were a last minute addition.  I'm not sure they'll show up much when I actually wrap the canvas.  We'll see.

I had considered stitching additional squares of windows in a dark outline, but decided that I wanted to emphasize the greenery portion and have the city effect be in the background.  I also considered adding some great flat beads I had in similar colors to the background, but decided that only having beads on the bird would be more effective in drawing attention to it as the focal point.

See the previous post on this work in progress.

I continued with rings of asymmetric growth from the origination points, altering which direction the objects grew in.  I really like the movement in these and will probably return to this variation of the motif.

But the next day I felt like combining circles with ovals, or origination dots with origination lines.  The ovals made me think of eye, so I played that up a bit on the next doodle, putting in an eye, nose, and mouth.

I stepped back a bit to see what happened when I placed the origination points in more orderly lines.  It was very difficult to keep the ripples circular instead of just arcs duplicating the previous arc.  My eye wanted to play tricks on me.

I have the first page on the next spread done and have started trying to add in a bit of color.

Go back and see the first three spreads.

My next attempt at developing the minimally mixed style that I first tried with Surfing is in answer to the "Four Faces" challenge, one each week, at Coachcreativespace, a ning community that I joined recently.  This time I added stitching to the collage with drawing.  The piece is 8"x10" on watercolor paper.

The challenge didn't have any other guidelines beyond the title, but I knew I'd do better with a little more focus - hence the merfolk.  There was a mermaids exhibit at a local art gallery recently, so the subject has been on my mind, and then there was the stack of water-themed hand-made papers in a portfolio beside my desk.  I'd bought them for a different and larger project that isn't likely to materialize any time soon, but the ideas connected for this theme.  I specifically made it merfolk instead of mermaids because I want the faces to be somewhat androgynous and more mysterious.

I wanted to use the paper to capture a large plane of the face and the forehead to nose to chin section was the first one that came to mind.  I knew I wanted one eye to be more realistic drawing and one to be abstract stitching.  As the idea developed I decided to alternate those media on the lips as well.  The wavy portions in the lower right were a late addition, but they help place the image.

I'm happy with how this one turned out and am trying to decide whether next week's will be another variation of full-frontal or if I will try a different orientation.

The expanding circles doodle that I used in Taking a Line for a Walk stuck in my brain so much that I decided to commit an entire moleskine to elaborating and varying the idea.  I've never tried to stick with a series that long and this is going to be a bit of a challenge for me.  The idea is mutating already and I have no idea what the last page in the sketchbook will look like.

I began with just one circle, as a sort of introduction, and then did a page with a basic set of interactions showing how I think about this doodling algorithm.

I tried a version with more origination points, then decided to see what would happen if one circle expanded by three lines at a time while all the others expanded with only the usual one.

That led me to the idea of having a larger gap between the expanding circle coming from one origination point.  I slid sideways a bit from there and started a page where the "circles" expand assymmetrically.

There are many more pages to come.  I find these soothing, like cross-stitching, and easy to pick up and put down when I only have a minute or two to be creative.

I wanted a nice bright green as the first layer of my background.  It felt like a risk, but it seemed like a worthwhile foundation.  As I painted it in I also mixed in some browns for variation.

Then I collaged in the branch pieces.  They don't take up the full space because this is an 11"x14" canvas and the finished piece will be 8"x10".  I'll remove the canvas from the stretcher bars and restretch it.

I didn't wait for the paint to dry fully so using the gel as an adhesive pulled up a bit of the paint in various places.  This was unexpected, but I liked the effect, and the value variation, so I enhanced it on purpose.  Then I wanted to start obscuring the strength of Marissa's design, so painted over the branch portions in translucent yellow with touches of orange using Golden fluid acrylics.

Next, I need to figure out what else I want to do the rest of the background and select fabric or paper for the bird.  I have some ideas on how I want to add stitching to this portion and I know the bird will be relatively heavily embellished.  I'm not sure yet how far I can take that without losing the appealing simplicity of the shape.

See the beginning of this piece at First Layouts for Bird on a Branch.

Why do I always strive for layering and complexity in my art?  Well, I like it!  But this is also a common theme in the altered art world.  What happens if I try to go minimal but stay mixed-media?  What do I need to do to keep the work both effective and mine?

This is my first attempt.  I glued a torn piece of paper to an 8"x10" of watercolor paper and then extended and distorted the patterns with Pitt Artist Pens, essentially colored India Ink.  It's interesting, but I think I can do better.

The dirty little secret here is that the other driver for going more minimalist was the need to have a completed piece every month to display as part of an online art group that I'm in and want to stay in.  That deadline combined with the layered and stitched work that I most want to make, even on an ATC scale, and my limited time was causing me way too much stress.  So I needed something else and that led me to ask the question I started the post with.

Creating this piece was an interesting exercise, but it was pretty spontaneous.  Future pieces should be better if I spend more time conceptualizing as I create.  That can be done during dishes and feeding time.  It will stretch my brain in different ways than my usual work as well as helping me meet a practical goal.