ON THE ROCKY ROAD

I've been inspired...

First I did this pencil drawing above with plans to do something in fabric eventually.  This drawing was really just to help me figure out the darks and lights placement.

Then I put the outlines of the dark areas on a piece of white cotton.  I thought I was going to use the sewing machine to make the portrait with thread.  But, I began to doubt I was talented enough to do that.

So, maybe if I painted the lights and darks in, then when I put the thread lines in their placement wouldn't be as important if it was just a white and thread picture.

I soaked the fabric in water and spread it out on my formica board and started painting with my acrylic paints with GAC 900 added.  I was having so much fun, and it was going very well.  I got carried away.  It ended up being more than just a suggestion of a portrait!

After I was done, I started dropping paint drips and splatters on it.  I don't know...

When I hung it up to dry, there was a ghost image left on the board from the paint that had soaked through.  I quickly grabbed a piece of paper and placed it on the paint and used a brayer to transfer the paint.  There are two images because I added more paint to the fabric portrait and took a second transfer image after that session.  I don't have a plan for this, but it's interesting:

Then, more fun.  I took some photocopies of the same image and randomly cut them up then arranged the pieces.  Here are two of the fractured portraits:

 I don't know what I'll do with these, but they were very fun to make.

SNITZEL CHANGE

In my last post I showed how the 'Lines' Snitzel looked after I had attached the pieces to the background using acrylic medium with GAC 900 added.  It wasn't dry yet so the colors looked completely different.  I wasn't sure it would dry looking like that, but fortunately it didn't.  When the acrylic had dried and I ironed it to set it, the colors were very close to the original look.

Here's the first photo I took of it:

And here is the photo I took after I added more lines around the eye on the left and adhered the pieces to the background.  They are more or less permanently affixed now:

The colors are very similar.  I think the only difference is in the lighting or exposure of the different photos.

I really think adding the additional lines to the left eye helps it alot.  I'm not sure where I'm going with it next.  I'm still letting it simmer.

SNITZEL FIXIN'

I needed to make some changes to a couple of my Snitzels - 

Yesterday I painted the green fabric, that was too bluish, with an overall wash of Cad Yellow Acrylic with GAC900 added, to the top one.  The bottom one  is how it looks today, with the lines zigzagged on.

It's definitely an improvement.

The next one I worked on is the Eyes.  I thought it needed lines added to the 'eye' on the left.  And as an experiment to see how it comes out I mixed some Matte Medium with a little water and some GAC900 to use as an adhesive to hold the batiks onto the canvas backing.  I needed to put medium on the back of the fabric also when it started to bubble up.  This made the black background show through, especially on the 'flesh' colored fabric.  I'm hoping it won't be so obvious when it completely dries.  I won't know until tomorrow.

The one on the top is the way it looked before...the one on the bottom is after I changed it.  I do like the added lines to the 'eye', but I'm worried about losing the fabric color, I think some of it is the lighting I took the pictures under, too.  I still might be able to fix it.  Remember - this is an experiment.  It's a learning process!