Sunday, August 11, 2013

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue 11/30

Several years ago, I designed a watercolor batik packet for Sandy the Seahorse (see 8/6/10 post for the original painting). The design was rather large but very graphic and lent itself to a number of uses. I even scaled the finished painting down on the computer and made jewelry! While cleaning out the studio, I found a rather large canvas that needed some resurection. It had a burnt orange base coat with some texture paste flourishes and other papers glued on. So not working for what I had in mind, nor am I really sure what this will look like but come along and I will post my daily progress. This is where I am at right now. Out came the gesso and the canvas had a nice bath of white. The flourishes wouldn't work with what I had in mind so I used some DecoArt Texture Thick and scraped it over the canvas, covering most of the flourishes and adding a bit of sandy/pebbly surface interest. OK - better! Once that was dry, I thinned some (Sea Breeze DecoArt Americana)and proceeded to dribble, splash & smear color onto the canvas and letting it run the full length. Still kind of blah so out came some rubbing alcohol and I dripped & spattered all over the wet canvas. Lots of lovely bubble shapes - yay! Since I want to use my seahorse again, I traced him onto dressmaker tissue using a black Pigma Micron pen with a brush tip, trying to keep the strokes loose & sketchy & random looking. He isn't glued down yet as there is lots more color to go on the canvas still, but I am liking what I have so far!

1 comment:

Karen Stewart Elliott said...

Patte, I love the seahorse and the scrumptious background. Can't wait to see what's next. Loved reading about your process!