We left off last time with a slight breakthrough of artists block and some of the barriers that come between me and doing work for someone I really care about. In the last 10 days since my last post, I have been trying to channel the energy and spirit of my friend featured in the piece. She would want to play around and have fun. So, that's what I have been trying to do!
One of the tricks has been dealing with this mixed media paper and how it holds the water--it's way different than watercolor paper. Have I mentioned that this paper has been a consistent source of frustration for me? If you want to check it out, it's Strathmore 500 series Mixed Media is a great, thick paper usually. However, when getting it large, like this 22x30 inch sheet, it's thinner and generally a disappointment but it can found here. The paper arrived to me with two of the four pieces ALREADY TORN. I was pretty unhappy, but vowed to use it anyway. You can see the tear in the photo above. Despite my salty attitude toward these inanimate objects, I decided to try a few different mediums. Watercolor, colored pencils, alcohol markers. See how they layer, see what pops over or under the watercolor paint. See what the markers do and the textures that can be pulled out.
I used a variety of colored pencils for this experiment: Prismacolors, Caran'dAche, Derwent waxy pencils, and a single silver Crayola. The best ones were the most waxy and the brightest pigments. Some worked well with the watercolor and gave me a pretty good idea of what I could do moving forward. Largely, a thin line art layer has been done on the left side of the piece. Time to add some watercolor!
Using a Pentel Aquabrush (where the water is loaded in the handle of the brush), I can somewhat control the water going onto the paper. I chose to NOT start so controlled and clean, I went with a thick regular watercolor brush and just let things be a little imperfect and messy. It's kind of the thing I want in this anyway, channeling the art style I found and have come to appreciate in old Disney animated movies. Then the challenge becomes working on it consistently.
Throughout the week I required myself (when not sickly) to do just a little each night after work. The jury and opposing lawyers have been my focus for now on the left side of the page. They will be getting hit by a bright light coming from a figure in the middle, meaning that the light source and shadows are going to be important. The faces and expressions are important to the overall piece, so we can get into those a little more as we go, but check out some of the fun characters here. I imagine the variety of folks my friend faces day-to-day when doing family law. Stay tuned for the next update next week!
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