A photo of our trip a couple of years ago to Los Alamos has been wandering around, on the floor, picked up, on top of the dog crate and on the nightstand. Okay, while journaling before sleep, why not Caran d'Ache the darn thing?
The crayons were starting to build up and would not allow any more layers, so I started scratching into them with my fingernails. I like this effect.
Still musing about which image to submit to the portrait competition. Go ahead. Tell me what you think. It's okay if one is preferred over another. I'm inviting criticism! I'm thinking that portrait #1 is probably the one I should send in.
The crayons were starting to build up and would not allow any more layers, so I started scratching into them with my fingernails. I like this effect.
Still musing about which image to submit to the portrait competition. Go ahead. Tell me what you think. It's okay if one is preferred over another. I'm inviting criticism! I'm thinking that portrait #1 is probably the one I should send in.
5 comments:
Melinda,
The thumbnail image in the post doesn't do this one justice. The scratchings give this a worn patina, which is a rich and affecting surface.
I'm also reminded of the old "scratchboard" thing we did in elementary school:
1. Draw and fill in jigsaw puzzle shapes on paper in colored crayon.
2. Cover everything with a coat of black crayon.
3. Draw by scratching off the black with a scraper.
Results: a black field with lines that change color as you draw. For some reason, we almost always did fish... but space scenes were really cool.
I like the contrast of texture between the pastel-like areas of flat color and the areas with white highlights scratched in. If it were me, I'd begin experimenting with different tools to make different textures, too. Exactos, brush handles, coins, paper clips, wire brushes...
Hey, your landscapes are great! Love your color choices.
About the apple...you are absolutely right, of course. I must have been really low, which is unusual for me. Thanks for your opinion. Your work rocks.
Edgar,
Thank you for offering some more ways to interact with the caran d'ache. I had no idea that some color would lift, leaving color underneath, and some color would completely lift, leaving white. It's mind boggling. Do you lift color from your watercolors?
Ya got me...preaching to myself. Since I am just learning the medium, there are a lot of things I don't do that I could do in watercolor. For example, I've got some natural sponges in my pochade -- never used em. I don't have frisket, or an exacto either. But I do use brushes to wet and pull off paints.
In general, I'm not happy with that process-- partly because the paintings are small, so the wetting is difficult to make a shape -- usually just whitish dots. Then there's the roughness of the paper which changes in rewetting. But I'm learning to glaze and layer colors, so some of that is becoming less of a problem.
Being creative with the medium, and treating it as a tool, and not a "sacred" object, is my goal.
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