Tonight, we had a great time. I wanted to do a little experimenting. I think some of them thought we would practice our figure drawing but I had other plans. - Figure drawing was too serious for me to contemplate tonight.
We took an 11 x 14 canvas and applied silver leaf to it. Then we made some dribbles of thinned down white paint - and added some tinted grey dribbles closer to the top. The whole gang went on a search of the room for the perfect item to use to create circles in varying shades of a color. First, we looked at erasers on the ends of pencils - too small. The next attempt was to try markers, and not the tip itself, just the end of the body of the marker. Those were not quite right either! But guess what? - Wine bottle corks were the perfect size! We had several of those lying around! Mine was actually not made from cork but the more modern plastic version. At first I thought mine was the worst because it showed the spot in the middle where the corkscrew had pierced it. However, after all was said and done, mine was actually pretty cool as the design was a little more interesting!!!!!
All of us created pictures with a slightly different look. On mine, the circles were more transparent, which I rather liked. See the result below! - I am thinking this might be a future Art & Libations project.
We also experimented with some collage on glass. This was similar to the old days when I did reverse glass painting. I combined it with the politically incorrect project of gluing the old master print in the bottom of an ashtray and then put gold leaf on the border. After playing a bit, I decided on a way to update the look. I used a bit of acrylic wash to soften the images that I was going to apply. In this case, I used some stamps I had found in a bulk pack on eBay.com. Then I added a bit of acrylic to create a line design added to the stamps after I had put them on with a bit of Mod Podge AKA Gloss Polymer Medium. Then a bit more of acrylic wash is added to soften a bit more before applying some torn pieces of rice paper to the background. Once the design is set, I put silver leaf on the background. (Can you see the theme for the evening?) After this is set, I applied a coating of acrylic paint to protect the artwork. - Voila! Tonight we just played with some scrap pieces of glass that I had. But later this week I am going to get some large glass plates to try it on. This way we would end up with something actually functional and arty!! - Let's remember when you look at this one - it is not great art, just experimenting with materials. When I try it again, I will put a wash of acrylic on before I apply anything to give it a more organic look.
I also had to spend some of my time going through my photos so that I could select three images to work from for the Rod Bouc workshop at TRAHC that is going to be this Saturday and Sunday. He has had an exhibit of his paintings at the RAC the past couple of months. Rod works with oil sticks and oil pastels on masonite or wood panels. I gessoed my panels last week but have not been able to decide on the subject matter. I am supposed to have the medium and dark values blocked in before he gets here.
I think that means I need to get my act together.…..
Later - mzj
