I’m still resting that portrait, not least because I did not sleep well at all last night, for a number of reasons.
For today’s creativity I watched this week’s Let’s Face It class with Deanna Strachan-Wilson. I like her process, and I spent a bit of time pondering how to respond to the class in my own way.
I have a few ideas, but the first thing I had to look at was what substrate I am going to use, because I don’t have the specific surface she used, and so I spent today prepping some papers for experimenting on.
The first paper is some brown paper packaging that has a coating on one side. I love brown paper packaging for painting on. With this piece I cut it to size, and then primed both sides with fluid matt medium, and then I pulled out a supply I have had for quite a while, but haven’t used – watercolour ground. So I’m in the process of laying down 2-3 coats of that.
I have heard mixed reviews of the ground, and some people say it’s great, and some hate it, so I’m interested to see what happens. It’s marketed as being able to turn any surface into a base for watercolour, so why not start with a wrinkled piece of brown paper packaging?
The other piece is 300gsm watercolour paper, which I primed with fluid matt medium, and then covered in unbleached titanium acrylic paint. I haven’t decided whether I am going to use the ground on there, too, but there were several rounds of priming and drying, and that basically took up all my time.
Since posting a pic of plain brown or beige paper seems a bit boring, I chose an old spread from an art journal that I really like, but I have no idea how I got some of the effects. I remember doing it, but not exactly what I used for the octopus, I think it was a combination of acrylic inks, coloured pencils, and neocolor IIs in lots of luscious layers. I didn’t write it down anywhere, and I suppose that is a good reminder that keeping notes on this blog is useful.
May I, and you, sleep well tonight.
Til the morn,
Suzanne
332/400
Thrummie Bizzum 
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