Happy Friday Eve !
Here I am again claiming another project is done or at least I think it is. I thought my birdhouse one was done, but within a day after posting, I thought it needed a detail or two more and I changed it. I replaced the cover with it only, you know, the cover didn't change, but inside the post it showed the new one. 😄 That's ok, because after it has sat on the side of my desk all week, I want to do some more changes to it ... again. I'll include it in the end of one of my posts when I get it updated.
So... I don't know what to say exactly about this. Again, close up you can see details, but far back it might look better... or not. There are parts I like a lot and some that are just there.
For this one I used a cradle board. I bought some after I started making painty papers. I had seen them for a long time when I was just painting, but never tried them, even though I thought I might like too. A few days ago I put gesso on one of each of the three sizes I have to seal it as the wood was bare. I wasn't sure for mixed media if I needed to, but why take the chance. That also meant I had to buy gesso too, because I have never used that either. Painting with acrylics in the past, I nearly always used stretched canvas and it doesn't need to be primed for that.
When I was ready to start this piece I painted the whole board. I know I don't have too if I am going to cover it, but just in case any of it showed through, I didn't want wood to show through. Maybe on something later.... but
While I was waiting for that to dry I made another stenciled paper. I didn't know if I would use it on this piece or not and turns out I didn't, but it was something to do while I waited. I did tear a piece or two of it off thinking I might use it, but it just wasn't quite right, so I'm sure I'll use it in something later.
Add it to the PILE !
I started the background papers, remembering to save some of the favs for later. This is one I showed before where I wrote with leftover calligraphy pen ink and then stenciled over it. I liked the effect and thought I might buy more ink cartridges, but it is a good thing I didn't, because even though it is a couple of weeks old at least, it still ran immediately when I got it wet with glue. In this case and being in the back, it really didn't matter, but it could matter later, so that lesson is learned !
I got random papers on to cover.
Then I stared adding some paints here and there. Looks yucky at this stage, but I'm guessing that is the way it usually goes.
Like always, I had no clear image of how I wanted it to end, however, this flower sketch that I did in a notebook years again was something I liked and I wanted it to be a feature. Although I knew I wasn't suppose to get "precious" about parts as I went along, I did. It was precious before I put it on !
By this time I had add some other paper shapes and edges torn off the notebook page.
I decided I needed a little more of this design that is over the inked paper, to help balance it a little, so I stenciled some more.
I had taken a break and during that time I had decided that the flower I was so precious over couldn't compete with all the other things I had added. Unfortunately it was just not going to show well in the end. I determined that I had to let precious go and take a chance that if I pinned over the design to make it darker, it would either work or make it much worse, but I settled with myself that I still had to try, because either way, it wasn't going to work like it was.
Bye-bye original scribble flower !
I didn't think that was going to work either, so the obliterating began.
There were so many versions, but to my eye... all bad. I did other things in-between as you can see, more papers, more paints, more... more...
.... and more... big flower UGH going on there.
So I filled it all in, but still left it as a flower shape in memory of the poor little sketch, now permanently covered.