Lesson 5 line and collage

Bloodlines

Lesson 5 - Line compositions

Lines drawn (in order) with Signo white overwritten with Sakura white gelli pen, Sharpie fine black, red India ink dropper, Derwent charcoal pencil, Copic teal blue brush end, and Pitt medium black. Had some trouble with the pens working on the matte medium. The Signo white was sketchy and had to be overwritten with the Sakura gelli pen, the Sharpie did not want to write, the India ink worked great, the charcoal was fine, the Copic worked very well, and the Pitt black was used to overwrite a gray Sharpie line that did not show up well enough. 

Because of some trouble I had with the markers, some of my lines do not seem spontaneous, but I like the white line on the first one, the "blood" line on the third, and the last piece with the Pitt pen best.

Since posting these, I smudged the charcoal line in the 4th piece and I think it's become my favorite!

The neutral backgrounds did not photograph true, but the colors consisted of neutral gray, Naples yellow hue, and unbleached titanium white. They are nicer than they look here.

I loved working on these quick little studies and really want to do more, but time is at a premium. I will be out of town all next week and will not be able to post. I will try to get to part 2 of this lesson before leaving!

Green and blue quick studies - pattern

Jane suggested doing some studies to see how different patterns work together. The green series was what I did this morning. The stamps used were handmade line stamp, 2 different-size box lids, a couple of handmade circle and square stamps, top of Distress paint dabber, and pencil eraser. Against a background of Golden's green/gold, cobalt blue, sometimes mixed with titanium white. Other colors for stamping included pthalo blue, paint dabbers in Distress sapphire and mustard seed, and Basic's crimson red.

The following is the blue series, done this afternoon. Painted with light ultramarine blue and cobalt blue backgrounds.  Stamping with white, cobalt blue, green gold and green gold mixed w/white. Introduced the corrugated card and triangle handmade stamps.

Not sure what I think of them, but both studies were very relaxing and fun to do. They were small, at 5 x 5, so less opportunity to get lost in too much confusing detail.

Lesson 4 - Patterns 2

Fun making the patterns, but relating them into composition is a challenge. I'l be playing with this some more. Maybe more variety in background and palette will help. These were large compositions at 10 x 11--lots of space to try and fill!!

Lesson 4 - patterns

Playing around with some stamping materials. Yellow and bold and colorful!

Hipstamatic Luke

Luke

Lesson 3 Cruciform

Repainted and reworked this to the extent that the collage papers were beginning to disintegrate! It was beginning to feel messy, so I stopped. I wanted to create depth in the piece by adding shadow around the cruciform, but I was challenged to find the right color and also make a subtle transition from the shading to the lighter background color. The 4 quadrant background colors all turned out to be about the same, so an attempt at variety was established through the texturing.

Jane said to keep working this one, so here it is. Had a hard time making the quadrants different colors. The added red paint and collage really did nothing to improve the composition. It's a bloody mess. Don't like it at all, so I'm abandoning it for good now!

This next one was also worked over and over. Probably too busy with the textures, and the cruciform is perhaps too static. But...

I rather like the one below and the blue one at the top!