#5 The Sun Flower Calamity

It was all going to be so perfect.  you just never know when catastrophe will befall you...you just don't know...Ok, catastrophe might be is definitely overstating.

      I set this project as my fifth because it was supposed to be one of the easiest paintings to finish.  I already did much of the work for this one back in 2005.  It was supposed to be a gift but I never finished it to give to the person...for personal reasons. The idea was pretty basic but a little outside of my style.  I refer to it as my "paper craft" piece because it was just a couple of sunflowers but I drew the heads separately and then meticulously tore them out leaving a cool, ragged edge that I knew would absorb the paint differently and give a cool effect.

 

It looks so innocent to turn around and cause me a bunch of trouble...lousy paper flower.

So when I found this piece with the prep work and tearing already done I though eureka! This will be a nice gimme to throw myself in a pinch and finishing what you start is good for the soul...

     Take, for instance, last night, I started eating a bag of Oreos and I had to finish the whole thing because hey, I started it and I don't want my soul to atrophy or somethin' right?... See, 'cuz I started it..and ...Ok, now that the amateur stand-up comedy portion of this post is over, we can move on:

     So I have this piece and I figure it will be a great one to make my #5 just in case I'm feeling overwhelmed I can take it easy with this one.  This could not have been more wrong. 

    As I began masking off the background with liquid frisket, I made one good stroke and as the wet frisket began to bubble a little more than usual I had a horrible flashback of a project years ago.  I had spent tireless hours masking and when I went to remove the frisket material, it had soaked into the paper instead of staying on top so the only way to pull it up was to tear the first layer of paper off.
     In a panic, I immediately dried the first little bit and tried to pull it up and lo and behold:

*RIIIIP*

As you can plainly see, this makes an inconsistent, boogery surface to try and watercolour on.  So let this be a lesson: no matter how sure you are, or how many times you've done it, still exercise regular old caution when you work.  If I had tried a sample out on the edge of my paper before adding it right to my painting surface like a moron, I could have saved myself a mess of trouble.  This little hiccup is only the beginning.

     I'll take a moment here to apologize that there aren't more pictures of this process, but as you'll read ahead, I had to work at a pretty frantic pace to make the rest happen, not a lot of photo breaks

    Now, I was not about to just hang this painting up and start from scratch.  Learning to convincingly say "I meant to do that" is one of the most important things an artist learn. So I decided to just fill the whole background area with the frisket so that when I go through and remove it, at least it would be consistent.  This is a "paper craft" piece, would it be so bad if some paper texture showed a little more? heck no, I might even have stumbled onto something awesome.
     It wasn't until I laid my first brush stroke down (again, on the stinkin' painting surface like an idiot!) that I realized the rest of the problem.  This paper (I didn't realize at the time of course) is Rives BFK rag paper.  Amazing paper for printmaking and pencil, chalk, pastel, DRY media.  When you put something wet on it, it just sucks it up, there's no sizing on the paper to keep paint in the upper layers like watercolour paper has. So my paint just got absorbed and didn't spread or move in any way. In order for my painting to not look like a deranged kindergartener with magic markers made this, I had to work fast and watery, spreading the paint as soon as it hit the paper.  It was stressful having to work like this and I just did my best to get even color, any gradients or subtleties bedamned.
     When I rubbed all the frisket off I washed the boogery area appropriately with a few green washes and it turned out ok.

Should probably have glued this one down too. Warpy-warpy

     for the flower heads I wanted to find a different solution since they would be the focal points, so I got out some luma dyes that I had.  The dye behaves similar to watercolour paint but the colors are usually a little more vibrant due to the higher concentration of pigment.  What better for flowers than something that's vibrant? I was also banking on this higher concentration giving me a little better results with the soaking issue the watercolour was giving me.  All in all the dyes did give me better results and maybe someday I might try them with this paper from the beginning instead of rolling them out as a colorful band-aid for a failing painting. I glue the heads onto the flowers with my PH neutral glue and this disaster is finally over.

 Likes: I do think the Luma dye gives a cool effect, especially in the brown parts on the inside of the head.  The Paper textures and effects of tearing out the heads worked out exactly as I planned too, if only the painting was up to snuff.

Dislikes: this subject matter and the paper technique were both things outside of my comfort zone.  The only reason I even attempted it was because I thought the person it was originally for would like it.  That said, If so much else hadn't gone wrong I would have viewed this experience as a positive one.  I guess we learn more from our failures than our successes so I gained some knowledge, but I don' t think I'll include this piece in my portfolio of my finest work! 

  NEXT UP: More nature & back to oil paint!