More paint on the 2’x2′ masonite panel

some green…

and some gray and white

More to come on this one.  🙂

Painting with modeling paste — in progress

It used to look like this:

So that’s something I’m working on. 🙂

The Trials and Tribulations of Alizarin Yuck #1, part 2

After the washes dried and the wrinkled paint dried again — oh, and after I smeared some gold on it with a coffee stir, it looked like this.  The wrinkled red and orange paint I showed in my last post seemed to have dried pretty much as it had been before, but there were some interesting puckers in other places:

Washes and paint dried

It was time for the caulk to come off.  You may have noticed in the above photo that I used a few different kinds of caulk on this one.  I was using up the last of a few tubes.  This is where it becomes a bit of a cautionary tale about using caulk on a canvas.  Basically, if you ever decide to caulk a canvas, and expect to peel the caulk off later, it’s important to use the right kind of caulk.  In the bottom right of the above photo, I used the really good, expensive silicone caulk — the stuff that’s about $9 a tube and bonds to brick and metal.  Great stuff for sealing up leaks around a metal bay window on a brick house, but it will also yank the gesso right off your canvas:

Wow, this “canvas” is a really thin weave. Seems it’d be more accurate to say we’re painting on suspended gesso, than stretched canvas…

At the top I used some cheap latex caulk ($2 a tube) that I bought just for containing washes.  To my surprise it would not come off at all.  I started trying to cut it off, and cut into the canvas:

Oops!

That’s where I quit that day.  Just had to walk away before the painting ended up smashed or something.

I finally decided to accept the remaining caulk as part of the painting, having no choice really.  I added more gesso where it had been peeled off and glued that cut part down.  Latex caulk is paint-able and seems to have a lot of textural potential.  <wheels turning>

I’ve spoken before about how liberating a messed up canvas can be… well by now this one was really f’ed up!  🙂  At this point I really decided “what the hell”.  The blue and red around the edges below was just smeared on with popsicle sticks.

What the hell! 🙂

So I think it’s looking ok now, and is getting close to finished.  Maybe it needs some drips.

Oh, and a good caulk to use if you want to peel it off later, is just a ‘middle of the road’ silicone caulk.  Not the cheapest, not the most expensive.   It will seal well enough to hold a wash in, as long as you make sure you haven’t left any gaps, and when dry it will peel off in nice, rubbery ropes that kids (and artists) love to play with!

The Trials and Tribulations of Alizarin Yuck #1, part 1

I mentioned in my last post that this painting has had an interesting journey.   This is where it got interesting.  Some of the paint was pretty thick I guess, and this is what happened when I caulked the edges and put a yellow wash on it:

Wrinkly wrinkly wrinkly

Check that out

up close

The tale gets worse from here, but don’t worry — I think it’s going to have a happy ending.  🙂

And just because I’m liking this song so much today, here it is. Enjoy!

Alizarin Yuck #1 is coming along

Added some red and orange

This progress shot is actually kind of old.  Huh, actually it’s a month old…  This painting has had a very interesting journey from this point — “interesting” in the sense of the ancient Egyptian curse, “May you live in interesting times.”  But it’s quite late as I write this and it’s been a long day to cap a long couple of weeks, so that’s a story for another post, or maybe even two.  🙂

en progreso

2′ x 2′ Masonite panel, in progress!

I had some fun painting on this one.  The palette knife really likes having a bigger yard to run around in.  I painted some black and then some red, until I got to the point where I wanted to let it dry.  The question is, what’s next?  Yellow or green?  🙂

Also by popular demand (of one — you know who you are) for insight into my ‘studio’ workspace, I decided not to crop that out of the photo this time.  Click it for full size to read the delightfully sardonic annotations.

Almost done and just started

Almost done!

Just started:  2 x 2 foot Masonite panel, gesso, spray paint

I had a hard time taking the photo of the Masonite panel for some reason, but it’s 2 x 2 feet — which will be the largest surface I’ve yet painted.  Hmm.  My palette knife has been calling for something bigger, and here it is.  So gesso, and some spray painted nonsense for a background.  I hope to work on both of these this weekend!  🙂

More

More little blocks of color

More texture!

Now all they need is more paint!

New starts

This is the one I mixed up all that alizarin yuck for. Ok, so it’s not so new. It’s new to you! 🙂

All silver and gold spray paint here. The silver was supposed to dry with a hammered metal finish. Yeah, not so much. It’s still plenty shiny though!

Border and background both ready to go! Please, no one tell me it already looks finished. It’s really, really not… 🙂

So that’s some stuff I got laying around the “studio” (also known by the moniker “the basement”).

Happy Halloween!

Insert clever title here

This completes the yellow washes

…which of course means it needs some blue splashes!

So yeah, after yet another laconic post I think I’m just going to go downstairs now and paint some more on it.

I think it needs a square.  😛