"Blessed" (draft 1)

(draft 1)

Today's piece is the beginning of Psalm 1. The text will appear in its entirety in the final. This is a new technique woven together with other techniques to hopefully create a very dynamic piece.

This is a quarter sheet of 140 lb. HP (Arches). It has not been cropped, so I will have many options today as I decide on placement of more papers (or not). The entire text of Psalm I will be written in Spencerian Script and some brush lettering in the background.

The color selection was two complementary colors plus mono printed black papers. The delivery of paint to the paper was done first with a brayer (1.50" and 2.00") This technique can be achieved with most water soluble paints.

In this case I chose Speedball Printing Inks. The challenge was to mix the two complementary colors of blue and orange + white to create a range of grayish colors. The first mixture was equal parts of both colors + white and mixed with a palette knife on a glass printing surface. I also sprayed a lot of water in the mixture. Extreme dilution of most colors will yield a measure of transparency which was the goal here. If I had chosen transparent watercolors, there would have been a much more ethereal and transparent look. Gouache and Fluid Acrylics are also options.

The key is to have the paint very "soupy". The brayer was rolled through this mixture and rolled from edge to edge on dry paper. I created several stripes with my first mixture and then added a bit more blue and more water and did more stripes, followed by adding more of the orange + white and water and doing it again. So it is a very spontaneous process and you can see the shapes that are created and various windows (or openings) created when the paint crosses over previous stripes.

After drying and spraying this sheet of brayered stripes with spray acrylic coating, I began to select some mono printed rice papers to fill up some of the shapes. It is very important to cut these papers on the actual painted stripes and doing it with a clear grid ruler (available at Hobby Lobby) to make sure the papers look as though they are a continuation of the lines already there.

I also wrote into sections of the wet paint with a stylus to create some softly diffused letters and then when all was dry, I did some gestural writing with a pencil. All of this will make a nice backdrop to the final lettering which will be written in black.

And if you're not a lettering artist, simply allow your piece to be totally abstract and perhaps include some old text pages or line engravings, drawings, etc. A small drawing or a fragment of watercoloring would also be nice. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.