"Orad Sin Cesar" (draft 2)

(draft 2)

As you can see, my piece is now in a horizontal format. My verse will be Psalm 119: 130...(The Message) And today I have much to say about this process as I move forward creating one small and one large piece simultaneously.

The gessobord for both pieces was painted with black gesso. I then painted both of them with black heavy body acrylic straight from the tube using a palette knife. Using a palette knife to apply all of the acrylic on each section was a decision I made based on several pieces I created a few years ago. The application of heavy acrylic, thoroughly dried, and then sprayed with acrylic spray coating creates a surface that looks like metal.

But I didn't stop with just one coat of paint. Each piece has an undercoating of either black, white, and today I will be creating some with a yellow/green undercoating. After the first coat has throughly dried, I painted and am still painting the top coat (using a palette knife) with either white, unbleached titanium, parchment (Liquitex), an assortment of blues, and an assortment of yellows and several yellow/green.

The "sgraffito" technique is very much in play (scratching into the top layer to reveal the undercoat). The other technique is spraying alcohol onto the top coat after it's dry and brayering to remove some paint and create more texture.

After yesterday, I can tell you that my plan today will be to cut up all of my remaining squares and rectangles and then proceed to do the undercoat on all of them. They will be laid on wax paper to dry while I do something else. The topcoat will then be created on all of the in an assembly line fashion.

The separate pieces are then arranged on top of the support, but nothing will be adhered to the support until every piece looks good and nothing bothers me. (shape wise or value wise) I have also chosen certain pieces to have some text with overlays of plain rice paper. There will also be small bits of other imagery before all is said and done.

And this is precisely why it is important not to adhere anything until it's completed. You might decide that one little section needs some additional lettering or imagery. In essence, a lot of small pieces are being created which could stand as a piece of art on their own and then compiled to create a larger piece.

By allowing the colors to create a band or shape of color, the completed piece will have shapes forming a larger shape within the same piece. It sounds complicated, but it is really an opportunity to use several techniques in the small sections which is endlessly fascinating.

It's very similar to creating a puzzle by making your pieces and then fitting them together. So I strongly encourage playing around with this type of approach. I was wanting to come back to the palette knife and this is just one way to do that. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.