"The Secret Place" (draft 2)

(draft 2)

You are viewing the step-by-step process of Psalm 91:1. It is an abstract of boulders on a hillside and being interpreted with color and texture rather than the actual image of a boulder, grass, and trees. Today's posting represents a little less than half of the total piece. I will begin introducing yellow-green tomorrow.

One of the things that I truly believe will help any artist who is confused about the enormous selection of techniques, colors, and materials is to make a firm decision about what you want to include from the outset. For instance, I have only chosen (4) neutral colors for the representation of boulders. Even with a limited selection there is a hugh range of values to choose from. You can use any of the combinations of these colors to create the undercoat and the same for the topcoat.

These initial choices will keep the piece unified and get rid of visual overload. Nothing creates visual overload like too many disparate shapes and colors. It's similar to the person who cannot choose what to wear, so they pick out separate items with no concern for any common denominators and then wear every piece of jewelry they own. It's simply too much! And the same is true for art. It will also keep you sane as you work through your process. It's called boundaries.

You can see that I have added (4) more pieces to this collage. Nothing is adhered because I do not yet know where everything looks best...value wise. It always becomes apparent as the piece progresses and the good news about these puzzle pieces are the fact you can trim them to fit where they need to fit.

I have added some old bible text and plain rice papers to the left hand corner piece along with some charcoal powder and soft pastels. However, as I am typing this commentary, that one piece will probably end up at the the top left corner because of the text placement. (It contains the first few verses of the psalm.)

And today I will be picking up the pace a bit and adding a lot more and taking pictures intermittently so that I will have a few days of posting even after finishing the piece. (Next week is the exhibit installation.) So I hope this has helped you understand the meanderings of my thought processes. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.