"Untitled" (draft 1)

(draft 1)

A new day and the beginning of a new piece. It really isn't necessary to use all of your techniques in one piece. Visual overload is generally caused by including too much and not having the design elements well integrated. So stay tuned and watch the selection of (3) elements and how they will "morph" and change over the next few days.

All I am showing you today is the selection of three materials that please me, but more importantly, they all have common denominators and yet they contrast with each other texturally. The most common denominator in selecting materials to use in a piece is the design element of color. My first thought as I was considering a new piece was to do one more that included handmade papers, but do it in such as way that artists who might still be struggling with laying down colors and textures would find "user friendly".

So after deciding on a piece of handmade paper, I looked through my "stash" of marbled papers and found this beautiful antique paper which has a lot of white (common denominator with the handmade paper), but also has some beautiful passages of grays and a tint of red/orange.

I also like to keep true to my vision of having transparency in my work so I looked through my "stash" of kiln formed glass pieces and found some with a darker value of the red/orange, plus a bit of black. So I have contained in the glass elements some darker values of the same colors in the marbled paper. And even though I will not use all three pieces of glass...I at least have some size and shape options by pulling out all three.

And so it goes in deciding the elements to combine in creating a mixed media piece. There will be more inclusions of other elements such as some possible old text pages, as well as some plain rice papers and perhaps some pastels.

Today, I will decided whether or not to leave the marbled paper as a whole sheet cropped to fit a particular size gessobord panel or to tear it in strips and alternate between text pages and rice paper. Alternating horizontal bands of papers might give a more integrated look and also introduces the design elements of alternation and repetition which create rhythm in a piece of artwork.

The other option is to leave it in tact and cover up portions of the marbled paper with rice papers which will create different sized shapes, edges, and values which can also be adjusted with soft pastels. In either case, the next step will determine the support upon which the handmade paper will lay upon.

What I hope you can see through this commentary is that I am avoiding the most obvious choice which would be to adhere the marbled paper to the panel...followed by the handmade paper on top of that and then adhering the glass to the handmade paper.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this choice, but the piece can be infinitely more integrated and interesting by considering other choices. Keep reminding yourself that paintings and all types of artwork are make up of shapes. The way the space is divided to create those shapes is an eternal and exciting exploration and is part of the reason we do what we do. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.