Well, here is the lotus I began in Thursday's class using the Great White Shape...it's much easier for me to see the darks than the lights for some reason (hey, maybe that's why I can't save my whites - I can't see them!! ha ha) We were allowed to misket out what needs to be kept pure, untouched white within the Great White Shape so the miskit is on the paper, still.
Anyway...beginning with the pale wash over everything that isn't the Great White Shape. Next step will be putting the darks on 10% of the paper, touching the white shape here and there.
And had my abstract critiqued and, once home again, I took the wet media acetate (plastic sheet made to take wet media so you can paint on it with watercolor and it will wash right off) and painted in some really good strong darks. Then took that off and painted the darks on the paper.
Here's what I am left with. It's still not a great painting - may not even be a good painting - but it looks better than it did before this stage. It's not good enough for a title but it looks like a Carousel to me.
So...we had one lotus...started with the Great White Shape.
And in the batik workshop today Deb shared this photo of a lotus blossom so we all worked on that using our own palette. Needless to say, I'm the only one working in blues!
We began by tracing the photo onto the rice paper (Unryu), then brushing melted wax onto everything that would be white.
Then we painted on the pale colors and, when that dried, we waxed what would be the next value...so on until we came to the end (using the colored pencil guide Deb gave us).
And I ended up with this:
There are some areas I could tweak a bit, but I'll live with it a few days (Deb's suggestion) and see what I really want to change.
And the next lotus? That will be the one from Jerry's photo. And I have homework to do - I have to print a 5 x 7 photo and then trace it and just put in the lines (no shading). Then make a colored pencil guideline for the batik we do tomorrow.
I think the black and white photo will help me see the values better. I always get lost in the midtones so I'll try this on my own and, if I can't get it right, I'll have Deb help me tomorrow.
5 comments:
Love the textures in the batik. Looking forward to reading about what you do in the workshop today.
Your batik is spectacular!!!! Don't change a thing! What a cool workshop! :)
I really like the lotus!! I don't know that you have to add/change anything -- it looks great as is!!
Three great lotus blooms. I just don't know where you get your patience for the first technique with the miskfit (we call it masking fluid over here in England) for the white shapes. As for working out 10% of any painting for a particular stage, I'd go nuts!!
Ann, that's what is so cool about the batik process - all the texture. Most of that comes from the paper used - a medium weight Unryu paper. I think Sandy Maudlin uses Kinwashi paper. You need to have the "strings" of fiber in it and heavy enough so it doesn't tear easily.
Thanks, Peg and Chris!
Joan, it is just another process you learn and try to incorporate into your own style and "fit." We call it masking fluid or liquid miskit here - either works. As for the patience part - I'm pretty low on the patience scale all the time so it is a struggle to work this way for me!
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