One of my favorite acrylic colors is Alarizan Crimson, so I thought I would do my next painting with that as a base. I often add many layers to my paintings to create depth, and to give it age by pulling some of the color off as I go. After doing what I thought was a good number of layers, I then started my design on top.
Oh yuck, I hated it, what was I thinking????
So, I began to add more layers, and continued pulling some of it off to keep up the aged look. (The paints are all pretty transparent so it took a lot of layers to color those BLACK squares!) At night as I would drop off to sleep, I'd be imagining this or that new design. (In between each new application change, I would have to go lie down again, so this all took a period of days.)
So, I thought - flowers!
And after spending over an hour on 3 flowers, I realized realism was not my thing (there's a shock!) and wiped off as much as I could and once again started layering and pulling. When I had it once more to a place where I could add an arrangement of some kind, I was completely blank. At night, still blank as I drifted off to sleep. Discouragement followed. What? What was waiting to go on?
Then, an inspired moment as I was looking at some Japanese rice papers - collage! On each side I put a strip. But what next? What was Asian but a little different for a long canvas? I thought about a Chinese symbol for happiness, or something similar. Yes I know it was Japanese symbols on the side, but they would be under a layer of paint.
No, I felt flat about that. But....bamboo! All right, now I was fired up, but exhausted so I had to lie down again. I realized that I could do a pretty mean abstract bamboo, and so the next morning, I took a yellow colored pencil, drew in the lines, began to add yellow paint. And then that day was over - I had to go lie down again. But the next day, I went over the yellow paint with oil pastel, yellow then green and I was so pleased! I love it when God gives me the inspiration! And here we have, Bamboo On Red!
Oh yuck, I hated it, what was I thinking????
So, I began to add more layers, and continued pulling some of it off to keep up the aged look. (The paints are all pretty transparent so it took a lot of layers to color those BLACK squares!) At night as I would drop off to sleep, I'd be imagining this or that new design. (In between each new application change, I would have to go lie down again, so this all took a period of days.)
So, I thought - flowers!
And after spending over an hour on 3 flowers, I realized realism was not my thing (there's a shock!) and wiped off as much as I could and once again started layering and pulling. When I had it once more to a place where I could add an arrangement of some kind, I was completely blank. At night, still blank as I drifted off to sleep. Discouragement followed. What? What was waiting to go on?
Then, an inspired moment as I was looking at some Japanese rice papers - collage! On each side I put a strip. But what next? What was Asian but a little different for a long canvas? I thought about a Chinese symbol for happiness, or something similar. Yes I know it was Japanese symbols on the side, but they would be under a layer of paint.
No, I felt flat about that. But....bamboo! All right, now I was fired up, but exhausted so I had to lie down again. I realized that I could do a pretty mean abstract bamboo, and so the next morning, I took a yellow colored pencil, drew in the lines, began to add yellow paint. And then that day was over - I had to go lie down again. But the next day, I went over the yellow paint with oil pastel, yellow then green and I was so pleased! I love it when God gives me the inspiration! And here we have, Bamboo On Red!
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So, how many layers total? I have no idea, and I would not even try to guess!
