Welcome to a new year! I know it’s a week old. Still.
I was going to write this as a quick recap of last year with a little look forward to this year and what I might have planned or want to do. But any quick recap would just look like a laundry list of things that happened or got done and that seemed kind of boring.
I definitely had some memorable moments last year. A trip to Paris France thanks to, and with my sister, being the most memorable and coolest. Oh, and floor seats on the 8th row of a Doobie Brothers concert with my sister and joking about what we would have been doing in a parallel universe or a different life, her a rock photographer and me on stage, was also pretty cool. And then there was opening my art store a trip to Houston and several other really cool events. Highs often come with lows and first losing a family friend, and then later losing a friend to rather aggressive cancer were mine last year. Last year was one for the books as far as lots of events, happenings, changes, and the like, some things big, some small, and some things that were more than they appeared to be. And a fair bit of art happened last year. Not the volume of when I was doing the sketchbook projects, which were a different type of art and easier to do lots of it, still a good bit. And a good bit of stuff that surprised me, in size, detail, subject, and often times, just the fact that I created it was what surprised me.
I didn’t sit back and take a break from art over the end of year holiday period. I have several pieces ready to be worked on. Their sketches are done and waiting for me to put pen to paper or brush to paint and then paper. And one that has, like many pieces I’ve worked on lately, been rather demanding of my attention.
I’ve been working rather diligently, because it won’t leave me alone, on the Telecaster stippling painting. It’s been interesting as I didn’t color the surface like I did for the Ovation painting. The advantage of the white surface is that I haven’t had to work as hard to get the color to show and stay true. However, in the right light this also gives a false sense of how well the subject actually shows up on the paper. It may look like it’s really vivid and stands out well but when you step back or the light hits it just right, like the sun coming through the window in the morning, you can see that there isn’t good coverage, and it needs another layer of dots.
Something I discovered when resuming the work on the Ovation painting, as starting by doing the background, was that because the background is brushed on, not stippled, and bold and not neutral, it can help me see if my subject mater stands out properly and as vibrant or vivid as I want it too. So, I finally filled in the background for the Telecaster. That was very helpful.
One thing I tried this time was how I handled the canvas board. For the Ovation painting I didn’t have much experience with canvas or canvas board, and it didn’t occur to me that the texture would be an issue, until I’d put many hours into it and found a little frustration with trying to precisely place dots on a surface of dips and peaks. So, this time I tried adding a couple of layers of gesso to smooth out the surface a bit. I ended up with a surface a little closer to paper in its smoothness which has made laying down dots easier. However, the nature of the acrylic ink offered its own interesting quirk.
Acrylic ink is not like using regular ink which is a water like solution with tinting or pigment added to it. Acrylic ink is like thinned acrylic paint with pigment suspended in the medium. While it absorbs into the surface to some extent, with the acrylic gesso as the surface, it basically sits on top of it and creates texture that with the art lights, casts shadows. I discovered that texture of the dots because they were casting misleading shadows when I would take a picture of the work in progress. It made it look like it was denser than it was.
Because people often ask how long it takes to do a piece, particularly a stippling piece and because I should know for myself, I’ve made a point of keeping track of the time I work on the Telecaster. At this moment I’m about 40 hours into it, that includes the time I spent trying to get the sketch right. I think I’m in the final detailing stage. It needs the strings finished up and a couple more small tweaks and it will be done and ready to sit for a week or so before varnishing.
I’ve really enjoyed working on the Telecaster. When I first started it, I think I approached it as something of a ‘paint by numbers’ or a ‘color in the lines’ type of piece. I didn’t really feel there was room for the type of delicate finessing that I do with the black and white stippling pieces of the animals. However, as I moved into the finishing and detailing stages, I found I was doing a bit more of that than I expected or even thought would work in the ink. Instead of just putting in dots of the right color, I was finessing shadows or crevices or glint on metal. And the fact there is some wear on the guitar gives the guitar some character and including that in the painting gives the painting some character that takes that finessing to achieve.
I have thought, for years, to do a series of paintings, stippling in particular, of guitars or parts of guitars and working on the Telecaster has rekindled that desire and with getting into the final stages of the piece I’ve found a bit of a stride and vision for doing more guitar pieces. I’m even looking forward to the challenge, even if it feels a little overwhelming, of painting/stippling a guitar with a burst finish, and one with quilted wood. The quilted finish will take a lot more finessing to get it right and feels like it will be a much bigger project. I don’t have one in mind to do yet. I’ll have to find the right candidate. But I probably have a picture of one with a sunburst finish. I’ll have to look.
Now, I’m off to put more dots on canvas board or paper. Cheers!
