in the studio - A new challenge

Cosmos

8"x8"

Mixed media, digital images, watercolor, ink and pencil 

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I set myself some new challenges yesterday -  the collage needed to include a hand drawn figure and I wanted to experiment with using different paper qualities; photo paper and Mi Teintes rag paper for printing the images and, ultimately, watercolor paper for the painted figure. 

I began drawing figures in laid out 5"x5" squares just to see which of them might be of interest - whether in attitude or body position. At first my drawing square seemed too small but I began to like how the figures were either truncated or curled up inside. I ended up using the sketch above because she looked timeless, kind of like a Greek statue..... which made me think of ancient Gods..... which made me think of the constellations ..... and ancient maps of the sky! So thus it begins.

The trial and error, the research, and allowing the images themselves to dictate what develops is a very comforting process. The background is a digitally altered photo of a decaying tree mushroom that I took last spring in Columbus. It is printed on photo paper. The shadow figure is a photo of an art installation - clear plastic straws all connected together with white K-NEX (it's a toy) cross snaps  - printed on rag paper. The constellations of Pegasus and Musca (the fly) are from a star catalogue from the 1600's. The rest is watercolor, pencil and ink.