Continuing work on No Small Favor. After stitching on the pieces, I blend them down to the canvas surface by applying more plaster gauze. Some pieces needed to be finished; around the back of the head, the back of the extended hand, and I had to add a hint of fingers to the hand curled under the rib cage. I used an old cast of my hand for that.
Next up was deciding which areas of the canvas would receive what texture. Since this one is going to have a very textured surface, a little preparation with pencil sketch right on the canvas was a prudent way to go. Changing the texture once it's hardened even for a few hours is very difficult.
And the texture material??
You guessed it, cigarette butts soaked in latex. I've used them once before about 20 years ago and they have a wonderful wormlike texture when put down en masse. It creates a dynamic "swimming" quality to the negative space, making it seem to react to the people in the image. These were saved up by a friend and a former student. I'll be asking more people to save them for me, since this texture is very handy for increasing the presence of the energy around the subjects. Also, the most likely model for one piece that *really* requires this texture is fairly tall, so that painting is going to be huge.
A starter area of butt texture. This batch had quite a few matchsticks in it as well. They make a nice lower relief texture for the edges, before the canvas goes flat.
1 comment:
This is so interesting! It is a privilege and a pleasure to watch you work--thanks!
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