A Series of Three

Our local art club, Placerville Art Association, is having its first ever Small Works show in December.  There are three categories in the show - Series of 9, Series of 3, and Individual Work.  This will be my entry in the Series of 3 categories.  I'm not sure yet what the title will be.  The design inspiration was traditional quilt block with animals in their names.

This one is Flying Geese.  My process for all three was the same.  They're on 12" x 12" cradled board which I sealed with spray primer.  I began by cutting out all the quilt block pieces from a Sudance catalog (women's jewelry and clothing collection from Robert Redford's company).  One thing I've admired about this catalog is how beautiful the images are and how harmonious the color palette is throughout.  So I knew that as long as I stuck to the catalog for my pieces the color schemes would be consistent.

I painted the edges and outside margin of the board a coordinating pale blue, then laid out a grid with light pencil to guide my placement of the pieces.  I used Liquitex Matt Gel Medium as my adhesive, and carefully glued all the pieces in place.  It was a bit tricky because the pieces were cut precisely to size, but the paper stretches a bit when it gets wet.  So I began at the outside edges and worked inward.

Next I applied a thin wash of the same pale blue acrylic I used around the edges.  I painted the wash on and immediately pulled most of it back up with a damp paper towel.  The wash toned down the differences in the collage pieces and, I think, gave an old and worn look.  With graphite pencil, I drew in all the little stitches that would be in a real quilt.

Then I turned to the ink drawings of the animals.  I first drew them on copy paper.  Then I taped the copy paper under a piece of deli paper and did the ink work with Daler-Rowney acrylic ink, using Burnt Umber and Sepia.  I let them dry overnight.  And I sprayed them with fixative before I applied them with the matt gel.  But still, the ink smeared!  I was so surprised - acrylic ink and fixative and yet it smeared.  The only way I could find to minimize the smearing was to work quickly and as lightly as I could.  It never occurred to me to test this combination. 

The smearing was worst on the bear which was also the first piece I did.  But in the end, I didn't mind it.

The ink work, the quilt block name, and a few random dabs of red and turquoise acrylic were the final touches.  I stamped the letters on deli paper then glued it on.  Fortunately, the ink in the ink pad didn't smear.

I did the inkwork swirls, branches, and leaves with the Daler Rowney ink and a crow quill pen.  Wary of smearing, I let it dry overnight and sprayed it with fixative before I added three coats of varnish.  I was concerned about the ink smearing with the varnish but, amazingly, it smeared much less.  So somehow the ink on the deli paper was a worse combination than the same ink on the dried acrylic gel.

I really like these pieces.