A Lovely Dream: Suziblutube

Oh Finney what has been done to you!
Witchy Gigi has turned you into a Piggy pig.
But what a cutey Piggy pig you are.
(Keep clear of Elena)

Oh the madness of it all!
Finney is no Tiger. He is a small and gentle being.
Gig is MAD with power!

Now, you are out of control.
Oh who will control Witchy Gigi?
Soon she will make us all pumpkins.
And then eat us!

Yay Scary Witchy Gigi is gone and underneath it all
is a sweet sweet pup pup who would never growl at
anyone and certainly not chase after them when they
walk by the house and attack their ankles.

I didn't know where I was going with this painting. Although
I spent my teen years draped in it I am not a fan of black. Not
in my work. Black is tough to work with and I discourage my
students from using it right away. Black is flat. Of course, you
can mix your own black from other paints and create a black
that is not as flat, but there is no getting around that something
that dark dominates a painting. And the soft dreamy look I aim
for is lost once I add black. But it's halloween. Halloween has black!

So after much craziness and depression, I went to star bucks
for chocolate therapy. Why I put the kids in the car with
me I had no idea. But I needed everyone to get away from
the black. We needed room to breath. (feeling clausterphobic in
Gypsy Wagon and wanting craving SPACE but that's another
post on a day you don't mind hearing about it. Which isn't today).

Listen to my starbucks confession here.

The next day I decided to print out what I had and draw over
it. Make it a journal page. Just let go and play and then throw
the painting away. That was fine. As long as I could get a journal
page out of it. And I did.

I used Lazertran paper.

It creates a decal. You can put it over glass or ceramic. I glued it to my art journal. Its very nice for making praintings on wood and things. I didn't even use it the right way but it prints out well and is plastic rather than paper. I covered it with Clear Gesso to create a ground over it, then played. Your art journal is a great place to explore ideas for things that you can do on a painting. Sometimes we have to have the freedom of not messing up the real thing. To step back and see hey, what is going on here that I don't like. On the gesso'd paper I was able to add color pencil and tone down the black, got rid of it altogether with the bow, and broke up the flat areas on the babies hats. Gold pen broke up the flat black of her mask. It just toned everything down and gave it more interest.

I put words on her skirt, in the journal, and then said yeah this looks great I'll do it to my painting as well. Of course, you can go places in your painting that you can't go in your journal. Yes, you can add beeswax to your pages, but you have to be careful not to bend them when the wax cools. Not nearly the same as applying it thick over canvas or wood. Here you can see the wax finish I applied over the painting to seal it. It adds a dreaminess that a flat paper journal page cannot have. (unless its a journal you won't be handling too much.)

Wax is neat. In the sun at an angle you can see the texture. But when you hold it straight only color comes through. It is a varnish and seals your work. You can also buff it with a soft cloth to make it shine.