Drawing #85 Revised - Dragon Flight

I did a little more work on this larger piece with the embossed wallpaper and got an idea from my husband about it's having a bit of a Chinese look and a mention of dragons. That gave me a new name and a little more appreciate of the piece. See what you think.

Drawing #85 - Pretty Bird

This is a larger collage with the embossed wallpaper. It is a heavy watercolor paper 20 x 15 inches, the largest size I've used, and that only once for the piece called "Somebody's Mother." I added more collage elements in various shades of white then went to acrylic paint applied with a palette knife. After that I added more collage, more paint, some watercolor pencil and standard colored pencils. I'm not sure it is really finished, but for now I don't think I can go any further. The title is again taken from part of a page for a Third Reader. I think the embossing appeals to me as a substitute for my black ink lines, having instead white lines. See what you think.

Drawing #83 - Clouds to Elsewhere

My mixed media class resumed yesterday with a collage project using the embossed wallpaper I enjoyed earlier with the "little trip" piece. The teacher had cut segments for another class to use and the remnants of that provided perfect pieces for me, similar to the one I used before. I also used a sheet from the gelli printing session done with a cloud stencil by another student who didn't want it. I added bits of dark blue paper, watercolor pencil, regular watercolors, and colored pencil. It is on a 14 x 11 sheet, a little larger than my normal size. The teacher commented that it had a look of fantasy. The look is quite different depending on the amount of embossed texture you see. What do you think?

I brought home more of the wallpaper to work on a watercolor block that is a little larger. The designing will need to be a bit different and challenging, I hope.

Drawing #81 - Study for "The perfect little trip"

The teacher of my mixed media art class brought some embossed wallpaper to class Thursday. It was part of some she got at a house sale. We both tried working with it. My effort used a corner for collage in a drawing. I combined it with bits from a birding tour brochure, text and a photo from a trip to France a few years back. I worked with other papers, watercolor crayons in interesting colors the teacher brought, watercolor pencils and regular colored pencils. The wallpaper is deeply embossed giving a lot of dimension but its softness tends to absorb and blur some of the watercolor. I thought it was just an interesting sketch until I looked at it with a mat when it became something more. It's on a larger sheet but ends up being about 8" x 10". See what you think.