Saturday, February 16, 2013

Two new pieces in Round 2 and some experiments

I decided to experiment with oil pastels BECAUSE I had made two oil pastel images in my round 3 Moleskine.  I read that there were actually several fixatives and varnishes that could be used on the oil pastels and decided to try for myself.

First I made a light oil pastel picture just as an experiment on pastel paper and coated with with acrylic varnish.  It seemed to work well.

test 1
Then I did one with a number of layers of oil pastels, acrylics and varnish.  This also seemed to work well.  It's supposed to be a self-portrait, but it's unsuccessful in that regard.  I started with a painting I'd made of someone else and tried to make it into me.  It's not in a Moleskine, but in another sketchbook.

Self-portrait of the arist as an aging insomniac
This next one is all oil pastels and varnish over a failed acrylic painting which is entirely covered by the oil pastels.  The texture is quite rough from multiple layers of oil pastels and varnish.

Nan's House in Maine
After 3 trials which SEEMED to work very well--I don't know how well the will LAST THOUGH--I painted some acrylic varnish over the two oil pastels I had done in my round 3 mole (The pink elephant and the rowboat in the mountains.

THEN, I did a mixed media piece in my round 2 Moleskine.  This was on a page Anders skipped because of bleed-through from Markers.  I put on two layers of acrylic gesso and then drew a monochrome picture with pigment markers (pens) and then colored it with water colors and oil pastels and varnished it.

Red-shouldered Hawk
Round 2 Moleskine
click image to view larger
I would not have attempted using oil pastels again in a Moleskine if I had not done the previous tests.

Then, I did the final piece in the round 2 Moleskine, which is a collaboration with Milo called fish for Milo--it's pencil and colored pencil.

Fish for Milo
pencil and colored pencil
collaboration
Milo drew the curlies at the top and bottom
So Now the Round 2 Moleskine is totally finished and soon I will have a movie of it (a slideshow, probably.)

4 comments:

Moleskine.Exchange said...

Love the collab Mary and thenks for showing us your experiments.

Sorry I have not responded to your question. Yes, hold off on round 4 book until we know how many we have. I am hoping for 2 more people but if we don't get more soon maybe we should just run with 4 and see how it goes?!?

Moleskine.Exchange said...

The hawk is lovely as well! I love hawks.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

I love hawks too. I am holding off on the round 4. I've done 2 and will do two more or however many as soon as I get the word how many to do. I didn't calculate for 4 people. But that should be the same as 8 if we add extra rounds OR we could play with adding 4-way collab pages and/or 2-ways with all members. But it would be fun to have a few more.

Moleskine.Exchange said...

I agree, I will get in touch with Aya and see where she is and I think Ellen is thinking about it too.