Mary Working in Mike's" Early "Had Races and Won"

Often, when I start a new painting, I get very discouraged and wonder why I pretend to be able to do this.  It seems obvious I can't.  I want to give up, because it seems hopeless.

"Had Races and Won"
Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper
1st coat
click this or any image to view larger

"Had Races and Won"
Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper
2nd coat

The images are photos with a point and shoot camera, sorry about the reflections.  I'll start scanning, if I can, I'm having difficulties with my scanner!  :-(

This is a slow process for me, but I am working on i!  It is as of yet quite unfinished.

"Had Races and Won"

Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper

3rd coat

I added another layer of paint.  Most of the paint I am using is fairly transparent (although some is thick and opaque.  I Have to put many layers on to get it to look the way I want it,  I scanned this one, but the scanner is messing up and I don't have time right now to fiddle with it, and since it isn't done yet, I'll just post this--hope you can see the difference between the layers (versions) (drafts).

"Had Races and Won"

Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper*

4th coat

I've added a fourth layer of paint, which took about 4 days, and as you can plainly see, it is till quite a ways from being finished.  I added turtles in the audience at the lower because the space seemed too empty, but they need work, and I painted out the head of the wolf on the furthest left because its legs were too short.  Since the light is coming from above, slightly behind and to the right, I will have to do some work with the sun and shadows, which right now is just plopped on (To make the turtles more visible.).  Too bad, because I was reaching a point of being almost happy with the grass before.  I think the Dachshund is finished or nearly finished, and maybe the cat, too. The elephant is getting closer. (Too bad the scanner won't scan the gutter! :-( )  Frankie is my grandson and this is for a book for him.  The four dark corners are where the clips were holding the pages down.

*The paper is getting progressively thicker!

"Had Races and Won"

Acrylic on thin Moleskine paper*

5th coat

I changed the color of the grass, added the head back on the left-most wolf, worked ont he turtles and miscellaneous other changes.  I think I am nearly finished.

Mary In Mike's, Biker Buddy and Giraffes conversing

Biker Buddy, by Mary Taitt
mixed media on Moleskine thin paper

Biker Buddy with the flu
mixed media on thin Moleskine paper

I started the first one in markers, but I didn't have enough colors for shading so I added oil pastels and then I added acrylics.  The second one is what I made from the bleed-through from the first.  I'm not counting it as a page, because the paper is very thin and I wanted to make the bleed-through into something.  I also thought it would be fun to make it into something somewhat different from the original.  In the first painting, I was experimenting with unusual light sources and also concerned with flat (dead) colors--and how to make them live (add light).

dead and living colors

I chose colors that I thought looked particularly "dead" on their own, olive green, Indian red, flat grey and burnt umber.  Some of the ways to add light included dry brush, adding other colors, glazing.  I am not a fan, generally speaking, in my own work, anyway, of large areas of single blank dull colors.

test prints
giraffes conversing
Mary Stebbins Taitt

We recently put my mother-in-law, ML (for Mary Louise), in assisted living.  She used to be a teacher.  One of the books I inherited when she left her home is called printing for fun, and I read through it and discovered from printing techniques I hadn't heard of.  One is printing with paper masters--not like mimeograph, but cutting and pasting masters with shapes and using them to print with.  I decided to try it with textured papers and did my first two test prints in Mike's book.  I then made a card and included the master, because as I discovered, paper masters do not last too long--they begin to wear out and disintegrate.  It is only for fun and very small "runs."

Pocket items: Sample card
paper master

sample prints
giraffes conversing (NOT in pocket)

I included a scan of a few of the sample prints I made and you can see the disintegration of the paper.  (although they are not in order).  It was still a fun and relatively easy project and would probably be good with kids who have a short attention span anyway.  Just cut out and glue the shapes, make a few prints and move on.