Saturday, April 24, 2010

Experimenting with Soft Press - Going Wild!

Yesterday was my birhday...one of those big numbers. Consequently, today I decided to show that I was still young enough and go wild...at least with my Fabriano SP paper and my paints :-)

The following sketch represents a lot of "first time" for me:
  • for the first time, I used a ink sketch as starting point (micron pen)
  • for the first time, I used Inktense pencils ...well, just one, for the door
  • for the first time, I used metallic acrylic : Golden fluid, fine gold and fine copper
  • for the first time, I used white acrylic for a lot of my whites.
  • for the first time...but this was by mistake...I used iridescent acrylic in the spatter: I grabbed the wrong container and in the evening light, did not notice immediately that I was not spattering white acrylic:-(
  • for the first time, I used neutral tint to darken a color: I used it to darken the ultramarine blue used behind the metallic grid over the door.
So....here is this strange concoction, which I entitled " Golden Door". As usual, it is from one of my Venice pictures.

Don't hesitate to say that this is my ugliest painting...it's probably true. Anyway,  I had a lot of fun painting this today and with one more birthday behind me, I should now be mature enough to take it :-)

Take care and have a nice weekend.

20 comments:

  1. First of all..
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
    _______________

    Secondly i applaud you for having the courage to employ many 'firsts' here in this latest painting.

    Thirdly.. are you seriously thinking anyone would say this is ugly?
    Christiane.. i think it oozes charm and grace, it has a sense of the old world in the colour palette you have chosen and a lovely light.
    Congratulations it's gorgeous plus!

    Glad you had fun painting your Golden Door and now that you have this milestone birthday out of the way.. do what i do.. and add the two digits together.
    We all have an 'inner child' to nurture what ever our chronological age may be.
    (((hugs)))
    perugina

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  2. Perugina,
    Thank you so much for the sweet birthday wishes...and the great tip about how to cope with these creeping years:-)

    You are always so encouraging and you have truly become a blogging "friend"...thank you especially for that.

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  3. I think being a bit wild suits you because this painting is lovely. Keep walking on the wild side and don't worry about those numbers.

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  4. This is lovely! Happy Birthday! Congratulations on being brave and trying new things!

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  5. Thank you very much, Candy for stopping by and leaving such nice comments.

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  6. Christiane...I think this is a strong painting and your mixed media approach is very interesting and works very well. You will certainly apply what you have gained from this painting on many new paintings, too! All that experimentation pays off many-fold.
    Happy Birthday and many, many more artistic birthdays for your future!

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  7. Barb, thank you for the very nice birthday wishes and for your comments on this painting. You know, the more I look at it, the more I like it:-)

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  8. Happy Belated Birthday wishes Christiane. Glad to hear you had a good one. I think for a first this turned out beautifully.

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  9. happy birthday sweet lady.. hope you had a great day!!! birthdays wishes at pf's too!!

    ive been playing with 300 hp from fabriano.. interesting too.. thanks for the info on the soft press...

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  10. Belated happy birthday - and love all the "firsts" you just experienced. Keep having fun trying new things! As far as age - some days I'm 16 and some days 116!!! It's just a number!!!

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  11. Nora, Cindi and Deb:
    Thank you so much for the sweet birthday wishes. I am touched!
    And I promise to keep having fun all year!

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  12. What a wonderful birthday present(s) to yourelf to experiment all at once with so many first. The result is truly effective, showing great strong contrasts, big areas of colour and some simply left with a few linear marks. All so creative. Keep up the fun... maybe you could give yourself a monthly gift like this freedom of spirit. Happy birthday new year.

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  13. Joan, thank you! A monthly gift of freedom...what a great idea!

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  14. I've been so swamped with other things, I missed your birthday - so a belated Happy Birthday from me! I hope it is the start of a fantastic, artistic, wonderful year for you :) And I think this painting rocks! I would not mat it in that dark color but would mat it in an off-white so the painting is the star. This is beautiful and love that blue so the firsts you tried turned out great.

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  15. Thank you so much for the sweet birthday wishes, Rhonda! I am very pleased that you like this painting. You are absolutely right about the matting...I currently have it in an off-white mat with a narrow gold edge. I may bring it to a framer to see what they recommend.

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  16. enjoyed visiting your blog,great work, ben

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  17. Thank you very much, Ben. I hope that you will visit again.

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  18. Christiane,
    beautiful work...
    i like the posts in which you takes us through the entire steps...
    congrats...

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  19. Jyothisethu,
    Thank you. I am glad to hear that you like the "work in progress" posts. I will do more, then!

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