The Battle
Oh, I was so proud for thinking of doing that enlargement for the lettering for the logo I'm working on, and I did such a nice job of cutting away the insides of the letters to expose the watercolor paper underneath. And, I tested the bond paper that the rest of the art was on, and it seemed to accept watercolor reasonably well.
But when I began the real painting, the drying time was far less than a more absorbent paper would be, and the bond paper buckled with water too. In short, it was quite unforgiving and nearly impossible to work with in the ways I've practically mastered on real watercolor paper. So, we battled it out. Over and over again, I had to wait for the paper to dry (It took ages!) and flatten out, only to apply some color again and again, to get the sort of gradation I was after. Since I was working on relatively subtlle rays, as if from a sunburst, I needed those gradations, and I needed them to be on the subtle side against the background ....the more the paper got wet, the less effective was the glue that was holding it against the watercolor paper, so the bond paper began to separate itself from its background. It really felt like a fight between me and this damned piece of paper, and there was no way I was going to lose!
It took hours, but I pretty much got it to where I needed it to be. Finally, I was able to work on the watercolor paper that was exposed for the more detailed areas, and what a pleasure it was to be back on that - paper that responds beautifully to wet areas, and that I can control perfectly to the smallest nuance. Whew!
I began work on the art this morning around 8:30, and worked on it until 8 p.m. There is much more to go, but I think I got the hardest stuff done. It's absolutely imperative that this comes out well, as the company gave me a job that probably could have been done by a graphic type of computer artist, although perhaps without the charm and feel. I feel like John Henry up against that steam shovel, and we all know how that turned out!
But when I began the real painting, the drying time was far less than a more absorbent paper would be, and the bond paper buckled with water too. In short, it was quite unforgiving and nearly impossible to work with in the ways I've practically mastered on real watercolor paper. So, we battled it out. Over and over again, I had to wait for the paper to dry (It took ages!) and flatten out, only to apply some color again and again, to get the sort of gradation I was after. Since I was working on relatively subtlle rays, as if from a sunburst, I needed those gradations, and I needed them to be on the subtle side against the background ....the more the paper got wet, the less effective was the glue that was holding it against the watercolor paper, so the bond paper began to separate itself from its background. It really felt like a fight between me and this damned piece of paper, and there was no way I was going to lose!
It took hours, but I pretty much got it to where I needed it to be. Finally, I was able to work on the watercolor paper that was exposed for the more detailed areas, and what a pleasure it was to be back on that - paper that responds beautifully to wet areas, and that I can control perfectly to the smallest nuance. Whew!
I began work on the art this morning around 8:30, and worked on it until 8 p.m. There is much more to go, but I think I got the hardest stuff done. It's absolutely imperative that this comes out well, as the company gave me a job that probably could have been done by a graphic type of computer artist, although perhaps without the charm and feel. I feel like John Henry up against that steam shovel, and we all know how that turned out!
posted by Rich Sigberman at
7:54 PM
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