Making ugly things is not so bad
But I'm not going to post any ugly projects to show. Or maybe what I post anyway is ugly except to me but I've been making some darn ugly stuff in the last few days.
I sort of don't care that much. I plan something and think it will work and it doesn't and then I paint over it or add a few more layers and think it might be better and then it still isn't and then I look at it and think about what would work next. Crayons? Gelli print? Collage (a fancy word for glue something over it)? Another layer? Eventually the layers are thicker than the paper but I don't feel done yet.
I'm sort of looking forward to winter and not having to garden or go outside to do something except I'll feel like going out to snowshoe or walk or whatever. I want to use random bits of paper like flour sacks to incorporate into some books. I want to try other binding stitching patterns. I want to fill the pages with my high school level drawings/paintings and cat portraits.
I still wonder what it is I should be doing. Not should be but could be? Should I be focusing on building my skill with acrylic, watercolor, or gouache or is that all interchangeable and skill is skill and what is on the end of the brush is not the main part, or is what is at the end of the brush the main part?
But holy smokes, working with paper is so much fun -- the selection from all the millions of choices that you can't buy in a pad, the size considerations, the quality and should I be using the student grade stuff or working on paper that is higher quality that you can lift off / wash off the colors or like Lars Lerin, dunk it in a tub and get all the pigment off again? I have done that with gouache paintings. Because it's water soluble I could get rid of the offending project and just have the ghost of it in the background. Paper is fun. And after so many years of hating the smell of paper as a result of cleaning out my mom's house with mildewed paper, I don't hate the smell of paper, I hate the smell of mildewed paper.
What will I do with all these books that I've made? Christmas presents! Even the ugly ones!
I sort of don't care that much. I plan something and think it will work and it doesn't and then I paint over it or add a few more layers and think it might be better and then it still isn't and then I look at it and think about what would work next. Crayons? Gelli print? Collage (a fancy word for glue something over it)? Another layer? Eventually the layers are thicker than the paper but I don't feel done yet.
I'm sort of looking forward to winter and not having to garden or go outside to do something except I'll feel like going out to snowshoe or walk or whatever. I want to use random bits of paper like flour sacks to incorporate into some books. I want to try other binding stitching patterns. I want to fill the pages with my high school level drawings/paintings and cat portraits.
I still wonder what it is I should be doing. Not should be but could be? Should I be focusing on building my skill with acrylic, watercolor, or gouache or is that all interchangeable and skill is skill and what is on the end of the brush is not the main part, or is what is at the end of the brush the main part?
But holy smokes, working with paper is so much fun -- the selection from all the millions of choices that you can't buy in a pad, the size considerations, the quality and should I be using the student grade stuff or working on paper that is higher quality that you can lift off / wash off the colors or like Lars Lerin, dunk it in a tub and get all the pigment off again? I have done that with gouache paintings. Because it's water soluble I could get rid of the offending project and just have the ghost of it in the background. Paper is fun. And after so many years of hating the smell of paper as a result of cleaning out my mom's house with mildewed paper, I don't hate the smell of paper, I hate the smell of mildewed paper.
What will I do with all these books that I've made? Christmas presents! Even the ugly ones!
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