Yellow Man
I think this is the same dude that shows up in some of my other drawings. Today, I heavily burnished him in yellow, changing the color scheme in mid-stream, then continued on from there. It is fun to play with color. One little pencil can completely alter the mood, tone it down, jack it up, twirl around… Faber-Castell Polychromos on heavy watercolour paper.
When I came in from “coloring” out on the porch today, I looked at the dried results of my ground prep on that yellow plastic flag and noticed a couple of spots where the adhesive failed to seal. Since I don’t know any addicts willing to part with a hypodermic needle so I could use it to squirt a little glue in here, I got out my dental picks to poke it. Slipping the fine metal tip of the tool in there was a bad idea. Or a good idea as it let me know just how slick that canvas textured plastic is. I thought for sure a good adhesive would hold, but with a little wiggle and perhaps too much encouragement, my entire prepped surface peeled off.
Okay, so I want to use colored pencils on a surface that is NOT suitable for colored pencils and by George, I will figure this out. Part of me says, “it’s just a flag, paint the damn thing” but I’m not a painter anymore. Maybe if I only prepped part of the surface for pencils, then prepped part of the surface for paint, sand the surface for better adhesion, fringe in beads, attach some things… oh yeah, I can see it coming together as a mixed media flag. But, no matter what, some part of it just HAS to be done in colored pencils just to be true to my own self.
Wish me luck… and thank you for viewing my art today!
Posted on June 11, 2012, in Uncategorized and tagged abstract, art, Artist Trading Card, atc, Barnes, colored pencils, drawing, eye, Faber-Castell Polychromos, face. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
Sanding, then adding gesso may be one way to go, although I don’t know how your pencils work on gesso – worth a try…
If these time stamps are correct, you were typing this comment around the time I woke up thinking “sand it…” and wishing I still had some gesso (emptied my tub on the neighbor’s flag.) Thanks for throwing that thought out into the universe! I sanded the hell out of it today, leaving a bit of a tooth after knocking off the slick shine, tested a pencil and opted to paint it. I’ll throw a sneak peek post up soon, along with how it can be done.
Nancy, does this guy, when he appears to you in your drawings, give you good vibes or bad ones? Right now, I’m not so sure.
Wow, I had to think about that… I may be putting a face to an emotion, drawing fear or anxiety, as he does not always look quite the same but he feels the same. (January’s Faultline about earthquakes, earlier monsters, even the Nic Man,) Changing the colors forced my thoughts on better things when I was drawing this one – I was waiting for the mail hoping the neighbor keeps the dog inside as the mailman will skip both our mailboxes when their pitbull is in his path and wondering if I should ask them to shorten the dog’s chain. (It allows the dog to reach my porch… if it ever decided to guard it’s chain-length territory, I’d be trapped on my porch, not allowed mail or visitors.) Come to think of it, the color changes occurred after the mail arrived.
The dude has sort of a lurking in the greenery feel to me. Not a bad feeling, but sort of a sense of privateness to him. Love the intensity of the green, it helps the blue eye ‘pop’!
Thanks! I like to hear your take on things.