I experimented with using white ink on a brown paper to see what kind of detail and contrast I could get. I drew a castle which is mostly a conglomeration of stylized architectural elements. It wasn't meant to be a realistic castle, more like a greeting-card or children's fantasy style of castle. The nice thing about drawing with white is that once the ink is dry you can go over it with color and it will show off the transparency of the color. This little piece was done with layers of ink and transparent or semi-transparent acrylic. I took advantage of the semi-transparency of acrylic to shade the magenta and pink at the base. The comet was also done in ink and acrylic.
This piece was one of a set of small paintings that I did for the yearly show at Balticon. I used to resign myself to doing these little efforts because they were the only ones I could sell at the show. Anything bigger and more expensive wouldn't sell except perhaps to one or two collectors. At this point in my artistic life I find this process pointless, since I rarely got more than $30 for any piece and that has not changed, which is why I am not showing art at Balticon this year. I know that for some artists, especially younger ones, $30 is a big price, but as a professional I couldn't justify the expenses of the show and lodging at the show if I couldn't earn enough with art sales to pay for it. In this case, a repeat client who owns many works of mine, many years ago, got a nice original painting for a bargain price.
"Crystal Comet Castle" is white ink and acrylic on brown paper, 7" x 10", spring 1998.
No comments:
Post a Comment