Independent Drawing
The inspiration I am drawing from my artist research of Ronald Kitaj is to use collage, go big on brown paper, and use a familiar face as my subject.
Life moves on and my beloved pug Baby Eve passed away before Easter this year. Such a quiet house and sadness without her.
August arrived with the heat of summer and this little whirling dervish. She keeps me busy all the time. I sneak away from bed in the middle of the night just to get some work done.
Every witch needs a good familiar. Meet Maleficent Judgement Day, aka: Millie.
The perfect time to make some artwork of her!
Project Proposal
Title: Millie
Summary: This piece will be a temporary piece that will adapt to its space. It is a piece of artwork with personal meaning to myself.
Objective: To draw and collage a large scale piece of artwork representing the new dog and its large impact into my life..
Materials: Black cardstock, White cardstock, Drawing paper, Brown paper, Black gold and silver markers, Pencil, Scissors, Tape, Glue, Heavy objects
Timeline
- November 18 Think about and sketch out idea
- Nov 25 Gather supplies and work on project
- Dec 2 Meet with Instructor
- Dec 9 Final critique
- Dec. 11 Reflection and posted to WordPress
Sketchbook drawing and figuring stuff out.
I scanned in my drawing and printed it out on the poster setting. It enlarged from one sheet of 8.5 x 11′ paper to a 16 page spread. (Glad I keep lots of used paper around for printing out big projects.) I added about another 6 inches to the bottom of the drawing to lengthen it. I am unsure if this will be super colorful, or more monotones. I bought a couple of sheets of black paper to use in the darker areas like the head and shoulder areas.
Pattern taped together and cut out.
I taped two pieces of the large drawing paper together for the base. This is similar to making a quilt. You sew your pieces onto your bottom foundation fabric. I will be gluing mine onto this, then gluing the whole thing onto brown paper.
I used the black paper and cut out the large blocks of color.
Weird buggy dog eyes…
Sketchbook pages figuring patterns out. She is my little sunshine!
Drawing in patterns onto the pieces. Starting to glue together some of the parts. I have lost the nose piece twice before it was glued down!
Creating the musical notes that will be on her chest.
Filling in the body area with patterns to represent her brindle markings. Laying the pieces out on the brown paper to get a visual of how it is coming together.
Time to glue on her flash and eyes. Where are the eyes? I can only find one.
“Millie! What are you eating under the table? OMG… I needed that eye. I did not ask for your help on this project”…
Everything stops until I make another eye and Millie is banished to the kitchen.
Everything is glued down to the under paper and cut out. Now it is time to glue this onto the brown paper.
I wrinkled the brown paper to give it more texture. I also had to glue two sheets of brown paper together. The wrinkles disguise the seam down the middle. I covered the whole back of the artwork in white pva glue. I decided not to spread it around but to leave it thick. I figured this might adhere to the wrinkled paper better. Once on the brown paper, I covered it with all sorts of heavy things to weigh it down. I will leave it now to dry for the rest of the day.
Finished drawing on critique day.
Karen Day, Millie, 2024, Mixed paper collage with ink.
Post Critique and reflections
Lots of great feedback from the class. People commented on my lines and patterns. The choice to wrinkle the brown paper did give it added depth. People were captivated by her eyes. One person thought it was ungrounded and needed a border, or more dog body.
I enjoyed this unit as it was far away from model studies. It was fun to play with patterns. In the future, I plan to make this into a quilt for the bed. When I do, I will add a colored boarder around the quilt to give it a framing. As for this huge original, i will have find somewhere to hang it.