Illustration Friday Camouflage

Another one of the collaged and stitched monoprints I've done--The muted-ness of it makes me think of the world that Lois Lowry wrote about in The Giver
--colorless, without texture or surprise. (Wonderful book, by the way--find it in the young adult fiction section).

Once I'd made the monoprint, I collaged cut pieces of magazines on top of it, gave it a wash of watered-down white paint, then handstitched the whole thing together.

I'm working on a more abstract canvas for Katie's room using the same method of printing and then over printing that I used for these pieces. This is a very fun way to work, very intuitive and playful. The only problem I have is pushing past the "what if I ruin it?" stage--I keep reminding myself that I can't ruin it--after all, I can just paint it all white and start over!

Monoprints

I was so inspired by the article on monoprinting in this month's Cloth, Paper, Scissors that I decided to make some of my own. Yesterday I experimented. Of course, I didn't have any glass on which to roll the ink so I used a piece of palette paper instead. And, oh gee, I didn't have any printing ink so I just used cheap acrylics with retarder added. I'm pretty good at making do when I have to.

I drew houses, much like she did in the article, and then added some big popsicle trees. I don't want to make a paper quilt with these, just individual prints. Yesterday I mentioned using this same process on fabric--that's on tomorrow's agenda. I'm still trying to figure out how to control the paint absorption by the fabric...

The bottom print is done, I think. I liked the combination of machine- and hand-stitching...

Finding Water

This is a copy of the contract I've signed with myself for this twelve week adventure for Finding Water, Julia Cameron's new book. I've been doing my morning pages for the last couple of weeks--I figured I'd start early--and have yet to figure out what my Artist Date will be this week. Maybe a trip to the fabric store? It's almost an hour away, so it'll gobble up the whole day, but that's okay, right?

I've been thinking about doing monoprints on fabric, then using the fabric for quilting. In truth, quilting is really just a fabric collage... I'm not sure how it would work--maybe iron the base fabric to freezer paper, ink up some palette paper, then draw on the back side of the freezer paper to transfer paint to fabric? Then I'd have the freezer paper to use as a template for the applique and quilting...

See? I'm already full of new ideas and ready for adventure! Lots of times, I used to worry that I was travelling down some path that would bear no fruit--in my old age (!) I see that every path has something to offer. Every single thing I've done in the past has made me who I am today, and there is no such thing as wasted time out here in the studio.

Off to play.