2 new drawings

I don't know what this is about... really...

technique research

I was testing a new painting technique last night

and it got me so preoccupied that

I'm running on 60 minutes of sleep and 12 mugs of coffee (so far) today.

First, I'm showing you the end result:

Unfortunately, the photos are not perfect.

I tried to fix the colours in Photoshop, 

but I'm still not 100% happy with them.

Anyway

I've been using so many different materials lately, like colour pencils, graphite, ink with brushes or rapidographs, aquarelle, acrylic paint, and most of the time I was mixing them all in one drawing/painting.

I wanted to try to and do something a bit... heavier this time.

I don't know is it autumn, or maybe something not necessarily coming from outside me...

I just needed more... emotional saturation in what I do.

And I think I've found a good technique.

I like to use 500g cotton paper, but it's not perfect, because it usually has strong texture, and I like my paintings to look smooth, so I painted the paper with acrylic paint for background, and rubber wax over it. Then put it in the oven for 2 min, just to let the wax melt and distribute evenly across the surface, and fill all the little gaps.

Then, I put one very thin and watered down layer of white gouache paint, and when it dried up, I did it again. 

I worked on 3 sheets at once. By the time I finish the first layer, the first paper I did was already dry, so I could start over.

Only then I did sketches. 

That is a bit of a reverse process, but I wanted to let the material guide me.

Then I transferred the sketch onto the prepared surface.

It was easy to do with a pencil, lightly, because of the white pigment. It allows you to draw on it with soft graphite. I used B9 pencil.

As I drew, I made shallow cuts in the wax, and I like how it added the textured coutures to the painting.

All the rest was done with brushes and acrylic paints.

Here is the final painting:

and another one:

I would LOVE to know what you think of it!

IF swell

swell...

first thing that came to mind was flying... I don't know why... flying the same way fish fly in water... as if there was a happy bubble inside my chest, so I could inhale loads and loads of joy, and when it feels I could burst, I'd lift off and fly away, finding bubbles of warm feelings to floating from one lovely thought to another. 

It was only once that I dreamt I was flying, and it wasn't even high, it was like hoovering through a forest, less than  a meter avow the ground.
But I keep making drawings of flying... away...

Away

randez-vous

M. Léo is trying to have some private life.

M. Léo qui donne randez-vous

radioactive

M. Léo does get some help... occasionally. This little chore is their favourite. They don't like vacuuming though... or washing up...

M. Léo et les corvées

portrait of a lady

Lady Badger

Lady Badger saw the Bear Girl portrait, and to my amazement and joy, she liked it and showed interest in having one painted as well. It was wonderfully that she agreed to sit for me patiently for more than an hour, and she didn't hold back words of praise when she saw it finished. She's too kind and supportive. I feel so privileged, and I do hope she really liked it.

a bear girl

Bear Girl

My sketchbook is getting filled up with portraits of members of a family I've never really met... they came there completely uninvited, but they're too adorable, and I can't ask them to leave, but I do hope they'll let me do the the things I planed to do... some time soon.

cable car

cable car - to keep #3

I guess all of us need a way to get from one place to another... that is: -if- we want to get from one place to another... but sometimes I forget why do we... wish to do that... and sometimes that's all I want to do...