Playing with art materials

A rainy day in California means a day to play with art.  A fun filled day of experimenting, but this time instead of creating a variety of pieces I played with one.  I like the was it turned out.  It reminds me of Rockwell's painting "Connoisseur."

Stage 1: I took a few watercolor pencils and coated the board with a variety of shades of blues, pinks, and yellows.

Stage 2: I used a palette knife and spread yellow gouache around the board and allowed it to dry.

 Stage 3: Coated the entire board with blue ink.  When it was dried I used a sponge and wiped it away under running water.







Stage 4: I created random patterns with rubber cement; allowed it to dry; and then coated the board with ink wash. When it was dry I removed the rubber cement.






Stage 5: Added a new layer of rubber cement; allowed it to dry; and coated the board with red-violet ink.  When it was dry I removed the rubber cement, except the board wasn't as dry as I had thought and a part of the surface was ripped.






Stage 6: I wanted to use this as a background for one of my characters. I drew a light outline with a soft charcoal pencil and filled in the outline with gesso.

Stage 7:  I used watercolor pencils to color in Stargazer.  The background competed too much with her, so I used a blue-violet ink wash to mute it.