Nihonga Day 12

Today

we showed the class one piece we’ve been working on,

and we had a mini critique session.  These are always so helpful and I wish I had one every week!

Then the rest of the day was spent working hard on these 3 panels.

[prepare yourself for a lot of process pictures]

At first, I wasn’t quite sure where the pieces were going and there were certainly a few times today that I wondered if the work would go anywhere.  In a moment of quick decision-making, I applied dress pattern paper to all 3 panels.

to build up texture and depth.  I began to be intrigued with what remained hidden and what was revealed underneath.

I added ash gray to each of the pieces, and right about this time I began scribbling notes like crazy in my notebook.  Finally, I was getting direction (and even a title!) for this triptych.

I found the perfect worn-out-and-written-on pieces of paper to add,

and added wax over top to embed them in.  Next came a tearing of the dress pattern paper on the tops of each piece, to reveal more of the beautiful oyster shell white underneath.

Then I needed to soften the edges, so I began dripping mica from the top,

and began to add ochre pastel drawings of rock piles,

and went back in to fill them in with titatium white

and beginning to define their shape even more with burnt umber.

Using oyster shell white, mica and burnt umber I kept making drip lines at the top.

There’s still a lot more work to do on the pieces, but finally having some clarity and direction pushed me through the long hours today in the studio.  All in a hard day’s work!