Today, I've been working on some pieces for Nucleus Gallery's "Power in Numbers" benefit exhibition and sale....I finished one, and then decided to photograph the progress of the other. Here they are:
My messy studio drafting table. "Gillian" is close to complete; "Maeve" has not yet been started. My awesome vintage Binney & Smith watercolor set that I got from the fantastic store, Becaruns.etsy.com a year or so ago.
A close up of "Gillian" (almost complete) and the underdrawing for "Maeve"
Progress...adding watercolor...can you tell I like green?
Maeve is a red head.
And now, the sky...
Adding blue shadows...
The addition of stars in white acrylic begins....
Savannah Schroll Guz, "Maeve" (2013) pencil, watercolor, white acrylic on paper
"Gillian" (2013) pencil, watercolor, white acrylic on paper
Savannah Schroll Guz, "Herman Melville Has a White Whale in His Beard" (2013), media: ink, watercolor, cardstock, copy paper, ink, colored pencil, and acrylic paint on handmade paper
Right now, I'm working on a series of author portraits for a licensing project....here, my background is a gorgeous, heavy handmade paper I got at Michael's Craft Store last week, when my Michael and I had date night. It takes watercolor beautifully, and feels like there has got to be cotton in the mix because it's so soft. I have to go back and get more. My next post should be Agatha Christie, who is on my studio table halfway completed!
Savannah Schroll Guz, "Radium Girl" (2012)
ink, watercolor, colored pencil, gold leaf on paper
Above is a new work I completed yesterday and is now in my shop. I'm on the fence about how it turned out because I can see its flaws, and it has many flaws to my eye. However, Michael, who saw it sitting on the kitchen table when he came home (since I kept trying to get a fresh-eyed look at it as I was making dinner--to see if the image had the right visual impact), said, totally unprompted by any questioning, "I like that. It's got a Helene Bohnam Carter look to it.' So, okay then. It passes muster for me, too. What I did gain from the experience is a new-found enthusiasm for gold leaf as an, albeit expensive, collage element. I had a tiny bit just lying around (literally, under a side table in the living room) from having gilded a picture frame. So I used the rest of it as an experiment, which I've been wanting to do for weeks now. I just hadn't previously found the right work to apply my experiment to.
Speaking of experiments...I've mentioned Lemon Jelly before, likely a half dozen times. I found them by way of Lastfm, when I play Blockhead radio. When you play a particular artist radio, it chooses not music by that artist but by bands that have a similar sound. They were a happy discovery, since they have the kind of retro/scientific weirdness I like and make musical collages of sampled sound bytes.
