December 7, 2010

Last project of 2010? maybe!

I can't remember last time I painted in bulk like this, but I'm sure I've never done more than 4 in this way, I'm ridiculously excited about this!

This past sunday I finally came up with a concept I liked which, as usual, had nothing to do with the original idea, soon enough I had 3 sketches that has been edited very little. So I have 3 designs that will be painted in n cards, and of course I want to make 3 extra ones for me to keep them, will I? depends on how tired I get of painting them.

Lately I'm realizing that I enjoy more and more the preparation process, a couple of years ago I'd let a lot of ideas undone just because I'd grind too much through the pre-work, now it's quite different, it's becoming not just a preparation for the final work but a preparation of my mind state too, getting me in the right mood for painting, does that sound too weird? have you gone through something like that too?

This time it's made me try an alternative to saving a crisp edge around the illustrations with tape, somehow the last tape I bought doesn't work well, it either doesn't stick well to the paper letting the water run beneath it or tear the paper off when I remove it, the other one I have is great for stretching but not for saving white paper 'cos when you remove it it leaves a lot of yellowish sticky gum *yuck!*, so this morning I decided to simply use masking fluid, then realized I 'd had to freehand the straight lines and with masking fluid once you put the brush to paper it's done for good or bad, unless you want to wait for it to dry and remove it all, so I've put myself to the task and found myself checking against the window light if the lines where straight.

What's happened is that the first time I've seen a sloppy one I've gone over it again trying to fix it, the result... let's say that it's like that moment when you know you must stop adding more colors to a wash but you just can't and end up overworking it at best, yep, I'd love to say "lesson learned" but it's not, I just couldn't let them alone. I hope that, after all the fiddling I've done, they end up looking good but I won't know until the pics are finished and the mask removed.


So, right now this is the first batch of 6 ready to be painted tomorrow and hopefully cut the paper for the next batch, remember this, I now predict that the first one of each batch will be the fresher, probably the second and third will be the best ones, and the last three the average ones, shouldn't it be like that painting in groups of 6? have I mentioned how excited I am about this? :D if they don't decide to go a different way I plan a back to basics in these ones.

BTW, do you have a favorite brand of masking tape? wondering if I can find around something inexpensive and that gets the work done, I thought I had the perfect one all these years and now it comes and fails horribly...

6 comments:

Sadami said...

Dear Teresa,
I'm very happy to find your updated post! I've been waiting for it. Well, regarding tapes...so sorry, you have a headache. I've never had a problem, as I rarely use masking tapes and liquid. Sincerely hope someone can give you good info. Look forward to your next post!
Cheers, Sadami

RH Carpenter said...

I'm wondering what you are going to paint on these - looking forward to it. For tapes, I use only Cheap Joe's Artist Tapes and they work great (no bleeding and no tearing the paper). Not sure you can get them there without paying a fortune in shipping costs, though.

Crystal Cook said...

I can't wait to see what you paint!! And I have no suggestions for a good masking tape, I haven't used it very much before. And I love what you said about changing the way you think about preparations. I need to do that!!

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

Sadami, Rhonda, Crystal, I can't share the illustrations until they've been mailed and given a reasonable time to reach their destinations, but you can be sure I'll share it in due time.
Rhonda, I sure will include that tape next time I place an order at Cheap Joes, thanks for the recomendation, I'll check their page and see what they have, if there's more than one I'll email you crying for help!

irinapictures said...

I use the masking tape of the men, who restored white color around the windows at my flat. The crepe tape on paper base with light glue, does not damage paper and costs times less that art tape, sure you have the same at your building markets. http://product-image.tradeindia.com/00506504/s/1/Masking-Tape-Paper.jpg

Teresa Palomar Lois said...

That's what I've been using all these years Irina, and had always worked great but the last 2 I bought just tear the paper if I press it too hard or let the water run beneath it if I don't press it hard enough against the paper or leave the glue on the paper when I remove it, I thought it was a defective one when it happened with the first time, but the second is giving me the same problem, maybe I let it stay too close to a warm place and the glue has melted a bit? I don't know what to think anymore.
I'm using it again for the second batch of illustrations though, put it carefully, removed it as soon as I could and it hasn't make any damage so far, let's keep fingers crossed