Well here's "Dawn" who arrived during an early morning snow storm with her changeling friend. She took a long time to arrive but at long last she did, and so she will now go to live with my swap partner.
A few posts back I talked about problems in art. 'Dawn' gave me a huge seemingly insurmountable problem but I found a way to solve it. In the end the doll is one of my favorites and certainly one of my strongest visuals.
The problem was with her skirt and especially at the bottom. I'd wanted to introduce the idea that dawn was coming in the early morning sky of her skirt so I decided to dip my brush into a strong pinky color and even though it was quite diluted the color grabbed and I mean grabbed and wouldn't let go. No amount of washing and scrubbing (literally) would release the tint of the darkish really, hue. I wanted pale pale. Then I decided to cover it by introducing a dark blue so as to maybe suggest a storm. It became a muddy mess. Ruined. Drat!!
But then I reminded myself that art is problem solving. How to solve this mess? Cover it yet again by a darker color. Black!!! So I dreamed up a black bird and started painting and let me tell you...putting the first tiny brush stroke of black was an act of faith. It was scary. I painted the pupil of the eye and then painted in pure undiluted gold from my favorite sparkling H2O watercolor pan, the iris. I knew I was off and running. The bird eye was ferocious. So I made the whole bird a bit wild and the result is that not only did it cover the muddy mess but it tells a much more interesting story than just plain sky. So I enjoyed the pleasant surprise.
This is an a.t.c. doll and so folds down into itself to fit the standard 3.5 X 2.5 inch dimensions. I am glad to let go of this doll because holy cow there are a lot more ideas I have brewing inside this brain of mine. Next I am thinking about doing a tutorial that Monica presented on her blog. I am getting my head around it as we speak. So have a great day everyone.
