This is a new piece I created for the fun of it. I love owls, its no secret, so while the subject may be all too familiar, this piece was more about the process.
I sometimes find I become complacent with my work flow and as a result, I get scared and disillusioned. I think fear is a mainstay when it comes to the artist’s insecure thinking – its all ingrained in us, no point hiding it. So to remedy the issue, I experiment. Sometimes I like what I get, sometimes I don’t. This time, I was pretty happy.
I began by priming some recycled paper with gesso and colored ink. I added some acrylic to desaturate and darken the color. Next, I drew my trees with black India ink and gave them depth with some guache and watercolor.
The next step was the cut paper. Since all my paper was previously “made” (i.e. acrylic paint among other ingredients on paper or fabric) I just cut out the shapes I needed. The background was looking stark, so I added translucent leaves with watercolor. The overall image was still missing something so I covered up 1/5 of the whole piece with copper leaf. Copper leaf doesn’t translate too well when photographed, so the original piece is much stronger.