Well, the pigments, pastels and wax background for "Mugshots" is almost finished:
The small test I made with the nudes printed on Japanese paper showed the potential problems:
1. The medium tends to create a certain amount of cloudiness in the dark tones and mute the contrast, so details get lost. I should increase the contrast in the final prints.
2. When trying to scrape the layer of medium as thin as possible over the image, it is very easy to damage it, especially around the edges, which tend to curl up when fusing. I will have to press the paper down into the wax by warming the background and using a brayer, brush medium over, and burnish the edges down so they are buried deeper in the wax than the center of the image.
Now, as far as "Trompe l'Oeil Window" is concerned, I did the baseboard and the window frame(including the inside edge, incorporated the Green Envelope(I had to darken and detail the trompe l'oeil shadow with pastels), the Bug, and the Key on top. There is still some milkiness on the Window Frame, so more wax will need to be scraped off, but carefully, as it is easy to scrape back to the white gesso. I messed up the Nude Black and White Photograph(milkiness and white scrapes, and am considering cutting out a second window and mounting the Photograph behind thin acetate.
It somehow seems to me now that there are not enough Photograpic Elements to the painting, and that I could add a little complexity. Of course, the Hanging Light Bulb is missing, but still, the Window looks dull. I had a sudden idea, and tried to place some actual objects on the botton ledge of the window, the usual culprits of course, my trademark symbols: a Domino leaning against a Small Red Ball, and a Dice. It works, and brings life to the painting!
So I believe the pieces are going to end up even more Mixed Media than I thought... The only downside is that the real objects tend to lessen the trompe l'oeil effect of the incorporated photographs, and I may have to somehow subdue them with matte spray.
The small test I made with the nudes printed on Japanese paper showed the potential problems:
2. When trying to scrape the layer of medium as thin as possible over the image, it is very easy to damage it, especially around the edges, which tend to curl up when fusing. I will have to press the paper down into the wax by warming the background and using a brayer, brush medium over, and burnish the edges down so they are buried deeper in the wax than the center of the image.
Now, as far as "Trompe l'Oeil Window" is concerned, I did the baseboard and the window frame(including the inside edge, incorporated the Green Envelope(I had to darken and detail the trompe l'oeil shadow with pastels), the Bug, and the Key on top. There is still some milkiness on the Window Frame, so more wax will need to be scraped off, but carefully, as it is easy to scrape back to the white gesso. I messed up the Nude Black and White Photograph(milkiness and white scrapes, and am considering cutting out a second window and mounting the Photograph behind thin acetate.
It somehow seems to me now that there are not enough Photograpic Elements to the painting, and that I could add a little complexity. Of course, the Hanging Light Bulb is missing, but still, the Window looks dull. I had a sudden idea, and tried to place some actual objects on the botton ledge of the window, the usual culprits of course, my trademark symbols: a Domino leaning against a Small Red Ball, and a Dice. It works, and brings life to the painting!
So I believe the pieces are going to end up even more Mixed Media than I thought... The only downside is that the real objects tend to lessen the trompe l'oeil effect of the incorporated photographs, and I may have to somehow subdue them with matte spray.
