Post 26: Time flies and I forget to Post what little I did in the past few Months...

   I did work on the Vetruvius Baby Concept I created in Photoshop months ago. First, I reworked the design in Photoshop, replacing the wax seals at the top corners with Coca Cola Buttons, and adding a bat skeleton over the  wings and bottle:

    First,  I taped out the bottom part of the 32" x48" panel, and created the dark mottled marron texture with pigments, pastels, sprays of gum arabic in water. Next, I taped over that part and did the blue bottom area, mixing shades of Cobalt blue pigments with large  brushes, rubbing colored pastels lightly for visual texture, and sprinkling contrasting color pigments. After brushing wax over the whole panel and fusing it, I scraped it back and polished it. 

     I printed all my archival images, and starting incorporating them in the wax layer. I am now at this stage:

     The Esoteric circles and figures will be scratched into the wax surface last,  the grooves filled with  a mixture of orange and ochre shades of wax, and scraped back.
    I am realizing that even though I don't really like the veil of milkiness that the wax creates over the darker colors where it is thicker, I may have no choice but to accept it, and even embrace it as being the nature of the medium...
    One way to minimize it would be to adhere the cutout images to the board BEFORE laying down any wax at all, instead of adding them after the background has been coated. Since I am now fixing the pigments and pastels with gum arabic, it should be possible. I will try that with the next piece.
    I will need an adhesive that holds up to the heat so the larger images do not buckle and bubble. Possible options are: gum arabic, casein, book binding paste, acrylic medium, YES glue, acid free wood  glue. The back of the printing paper may make a difference, and light sanding might help. All these options will need to be tested before I use the technique on a real piece.