IsabeauxStudio

Once I was in the Emeryville show I was hooked.  I started looking for other competitions that I could enter.  There are a couple of websites I used for this purpose.  I looked at  "artshow.com" and "artdeadline.com" for my next project.  I was picky.  I wanted something that was fairly local,  and was a space that was a physical gallery space.  I didn't want to show in someone's garage, or on an internet site.  I wanted to start to build my very limited resume with credible exhibitions.

I came across a competition held by Brand Library and Art Center located in Glendale, California.  The Brand Library was hosting their 35th exhibition, with the theme "Borders."  I loved the fact that I could design into a project again.  I was only able to submit slides for three pieces.   I recycled Hollows & Wallflower,  and created a new piece specifically for submission to this competition, "City's Edge."

 The timing was much shorter.  I only had a month to get my new piece done, get it shot & into slide format, and packed up off in the mail.  I would come home from work, gulp down dinner and head into the shop.

With City's Edge, it marked a transition.  It was a much larger piece than I had been doing.  The goal was that I would attempt doing this piece in watercolor.  My thought behind this was that I would be able to lay down the color faster than doing the colored pencil.  Additionally with this piece  I didn't do my usual "grey underpainting."

Here are the two photos that compile the collage base for this new piece.  It is a strange mix yes?  I love to combine incongruous items especially mixing the industrial with natural elements.  The picture of the bridge parts came from our trip to Maine, and was taken from a moving car.  Later on,  you will see more of these moving car photos.  I like to capture life as it moves by.  You can get some surprising things.

Here is the completed collage.  Again really, really, really complicated.  I definitely missed my grey underpainting.  The piece evolved in a new direction without it.

This is the watercolor underpainting.  Yes,  I was able to lay down the color faster,  but I soon got frustrated.  My watercolor skills at this point were not very developed.  I didn't have the control that I wanted and soon switched over to what I  knew.  Colored Pencils.

In this picture I began to add colored pencil.  No sooner than I made the switch to colored pencil, I was immediately relieved because I gained the control I wanted, and could get the depth of color. 

 Here is the piece, further along. 

Here is the final piece.  I am just noticing seeing all these pictures lined up, showing the progression, that I lost some of the great "lavender light" that is present in the upper left corner of the picture above.  Again, like "Sticks & Stones,"  I have issues that the background is too much the same color.  I would have liked to see more variation in the background.