Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #93 - Sculpted Molding Paste

I had a hankerin' to explore texture in a little more depth today.  I needed something to hold up to the mounds of molding paste I had in mind, so I gessoed a canvas board.  For someone who is a texture addict, I don't like working with canvas.  Something about those thousands of repeating little squares makes my teeth ache.  Anyway, then molding paste was applied in the shape of the bear.  Which of course I forgot to photograph.

Hmmmm....an underpainting would make the texture stand out, but what to use?  Maybe the iron oxide?  Nah, not what I see for this.  Blue?  Red-orange?  Um... not quite.  I'd seen quite a few artists using a light, cool, orangy-magenta underpainting that gave a nice glow to the final work.  Hey, we're almost at the end of this challenge, why not throw caution to the wind.

This I did manage to remember to photograph, with low angle lighting so the bear was visible.  Okay, maybe it's not mounds of molding paste, but ya have to climb some hills before you tackle Everest.

The idea was to use a subtle, evening-ish color scheme, but something about that bubblegum colored substrate awakened every color neuron in my brain.

Molding Paste Bear, part deaux

The camera just didn't pick up all the hue variations, darn it.  I even photographed it outside.  I think he looks like a piñata.  Or an expatriate polar bear living out his retirement in the Caribbean.

It was one year ago today (cue scary music)...

...that I started this blog.

Thanks to all of you out there who pour a cup of coffee (or other favorite beverage), sit down at your computer, and make a stop during your Interweb browsings to peruse this little blog.  I am grateful for that.  Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to comment and critique, review and remark.  I have found some wonderful artists and blog buddies out here thanks to this little venture.  I hope I have been able to provide a little entertainment, a touch of insight, maybe an iota of knowledge, and hopefully a laugh or two during the past year.  Thanks for being there to share the experience.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #86 - Molding Paste

Today was a day to fiddle with substrates again.  Coarse molding paste was fairly roughly applied to a piece of illustration board.  Once dried, dilute fluid acrylics were washed over it.

Molding Paste Bear

The paste absorbed the paints fairly quickly, making multiple passes necessary to create any kind of chroma.  But the paint also crept, creating interesting blends and passages.  The roughness of the paste wasn't evident when fluid washes were used, a drybrush technique would have shown this in a better light.  Once again, more stuff to experiment with later.