The Finish of the Last Bear in the Challenge. #100 - Depth

Here it is my friends.  The last of the light values were added, and now the challenge is complete.

Depth Bear

I can't thank you all enough for following this for the last one hundred and some odd days, for your words of critique, support, encouragement, and just plain making me laugh out loud.  All of it played an integral part in the completion of this challenge, and you have my gratitude.

Another project looms on the horizon in the immediate future, but until that one gets started...

...I need a nap.

Artistic Polar Bea......Oh, You Know.

A quick update from the easel -

A layer of wax and a layer of paint later...

Another layer of wax (a little too thick) and paint...

He's looking very mosaic-y because I'm trying not to completely cover the layers below.  I'm thinking one more thin layer and a satin top coat, and we can bid a fond farewell to our ursine friend.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In A Bit More Than 100 Days. #100 - Continued

Well...things didn't go so well with Bear 100.  You see, when I was doing the Acrylic Encaustic Bear, I made two batches of the acrylic 'wax'.  One was the 'refined beeswax', which was used on the Encaustic Bear.  The other was an 'unrefined beeswax', a thicker, denser, more opaque mixture that I was planning on experimenting with later.  Guess which one I mistakenly used on Bear 100?  When the 'wax' finally dried, the bear was almost completely obliterated.

Humph.  Bear 100 - take two.

As I cleaned the studio today, finding piles of bear art everywhere, I was mulling over the whole 'texture and depth' conundrum.  Maybe I was trying to do too much at once.  Perhaps the texture part of it should be separated into 'visual texture', like the layers in the Encaustic Bear, and 'physical texture', like the use of the Fiber and Molding pastes (aarruugghh.....my inner High School Science Geek is rearing her ugly head!).

So, let's go with trying to create visual texture and depth with Bear 100.  Taking what was learned from doing the Encaustic Bear and sort of turning it on it's side, I decided to start with dark values.  The plan is, as each layer is put on, the values will lighten, causing the lightest areas to come 'forward' physically and visually.   Hopefully that will create the sense of depth and texture I'm looking for.

Step 1:  Drawing the bear on a black gessoed canvas board, outlining each area that has a different value.

Step 2:  Painting in the first values.

I just whipped up a new batch of acrylic wax, less opaque than the batch that was used on Encaustic Bear (and much less opaque than the wax that now covers the previous Bear 100).  The wax needs to sit overnight to let bubbles escape, so first thing in the morning, our new Bear 100 gets waxed.

It's becoming the Neverending Bears.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #100 - The Start of the Very Last Bear

Well, the grey matter seems to be in more of a working order today.  Time to finish up on yesterday's bear, and continue on to today.

Once the gel had dried on yesterday's bear, it was peeled off of the glass, and flipped over.  Thin color washed were applied, letting them glide and pool over the slick gel surface.

Once that had dried, the image was flipped again, and color washes were added to the front of the image, letting the colors visually mix with the background colors.

 Totally Acrylic Bear

Yes, I know, this one is pretty awful.  Well, they can't all be successes.  I'm laughing at the absurdness of it myself.  You know where this one is headed....

Now...onto the final, the ultimate, the number 100 of 100, the concluding...yes.. the very last bear.

I thought about this one quite a bit.  What to do for the final bear?  I wanted something fantastically eye-popping to end the series, but decided that the whole idea behind doing the series was to stretch myself artistically, and try methods I probably would not have tried before.  What did I like?  What caught my eye and make me say "Wow, I'd really like to incorporate that technique into future works?"

There are two things that really rev my artistic engine: texture and depth.  So I'm going to experiment with combining some of the 99 previous methods to achieve this.

The first step is a little texture, as used in the Batik Bear.  Fiber paste was loosely applied to a wood panel, and when dry, the bear was blocked in.

Once that was dry, like the Encaustic Bear, a layer of acrylic "wax" was applied, thick and textural.

And that's where we'll leave it for tonight.  I want to play with this final bear, think about the combination of methods, learn what works and what doesn't.  Whatever works out of this experiment is going to be used in future pieces, and define where I'm headed style-wise.

Stay tuned, we're not done yet.  And yes, maybe I feel a little bear withdrawl coming on, and can't quite give him up yet.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #94 - Faux Encaustic

I was perusing Patti Brady's Rethinking Acrylic book, looking for bear ideas for the home stretch.  I came across acrylic encaustic, and it looked like something fun to try.  The transparent and translucent layers create a wonderful sense of depth.

First I made up a batch of bleached acrylic 'beeswax', using the recipe provided.  First a layer of paint was put down, then a layer of the 'faux wax'.

For this study, I repeated the layering process three times.

Acrylic Encaustic Bear

The layers aren't something that photograph well, but there is a really nice sense of depth and softness to the study.  For the sake of expediency I was layering similar colors, but this would be a great method to create optical mixes.  Yet another process to be added to the list of "Techniques To Be Explored In Depth Later".