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. #99 - Drawing With Acrylic....Sort Of

I woke up this morning with an unexplainable case of Fuzz Brain.  Basic Brain was taking care of all of it's usual tasks - I was able to breathe, stand, walk, and talk somewhat coherently, but anything much beyond that was taking a concentrated effort.  I found myself standing in the middle of my kitchen, knowing I needed to do something but couldn't remember what it was.  Thankfully, the loudly meowing, cranky fuzzball undulating around my ankles awakened me from my stupor, and reminded me of the task I set out to do ("...oh yeah, feed the cat"). 

I was at least able to find my way into the studio, but fresh ideas about how to create today's bear were not forthcoming.  I poked Right Brain with a mental stick several times, but all that issued were used ideas of past bears (...."collage"...*poke*..."color scheme"..*poke*..."substrate"...*poke*.."just do another collage, and stop poking me, dammit, I'm tired.").  A CAT scan taken of my skull would show Right Brain lying in a deflated, amorphous heap, currently incapable of creating a novel concept. 

In desperation, I grabbed the nearest thing within reach - the Clear Tar Gel.  I poured a puddle of it on the glass palette, then drew the bear into the wet gel. 

Acrylic Drawing Bear

Rather than swirling color through the wet gel, I wanted to paint transparent color on the front and back of the dried gel, creating optical color mixes.  The problem with this logic is that it takes the gel a full day to dry thoroughly enough to lift off of the glass, so it won't be dry until tomorrow.

Apparently Left Brain isn't functioning up to capacity, either.  Anyone know where I can get a new one?

So while we wait for the gel to dry, a guest artist has offered their take on the bear for today's blog.

Annette's Bear

Tomorrow - the finish of #99, and the final bear of the series.

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #98 - Faux Stained Glass

Ahhhhh.  There's nothing like spending a beautiful Sunday at the Gold Coast Art Fair.  In it's 53rd year, it's the oldest and largest art festival in Chicago.  Set in Grant Park  right across from the Art Institute, it's a beautiful setting to stroll and admire the wares of about 500 fabulous artists.

 A speed painting performance artist plies his trade

Being immersed in so many incredible works of art kicked Right Brain into high gear.  Friends of mine are going to be starting a stained glass class soon, and that planted a little kernel of an idea.

I mixed some heavy body acrylic paint with some Micaceous Iron Oxide.  I put the mixture in a squeeze bottle with a tapered tip, and used it to create the stained glass 'lead lines'.

Then Clear Tar gel was poured into an outlined area.  The heavy body paint lines acted as 'dams' to corral the gel.  A toothpick was dipped in fluid acrylics mixed with more tar gel, and swirled through the uncolored gel in the outlined areas.

Each little section was completed one at a time, until the whole piece was finished.
 

Faux Stained Glass Bear

I didn't know that tar gel could be so much darned fun.  This is one of my favorites.

We're down to the last two bears!

Artistic Polar Bear Challenge: 100 Ways In 100 Days. #96 - Paint Into Gel

Well, the fridge is chillin', and so am I.  Thankfully a simple part, and not major mechanical surgery got the fridge back on it's feet.  So it's all good.

Today I wanted to explore working wet paint into wet gel.  A simple underpainting was the start.

A layer of Clear Tar Gel was then applied over the whole piece.  I took a small round brush, some fluid acrylics, and started adding paint lines and designs into the wet gel.   It was like drawing into poured honey.

Once dried, it looked like this.

And a close up view:

Oodles of fun with an interesting effect.  More depth could be created with more layers, or a thicker layer of gel, but I wanted to be sure it would dry to clarity within a day.

96 down, four more to go!