:: Test Doodle Runs a Fowl

Don't' you love when something, that you though was nothing, turns out to be something after all?

Off to the side of all of my pieces I have an area that I test the strength of my bleach and try new techniques. Occasionally these little "doodles" begin to look like something and cry out for attention. This was one of those needy little things.

Once just a splotch of bleach dots and layers of testing, it is now a real painting. The addition of limbs made of circles and dots and weird skeletal wings and feet has become . . .

. . . "Runs a Fowl"

I hope you like him.

:: chase the bird on Etsy ::

:: The secret is circular.

Oceanic continues . . .

I was trying to come up with a new way to create surface texture, not just for this series but for my bleach work in general, and I think I've stumbled on to something. The secret is . . . circles!

I've always scribbled and doodled creatures and weird plant life constructed of circles with pen and pencil. There are stacks of sketchbook pages in my portfolios and flat files, not to mention the poor phonebook and just about every other available surface. But I think I've finally found a way to make it really work with the bleach.

After making the circles and leaving some of them open loops for the black to show in the middle I filled in the spaces around them to lighten it and make it a solid mass. It made it feel like sculpting in a way. It's a great way to lighten large areas, even if it did take almost an hour just to do this small piece!

It's a tedious process but I really like the possibilities . . .

:: A Bleached Bloom

This is a piece I had partly finished...until today. What gave me the push to finish you ask? I reserved my very first showcase spot on Etsy for July 27th and was hoping to break out of my creative slump and breathe some life into my poor, stale little shop. But, at about 1pm today I realized that I had accidentally reserved my spot for JUNE 27th. I now had 8 hours before I was to be featured.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I went through my stack of partially finished works. When I pulled out this flower I had an epiphany. I had stopped working on it when I couldn't decide whether to make this a square piece or a standard 7" x 5". What I realized was that it should be left up to the buyer to decide. In a way, whoever decides to adopt this little wildflower, will be finishing the piece themselves.

:: Visit the Wild Flower in my Etsy field ::
:: learn more about my bleach process ::

:: 3 birds with one stone ....

It's been such a long time since I posted in my blog, listed anything in either of my Etsy stores, or made ANYTHING new for that matter.

I've made a set of my gallery style cards with details of one of my bleach paintings, "Skeletal Moth". It's something that I have been trying to work out for a while now. I wanted to do these cards with tiny prints of entire paintings but they were so small that the detail was completely lost. So heck, why not JUST do the details!

There will eventually be a set from my "Mosaic Dragonfly" and two other moth paintings.

So why the 3 birds reference? Well, you just read a new post on my blog, and the cards will be listed in both of my etsy shops as a crossover product! Ta-da!

:: Visit my Etsy shop for bleach paintings ::

:: Visit my Etsy paper playground ::

:: Happy Accidents with Bleach!

Well I tried something a little different with this one. I was trying to get the tiny skeleton of the wings to remain black while lightening the inside cells. I could tell fairly quickly that the results were not going to be what I had intended but it was definitely exciting.

From there I decided to embrace the mosaic effect that I had started on the wings and give the body a jeweled treatment.

It may not have been what I was going for but I was thrilled with the outcome. So was my mom who quickly requested the original for Mothers Day!

You may still purchase archival prints in both a full size 10" x 8" or an ACEO size of 3.5" x 2.5". Both will be limited edition runs of 25 available in my Etsy shop.

:: Visit my Mosaic Dragonfly on Etsy ::
:: Learn more about my bleach process ::

:: Laced Wing Moth , Bleach Painting

This is the most recent addition to my bleached paintings. He was an attempt to copy a previous work for the client that owns my original "Virgin Tiger Moth".

It is indeed almost identical except for the upper set of wings which are more veined and laced inspiring his name.

The original 7" x 5" piece sold on 4.4.2007.

A limited edition run of prints in both 7" x 5" and 3.5" x 2.5" ACEO are available in my Etsy shop.

:: view close-ups in my Etsy shop ::
:: learn more about my bleach process ::