Nostalgia Work in Progress and a little bit about the process

Nostalgia (in large format) work in progress 24 x 38

This week I'm tackling  full sheet painting.  I'm working on a large version of the 6x6 I have in the Randy Higbee exhibit.  I will admit I've been slightly intimidated with the size of it.  Even the preparation for working at this size was more complicated.  I stretch my paper, so the first step to this process was buying a half sheet of plywood.  Once I had that polyurethaned both sides I was able to stretch my paper.  I work out of my dining room and a half sheet of plywood is pretty much all encompassing.  I could cut down the plywood, but I may want to do some even larger paintings so at the moment I'm leaving it as it.  I am going to back up and tell you how I stretch my paper because I had a conversation with another watercolor artist last week and learned that we do things very differently.  I wet my paper completely both sides in the shower.  I just turn on the shower and hold it in the stream for a few minutes manipulating it to make sure the entire thing gets wet.  I then lay this flat on my board and staple around the entire paper about 1/2" from the edge and about every 2 inches or so.  After this dries, and it always looks scary during the drying process, full of waves, and every time I think that is not going to dry flat and it always does.  It takes about a day to dry. 

my stretched paper on my very large board

During this time I work out my drawing on another sheet of paper.  I do my drawing to scale and after my paper is completely dry I transfer it using graphite paper.  I make my own graphite paper.  I learned this from a fellow artist during a workshop.  Take a sheet of tracing paper, cover it entirely with graphite using a graphite stick (not a fun job) after it is completely covered wipe it down with a paper towel damp with  rubbing alcohol or lighter fluid.  I have used both and find rubbing alcohol to work better.  After you've wiped it down, take a cloth or paper towel and rub it down again to get the residual graphite off of the paper.  The paper becomes almost impregnated with the graphite.  It works very well.  I think it is worth making your own because any store bought paper I've used leaves a lot of heavy graphite on the watercolor paper while you're transferring the drawing.  I like a light pencil line.

my home-made graphite paper

 I also use a mechanical pencil to transfer my drawing, they are great, always sharp and very fine lines.  As soon as the drawing is transferred I'm off and running and ready to paint.  I paint section by section and mostly wet on dry.  I do use wet on wet techniques in controlled areas.  I like to complete one area at a time so I can see how it's going to turn out.  I don't leave that area until I'm satisfied and it is in the final stage, of course at the end I may go back and tweak here and there, but for the most part I want it completed before I move on to the next section.

My painting in stages.  The blue stuff is tape, I tape off the edges so that I'm left with nice crisp border when I'm done.

A look at my work area/dining room

I do want to give a shout out to the great and talented Julie Hill who gave me some pointers on painting large scale and has been terrific moral support.  Check out her work it's beautiful!  That is just one of many things I love about blogging, the support and friendship is invaluable:)

Steven did do a painting this week.  Should I be worried?  Maybe he's in a black period, but at 4 years old!

Have a great week everyone!!

Happy Creating,

Carrie