Saturday, November 5, 2016

Progress, with color

You can see my first post about how some ZIA tiles progressed as I worked on them here.

I had again started four tiles with gray washes. Here they are. You guessed right if you think the top left is likely to be houses! Can you see a shape that looks like a bird in the top right tile?

I had just watched a video demo of some paint pens I have and I wanted to try using them for making washes, so I added color to three of the tiles. Not sure why I didn't do the fourth; I think it looked as if it should be simply black and white.
At this point I'm thinking:
  • Houses: I like the houses but I'm not sure how to develop the background.
  • Bird: The phoenix is kind of cool but too gray. I might tilt it 45 degrees left so it sits diagonally and the bird is going straight up.
  • Tree: The oak tree trunk I like. The border is adapted from Michele Beauchamp's tangle Oke but I'm not happy with it yet. The tree is pretty darn bright but I'm thinking of tangling it in brown.
  • B&W: The grid border doesn't go with the trees and clouds I see in the center. I'm not sure where this will go.
After more work:
At this point I'm thinking:
  • Houses: The background is coming along nicely. The buildings really need shading.
  • Bird: I like where this is going but some of the flames are too gray. I think the bird is too upright but the flames are better this way. I like the white on the bird's tail and wings.
  • Tree: I like the border much better with the orange and yellow wash I added. The blue sky is good too. It's become some sort of hybrid tree with quite a variety of leaf shapes!
  • B&W: Nope. Not inspired by this one. Yet. We'll see.
Aaand... finished:

Finishing, fine-tuning, and what I'm thinking:
  • "Night in the Old Neighborhood" -I added many small details: pen lines, colored pencil, white ink. This will be mounted and painted.
  • "Peace Phoenix" - I prefer it at this angle after all. I whitened the bird and un-grayed some flames using colored pencil. This will be mounted and painted.
  • "Splendiferous" - I love the leaves! And the border. The blue was an excellent idea. This will be mounted and painted.
  • If I were going to give this a title I think it would be "Space Junk". I decided it wasn't going to be anyThing so I went with non-representational and just drew what I felt like. Success is in the trying.

18 comments:

  1. Wow! This is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing this process-very inspiring. They're all gorgeous, but I have to say "Peace Phoenix" is my fave.

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  2. Great experiment, and the outcome is outstanding! Especially the tree!

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  3. Beautiful as always!! When you say, "this one will be painted" what do you mean by that? Isn't already painted?

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    1. Thanks Cindy. If I'm really happy with a ZIA tile I've done I mount it on canvas and paint the surround. That way it can hang on a wall. That's what I meant by "will be painted".

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  4. What a privilege to witness your creative process! I adore the tree tile and I agree with you that the leaves are wonderful as is everything else about that tile!!! Wow to your creativity and how generously you share with us.

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  5. Once again, I love how you show the steps in your work! Wonderful pieces Margaret.

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  6. I have no favorite, they all are gorgeous and I'm glad to see how you have begun, progressed and finished. Thank you for sharing this beautiful tiles!

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  7. Thank you, thank you! I absolutely love it when you share your thought process with us! I'm curious to know what the timeline might have been...were these done in an afternoon? did you have to 'sleep on it'? or were there a few days of 'mulling' required? My fav is Splendiferous - stunning clolours!
    We are heading west later this month, and I am so disappointed that we'll miss your show by one day!

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    1. These developed over the course of a few days, maybe even a week or so. I rotate among projects. (That could easily be interpreted as meaning: I stand in the middle of all the projects, spinning, wondering what to do next!)
      Will you be in Saskatoon the Monday after the show? If so, let me know and perhaps we could get together.

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  8. It's especially fun to watch you progress through projects. I do so much want to see them mounted and framed or painted as you finish them up. I love how you do this.

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  9. I thought of the bird as a phoenix too! I really like the large leaves in the tree.
    Perhaps one of these days, you could show us your process of mounting the tiles onto canvases? These are lovely.

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  10. How your process is very interesting !you are very lucky to see the different steps to finish each tile of the better way!!!!congratulations!

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  11. I wonder if you know how truly helpful and inspiring this documenting of your process is?

    I love seeing the in between stages, that we all have, where we don't quite know if the tile is working, or what we need to do to help it work, and then seeing you work through those moments.

    Thank you so much for sharing.

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    1. Thank you!I always find it interesting to hear an artist's thoughts and process, usually because it is not what I was thinking!

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  12. As always, beautiful work! Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts!

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  13. Thank you, I learn so much watching how you approach your work. I really like how they turned out. I think my fave is the tree.

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