Domani, a Firenze!

Tomorrow, a 7 am bus into Florence. Look out Uffizi, here I come. I'll be there early enough to revisit the Duomo & get some coffee and brioche con cioccolata in me before my 10 am appointment at the museum. I found this book at one of my favorite stores, Helping Hands, while searching for potential art supplies. It was literally the day before I was accepted into the residency here at Greve in Chianti, and I think it was a sign.A little peek into my idea to image process here at La Macina di San Cresci. It is very similar to preparing a drawing for a woodblock, but instead of carving and printing, I am drawing and coloring. First, I draw on tracing paper because I like how the pencil looks on the surface, and I can see what is underneath when layering the drawings. Next, I arrange the images on gridded paper, draw in the patterns, tape everything down & transfer to Stonehenge paper (found out the hard way that it doesn't erase well, the pencil indents the paper and never goes away).

Then I begin to develop the image in color on Stonehenge, little by little. It's actually a lot like developing an image in print, layer by layer, until finally you get to the end and see what you have! It is either a disasterpiece-plus or a masterpiece-plus, as one of my high school art teachers used to say. Today's drawing, about abandoning a sinking ship. When we were little my friends and I would ask each other what we would bring along on a deserted island if we only had three things to take....




Above is a detail of the background, the iceberg that brought the trip to an untimely end. Sharks patrol the waters. Ever since watching a Jaws marathon on vacation circa 8th or 9th grade, I have been terrified of being eaten by sharks. You can click on any of the images on this blog and they will enlarge in a new window so you can see the detail.

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