A Good Studio Day is Even Better than Chocolate Bunnies

I am amazed at how incredibly much this piece rallied yesterday with just one additional layer of silk screened color. I started by tracing, cutting and pinning on Kraft paper resists, editing out some letter forms and selecting the strongest ones to preserve as my lightest values. I chose transparent black Setacolor to reestablish the darkest areas of value next to the lightest ones and screened these pebbly shapes on in patterns that would add both definition and movement to the composition.You can see how the cut paper resists work in the image above. Once I took the paper resists off again, I mixed a spray bottle of diluted pewter DynaFlo and spritzed the whites to tone them down just a bit.

By the end of the afternoon, the surface rebounded from pale and pathetic to one that delivers a real punch. There are still a few areas I may alter slightly when I go back for another studio day on Tuesday -- may screen on a few highlights of white text -- but overall this is an amazing transformation. Even the small touches of orange are working now. I have to chuckle -- I like the composition, definition and value contrasts better on this piece now than the other one! Parables III and IV are moving forward!