Here's what I've been working on lately.
This is a project to make the concrete barricades in front of the Elementary School look more interesting and attractive. I've collected actual child drawings of kids, and am enlarging them one at a time as accurately as I can, in groups of five per block on each side.
These are the outlines, waiting to be painted. I started with a concrete stain as a background color on the blocks, and now I'm using a grid to
enlarge the kid drawings, and soapstone to draw the transfer.
Next, I use a sponge to lightly color the open spaces in the drawings. The concrete stains are water based, and soak in and dry quickly - much like watercolors on paper. I tried to keep the colors somewhat subtle, so that the barricades would remain part of the overall image of the front of the school, rather than obtrusively
bright, or distractingly garish. I hope they seem cheerful, but somewhat understated. So often representations of child art become so intensely colored they don't fit with their surroundings in an "adult planned" setting, which is what I was hoping to avoid.
I outline in black last, using a big watercolor sable. (It's working really well, I love how it loads and flows, but my poor sable will never be the same!! It wasn't intended to paint miles of lines on cement, I'm guessing!)
It's really been fun, and each drawing is so different and full of personality, I could have never dreamed up so much variety. The first group of three blocks are painted with kindergarten drawings, and the second group has first grade, and so on, up to fifth grade on the last group of three.
The final picture is my view down the LONG line of blocks. It looks like I've got my work cut out for me for a while! Hope I make it before snowfall!. By the time I'm done, the back of my neck will be really tan, and my kneepads will be worn out. Hopefully it will be a piece of artwork that the school will enjoy and be proud of.
Working over an old one that was in the do-over pile here. It's from a photo reference that my Dad took in AZ, and I really liked the coyote - the photo doesn't show it but he's really nice shades of blue, lavender and yellow. Then I proceeded to totally ruin it with a choppy harsh colored background, and I fussed over it until I couldn't stand the painting anymore. I dug it out this week, though, and decided to try to salvage. I've run a very neutral wash over all the background, and am debating how much detail to put back in. This will definitely be a "less is more" painting. Sometimes those are the hardest.
