EPIPHANY WITH A POLKADOT PIG

Polkadot Pig 8x11" Experiment in Layering. © Ruth Zachary.

 

Scribble Paint 8 Abstract with Bicycle. © Ruth Zachary

In the previous Post and Abstract experiment, I had just discovered that a cut out object transplanted into a composition  offered new options in layering with different modes. I didn’t have time to explore it further just then.

I was also working to create more realistic work with a bicycle theme explained in my last post, and  had already cut out a bicycle in great detail, with a blank background. I moved the bicycle to a new document, and adjusted the size so it would fit into Scribble Paint 9. (Layer 1)  The  realistic bicycle worked pretty well without changing the mode with the linear qualities in the abstract background.

I loved Scribble Paint 9 as an abstract piece, but I could also visualize a pink pig, riding the bicycle, outlined in yellow, painted in the splashy style of the abstract Apple Works paint strokes.  I thought this would preserve the character of the abstract painting, so the pig image might be added and still be consistent with the rest of the composition. I created the pig twice before copying it into the composition. Then I tried all the modes available on the cutout pig . Some modes worked and some  didn’t. I adjusted the pig to 90% opacity, so some of the paint strokes beneath showed through.

Actually what I think I learned in that moment was that I had been painting the subject  so realistically, that the subject or the background were no longer consistent in character. I want to maintain an image that is true to the realistic form, for the ideas conveyed, but not necessarily photographically detailed, as in my Bicycle Café painting. To achieve the way of working I am striving toward,  I need to paint in a manner consistent with the surrounding impressionistic elements of the painting. It requires seeing the whole in a different manner.

The act of putting a cut out object into the abstract setting, could have ended with the same sort of inconsistency, not integrated into the whole. More adjustments were required.

When the pig cutout was copied into the image, I needed to adjust the size and perspective of the happy little creature. When applying different modes, the pink pig with yellow outlines was changed to pink and purple with white outlines, but it is in the same color scheme and works ok.

I deleted parts of the pig’s surrounding area paint strokes, so more of Scribble Paint 9 was visible. In one part of the  pig’s surrounding area (a semi transparent apricot tone) was  cut out, copied back in as a fourth layer, and flipped vertically  so it dominated the top of the composition.

Ultimately the original orientation of Scribble Paint 9 (layer 1)was flipped horizontally, as was the fourth layer.  I tried different modes on the top two layers again. Eventually, I erased small areas of the top layers so the composition retained some of the original color and character of the background in the normal mode.

 I decided eventually to change the mode of the bicycle, which in this variation, also picked up the other colors of the composition.

To Experiment means a lot of the time, the effort does not work out. However, it is possible to save the steps and learn from them to apply what you learn in the future. Eventually I rejected the pig composition. At present I think it is too busy. I took a similar abstract, Scribble Paint 8, and layered the bicycle image into that. The abstraction with only the bicycle is the one I will use for the coming show at Madison and Main.

To see another version of this composition, visit my Abstract Blog, MIXED MEDIA ABSTRACT ART.

 Writing and Images are the copyright © of Ruth Zachary.