A Look Into My Madness

I did a piece of art today that took me hours!! Not that most pieces don't take me hours, but this one took me hours just to get that last 5% done! With most of my art, I get the majority of it done, then the last details take about as long as the rest of it did. With this piece, the last details took about three times as long as the rest! I kept thinking I was done, so I'd take photos, then I would agonize over it and decide I wasn't done. So, lucky for you viewers, since I've got the photos, you get to see this process!







First we have a photo of the initial "finished" piece. Pretty nice, but it just felt a little bland to me- it was all just pinks and greens and creams. I felt it needed another color or element to make things pop a little.










So here is what I did. I added the turquoise "frame" around the center image and the little turquoise pieces of decorative tape in a couple spots. By the way, is that not the cutest tape you have ever seen?? It's by a company called "Cram Cream" and I got it here. It's hard to find, but it's so cute, I think it's worth looking for! Anyway, something about this revision just didn't sit well with me- it added too much unnecessary detail and was a little too bright and cutesy.

So here is my final revision. I took off the tape and painted over the turquoise with a toned-down blue-green, as well as adding that color in various spots around the collage. I think it adds the slight "pop" it was needing, without being too bright, and it's not detracting from the details of the main subjects. And it only took me like three hours to get to this point!

So am I done?? I'm still not sure, but at this point, I'm so sick of messing with it, I'm at least done for tonight! People often ask me how I get depth and a layered look to my collages. Well, there you go! I constantly add things on top of other things, paint over stuff, pull things off, etc. until I'm happy with the way things look. It's not really intentional, but it results in a nice weathered, layered look that can't be "faked".

I hope you enjoyed this foray into my creative process- you're lucky you only got the really revised version, because watching it in person would drive you absolutely crazy! (Here's an idea of what you'd see- me standing back and looking at it, walking away for a minute, going back and looking again, bringing it into the bathroom and looking at it in the mirror (a GREAT way to get a different perspective on a piece), making a minor change, walking away for another minute, going back and looking again,....-well, you get the idea-anyway, it would drive you crazy!)