An actual art-related update

I finished two commissions recently! One is a very, very large drawing (one of the largest I’ve ever done), and the other is small. I used the same rapidograph for both (.35). You can find images of both projects in the gallery.

The larger drawing was for a friend who approached me to do a commission celebrating her friend’s graduation from his Masters program. She gave me his 50-page thesis, which I shrank down to about 25 pages (by removing all excess spacing) and proceeded to write out by hand. The recipient’s name, Rippi, appears in the white design at the center. The thesis was about outsourcing in India- the history, present state, and future well-being of this huge industry as it applies to the people and nation of India.

The smaller drawing was commissioned by a cousin of mine. He gave me the dimensions he wanted, and then told me to do pretty much whatever I wanted for the design and colors. I was considering orange for the central swathe, but didn’t feel daring enough to do it. I think the drawing has a kind of oriental feel, and the curve of the central swirly thing sort of reminded me of a tiger stripe. Again, I didn’t have the guts to risk it (I’d left that part for last), but I don’t regret doing the red at all.

I’m in the process of putting together a blog for art-related things only, the link to which I will be able to post on etsy without feeling like I’m revealing my whole life to complete strangers. This blog will be used to post things about the commissions and various projects I’m working on, (art) things that I like and am inspired by, and if I can force myself to do so, that’ll be about it. I’ll try keep up with this blog, for sure, and you are all invited to visit the new art-only blog once it’s set up.

I am thiiiiis close to finishing a super-cool little journal I made using my very own, hand-painted, home-made bookcloth. I think it looks awesome :) It was my first time making bookcloth, and I was nervous that the method I used would fail. What makes bookcloth bookcloth is this property where when you put glue on the “wrong” side (the side that’s glued to boards to make covers) of the fabric, the wetness of the glue doesn’t seep through the cloth. If you used plain old cotton, for example, the glue would soak straight through the cloth and be very very visible when it dried. When you get glue on bookcloth, it dries darker than the fabric and looks terrible. Even the smallest bit of it is visible. I made my bookcloth by fusing painted cotton to a piece of tissue paper, using iron-on fusing material. I found a tutorial online, but I forget where. Before painting and fusing the cloth to the tissue paper, I “drew” on it using washable white glue, let it dry, and then painted on the cloth with acrylic paints (a method my mother calls “cheater’s batik”). You let the paint dry, and then soak it in warm soapy water for a while, to get the glue to dissolve. Where the glue had been, you get white lines. This technique is great for things that will never/rarely be washed, because the acrylics will fade. Unfortunately, this method will not work very well when actual fabric paint is substituted for the acrylic, based on my attempts to do so. I’ll post pictures when this book is finished, so you can see the effect.

Gotta go. Have a good Monday.