Today I have been completing the next stage of my process in bringing together mixed media, painting, projection and etching.
After completing a mixed media background and letting it dry, today I was able to project my chosen etching plate onto the canvas and trace the image onto the canvas using a graphite pencil.
Once I had the canvas positioned with the projection on it (as seen in the top image in this post) I was slightly reluctant to start drawing. Given the added texture on the canvas in relationship to the marks on the etching plate, I think it looked really interesting as it was.
With this said I decided I needed to progress with this experiment to see where it took me. If need be I can always reproduce the mixed media background if I decide this is the better outcome.
The bottom image in this post illustrates the canvas once the drawing had been completed. I actually quite like the marks made by the graphite pencil, specifically the more abstract marks within the background of the image. When I begin to apply paint to this piece I think I shall first start with the figure and see how it looks after completing that stage. I may consider leaving some pencil marks as they are as opposed to reinforcing them with paint.
I had every intention, when I came up with the idea for this piece, to paint the lines of this image black in relation to the original etching print. After the process of printing and then projecting the etching plate, however, I was more interested in how this colouring had become more subdued and appeared more grey than black. In the spirit of representing the etching plate as opposed to the etching print, therefore, I think a grey tone would be better for this painting. I will reflect upon this point again once the painting stage has commenced.
