Tracing Paper, Who Knew?

Ball Perfection 6/7/16

Art Journal Tracing Paper as Collage Fodder

A Surprising Texture

Wanted to do a rubbing of the mason jar I had in the kitchen, but what paper to use? The best thing I had on hand was tracing paper and my cheapo Prang watercolor pencils. When I went to activate the watercolor, I liked the way it rippled the paper. (I emphasized the ripple with gesso, see the close-up detail in the lower image.)

I painted some blue and green circles on tracing paper with watercolor to experiment with this further and ended up using that and the mason jar rubbing as collage fodder.

 

The Composition

After I glued everything down, I completed the circles where I had torn the tracing paper. I penciled in the tree-trunk shapes and partial frame (on the bottom left) and painted with watercolor. I gessoed the circles to lighten them. I realized that my cheapo Prang watercolor pencil colors do not harmonize with my favorite tube watercolor hues. Drawing the red circles around the blue and green shapes eased the color clash. It was time to invest in a set of Inktense pencils by Derwent.

The each tree trunk points to the other tree and the small circles on the top left curve around toward the tree. This is called drawing the eye around. It makes the overall composition more pleasing and gives the viewer unconscious clues on where to look. 

The surprises: a throw-away test can generate a pleasing page. And watercolor pencil strokes left unactivated next to some that are activated is a cool look.