Unearthing

Danielle Daniel is the art tutor for the next class Unearthing. She believes that dreams are a portal for our subconscious and suggests keeping a bedside notebook for a week. Dream themes will feature in our creations... I tried this and quickly twigged I no longer dream! Probably, circumstances have stopped me having much REM which is a bit worrying as it is supposed to be recuperative!!!
Undeterred and fascinated by her acrylic renderings of whimsical faces, I challenged myself to quickly create a montage of faces, me style just to play with line and remind myself how small changes in positioning etc can result in different expressions.

After watching Danielle's videos a few times I decided to collage 4 small pieces of paper and
practice her method for creating a face and upper torso. Working dark to light with acrylics was alien to me as I am used to laying thin transparent watercolour layers, so it felt very experimental.

Danielle explained how these figures take on a personality of their own and that was so true.

The collaged/acrylic/printed background was fun to create and I like how a layer of white acrylic applied with a brayer knocked the initial bright colours back to make a more muted base. I've called this one Beatrice
as all she needs is a loo seat hat!

This is very Maid Marian. I liked the background colours and these inspired the pagan maiden that emerged. The use of a pearlescent copper on her plait seems to make it glow. I think Danielle's tip of making the irises look left or right really gives the faces character.
This one looks wistful.




I wanted to experiment with a slightly darker skin tone and this girl developed a 50's vibe with her flicked out hair. I tried to include a bit more of a background. I'm not sure if its a gate or ornate window, but with her bouquet, I think she looks like a bridesmaid.

Finally, girl four morphed into Toyah Wilcox with her spiky bobbed red hair and feline features. Its quite exciting to see who is going to emerge
from the background..... I tried to create a blossom tree behind her but I'm not sure if it is too abstract and indistinct?

After practicing I now feel confident about producing a larger piece.
So far I've had only one weird dream about being inside a light bulb so I decided to take inspiration from the film The Great Gatsby which I've just seen. F. Scott Fitzgerald's prose is too beautiful for words and this cinematic version is a feast for the senses WHATEVER the critics say!
So instead of seeing who emerges from the page I'm going to have a go at creating a Daisy Buchanan in all her flapper glory.