Crusade 28: Portion Control + an in-depth explanation of my process.

Another month...another new Crusade! I bet you didn't know that portion control was one of my favorite things... When I make art, I have a problem with sharp lines completing an image. (Except for photography...where I dig sharp and crisp lines. I'm weird like that.) Part of the julification process is to soften those lines and make them blend into the artwork easier. I can't make a page without using portion control in some way or the other. I'll show you:

Painting portion control. When I lay down paint layers, I always keep in mind how a new top coat of color will affect the layers underneath. In the example above, I started with yellow ochre, white and titan buff paint dry brushed in a random pattern over the page. Without portion control, a solid first layer of color would lend to a flat and boring background. I used the colors all together...yet sparingly.

9x12" journal page

Next step was to use portion control and lightly buff a richer brown color on top of the already dry background. I use my fingers, a rag and a very light touch to make sure the top layer is uneven. The highs and lows create even more depth. Once this layer is dry, I add a small collage in the corner of the page.

Luggage Spray Paint Department

one of today's stencils

Out in the spray paint department, you can see that the stencil I chose today is pretty big. My goal is to hit it with paint light in some areas and darker in others. My goal is to have part of the stencil painted with a light mist of paint....no harsh lines, remember?

Spray paint success. Some areas of red paint are full stencil, some look like over-spray. I love this.

click to enlarge for detail

Finally, some details in black pencil. See how I outlined some of the quadrifoglio? I did that to soften the hard lines of the spray paint. To create a small diversion. Here's one more page using the same stencil as well as punchinella scrap:

Highs and lows sparingly spread around the base layer create depth..

See the white punchinella dots under there? I used a really light touch with the spray paint again. The Montana Gold paint cans offer a variety of different nozzles...ranging to very heavy spray..to a more portion controlled flow.

oh yah....you have to see the enlarged close-up of this one!

So for this page, I laid the stencil on my workbench and sprayed the top. Quickly, this paint dries really fast, I smooshed the stencil on top of the page to get this reverse effect. I don't know why I didn't try this before....but it's awesome. Look at all that plastic texture! When you lift the stencil off the page, a bunch of the dried spray paint sticks to your page. Varying results every time.

I added the drip lines last, followed by some journaling. I stare into those pages and study how each layer of activity reacted with the next layer...I can see the original layer of blue paint put down in the first stage...and every layer in between. I love this process.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of how my art brain works.. Everyone is invited to play a long in the monthly Street Team Crusades! I hope to see your project this month too...stop by and take a look- it's one of the most supportive group of artists on the net!

edit: I just noticed a bunch of portion control in my blog banner too!