As promised in my last blog, I finally got going using the red kites as my inspiration. Here are a few pages from my sketchbooks.
My initial response always is to do some rough sketches in my sketchbook and ripping shapes out of magazines. I coloured the pages of my sketchbook first with some watercolour or Koh-i-noor (very intense and bright sort of watercolour). Then I cut nine 3″ frames out of a page and printed little birds with Chromacoal through a template.
I continued printing through the stencils onto some painted Lutradur which I stuck onto some black Lutradur and cut 3″ squares with a soldering iron. These were then stitched – by hand!! – onto yet another piece of painted Lutradur and to keep it interesting I cut a bigger kite and stitched this one on the top by hand. I now need to find a nice frame for it and will have a go with some other colours. I’ve painted some Lutradur in blue, which I love working with.
Hopefully all these pieces can go into an exhibition and perhaps even be sold!
Thanks – it’s nice to have the explanation of your process. I’m sure this will go down well in an exhibition.