"Arabella's Inner Life"

Dear Visitors,

This will be a very different post. I have gotten myself into something I have never done before: a poster competition :) This is part of the Marbletown, NY, Founder's Day celebration. The assignment is to fill with images, colors or shapes the blank white space inside the founder’s body on one of the posters pictured below. The posters are printed on canvas and stretched over 26” x 68” frame. The figure itself is about 4 feet high. The deadline is July 11th. The posters will be put on public display in and around Marbletown to promote the Founders’ Day festivities to be held on July 26th. The posters will then exhibited and auctioned off at the end of the event to benefit Stone Ridge Public Library.

 

I got the notice about this event last Friday, the 11th, was humming and hawing about participating but the deadline seemed too short. Saturday, however, I was still thinking about it. Then my boyfriend convinced me to dare and so we picked up "The Lady" :)

 

I gave her the name "Arabella" and called the theme "Arabella's Inner Life". Now what? I was completely clueless how to fill in the white space, but was and am still counting on the Inner Voice Drawing process to guide me.  I have decided to document each step and let you in on the development of the piece. The surprise of each step will be yours as much as mine :)

STEP ONE:

close up

I am getting a first feel of Arabella's personality: reflective
with an inner fire ....
5 more days until completion.

STEP TWO:

Arabella's personality is coming out more: playfulness with a bent for gentle pranks. I am curious where this will go. Are you too? Stay tuned. 4 more days until completion.

STEP THREE:

 

close up

This is the last sketch. The next step is adding color.  3 more days to go.  Stay tuned :)

STEP FOUR:

This is still a very rough color draft. I am working with acrylic on vinyl. It's a slippery surface and makes it more difficult to have a smooth and even paint. Layers are the solution. 2 more days to go. Stay tuned :)

STEP FIVE:

 

Arabella is shaping up :)  I hadn't thought of outlining all the forms with a black marker, but when I did one I liked the look: the forms pop out more and remind me of stained glass patterns.

One more day to go. Have a good evening and let's meet here again tomorrow for the final :)

THE FINAL:

This was a fun project. I had some trouble though with the writing part. I had bought several light colored markers (sharpies) to write on the black background, but none of them worked on the vinyl material. Challenges can make you creative, so the solution was painting an acrylic base and using the black marker on top of it. Voila :)

I hope this post gives you some ideas and the courage to stretch yourself - at least a bit. You can do it!

And don't forget to make someone smile :)