When life gives you lemons sit back and enjoy a margarita. My response to this week’s Life Book lesson went messily wrong but I kept going and enjoyed the creative process regardless.
The lesson was taken by Jill Berry and was about using tissue paper and acrylic gel skins as materials in collage. The process of creating the skins looked fantastic in the instructional video and I felt very inspired. The fault was absolutely not in the instructions, which were very clear and looked fairly straightforward; the fault was definitely down to user error. As soon as I started to peel the skins, I knew it had all gone horribly wrong: instead of coming off in nice sheets, the paint was stretching like elastic and snapping off into little fragments which then had a tendency to clump up and stick together. Beyond frustrating. But what to do with the utter mess I had created?
With no time in which to make new acrylic skins, I decided to just embark on the collage regardless. Lemons into lemonade, right? I had painted deli paper to incorporate into the collage too so I started laying down scraps of torn deli paper and the fragments of acrylic paint all over the watercolour paper. My vision for the piece had been an owl soaring across a dusk sky but my piece was becoming far too “textural” for that to be a feasible plan. I looked at all my black, blue, purple and silver collage materials and decided that a choppy sea would work. Upon settling on that idea, I immediately decided upon making a painting of a selkie. A selkie is a creature in Scottish and Irish folklore that lives as a seal in the sea and then transforms into human form on land. A sort of wereseal. I think I got the idea from my 8 year old who created some selkie art a couple of weeks ago.
The ugly phase lasted a long time for this piece but I determined not to give up and just keep ploughing onwards, making the best I could out of my flawed materials. I added spatter to the piece not just because I love spatter but because it helped unify all the little scraps of deli paper and dried paint and I think it did make it more coherent. I am not sure how well it shows up in the photographs but the texture of the piece is actually quite interesting and is certainly different for me and there are lots of metallic and sparkling elements which hopefully contributes to the magical aspect of the selkie.
I don’t think I snatched success from the jaws of failure but I also don’t think this piece is a disaster either. It might be a while before I try making acrylic skins again though.
Now where’s that margarita?
I think you did snatch success from the jaws of failure by not quitting and throwing the whole thing in the trash. Good for you! Sorry it was challenging, bet it won’t be so much next time. In the meantime you created something magical!
Goodness, Jill. There is no need for you to apologize for the challenge involved in the lesson. As I wrote in my post, it was entirely user error. I suspect my layers were too thin in areas and that I perhaps needed more than 24 hours drying time because of the humidity. I was certainly inspired by the idea of the skins so I am adding this to my list of Life Book lessons to try again.
Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to read, comment and provide direct feedback. I really appreciate it.
Excellent attitude 🙂 I just had to dash off and make sure I had the fixings for a margarita – despite it being before 8 am 🙂 I really like how this turned out and your Selkie looks particularly friendly and encouraging!
Thank you very much. A margarita is going to be my reward for persevering with this piece and attending back to school night in one day.
Well, I like it, however it came about! And the selkie looks quite friendly, I like this personality you’ve given it (him? her?)
I’m not sure if the gender. My boys say male but they are biased. Thank you for your kind comment. I’m glad you like it.
Laura, I love your stick-to-i-tiveness and your recipe for doing so: margueritas from lemonade!! I needed to hear that that today:-)
I do tend to persevere with my art and see it through to the end even if said end turns out to be bitter. There are, however, a few times when the art ends up in the recycling bin. This time I’m glad I persevered because, while my technique was shambolic, the outcome isn’t too bad. Thanks for being so supportive. Have a margarita. 😀
Amazing work!! Love ur art … Vl try someday
Thank you very much. I appreciate your kind compliment.
acrylic skins? hmmm don’t know anything about it but your work looks so amazing and has texture heaven. you have to teach me how to make acrylic skins.
Ha ha! I really don’t think you want ME to teach you. I bet there are great tutorials on YouTube.
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