finish up of "geronimo" sketch

i decided to take a break from the double portrait for at least this morning and instead noodle around with the painting of geronimo that i think i started back in january. it was on bristol board and i wasn't happy with the surface and how it was reacting to the paint. so that seemed the perfect thing to experiment with some things i had been thinking about.

the two things that i tried here on the background were using stencils of lettering and stamping paint on using a number of objects,s found and made. i found some pictures of apache pictographs and drew them on a piece of foam core. then i put a liberal line of "tacky glue" and let it dry. my first go showed that the paint softened the glue enough that it needed sealing. i sealed it with a spray or krylon acrylic coat and tried it again. seemed to work. the ones i chose were mainly for their shape but represented raiders, earth, and sadness.

"the swan will soon sing geronimo's song" (14"X12")

the letter stencils were just a plastic sheet i picked up at a local chain art/craft store. i daubed paint on the openings with a small (#8) round brush mixing up the colors a bit. the whole thing seemed a little rigid to me so i liberally spattered clear water over some of the figures.

to finish up i put a loose darker wash over the top and let it drip down with a little coaxing and direction.

all in all, i think that there is some merit to these techniques and i will do some more experimenting with them on another painting. i think making some small stamps with both pictographs and even some abstract shapes on a linoleum block might give a little more even paint distribution than the "tacky glue" deal....but i must say that the randomness of the paint application with the "glue" approach appeals somewhat to me.

that's all for today.