White Rooster Studio

I have been working rather inconsistently in my studio over the past couple of months and am determined to get myself back on track and spend more time in the studio. It is not that I have not been doing anything art-related, it is that lately my studio time has not been, I feel, very productive or successful, causing quite a bit of frustration.

I am currently experimenting with multiple project ideas that are in various stages of development… some of which may be the new direction I have been looking for.

My latest idea is to use up the leftover paper from the Pismo Project. After trimming the paper to the 20×20 needed for the project, I found myself with quite a bit 10×22 remnants that I have decided to experiment with the scroll idea I have toying with for the past 6+ months.

There is something about the long rectangular shape that is very attractive to me and provides new design challenges that I am eager to play with.

For this picture, I have decided to play with a less controlled look and have combined some of the designs with some new smaller shapes. This is still in the design process, so the intention is that ultimately there will be a more unexpected, slightly chaotic result.

The 2nd project idea came from a picture that my partner shared with me last summer that I believe could be the project idea/direction I have been searching for. The picture below is a metal grill/screen on a local building and provided the idea of segmenting the picture design:

After a little experimentation, I came up with the picture below:

The idea was to create a unified design that plays off each segmented image. I really feel that this could be what I have been looking for and am eager to experiment with this idea more. As usual, I am still trying to figure out how to “finish” this picture.

While trying to come up with a solution, I have been working with the ideas below, they are essentially the same idea, just on a smaller scale – small pop-up “windows”:

Looking forward to a more productive summer and getting back into regular studio time resulting in, hopefully, some completed pictures soon.

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

1. If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
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3. Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

White Rooster Studio

Copyright @2032 White Rooster Studio

It’s been a rough couple of weeks for the Virtues Project.

Mid-August I reviewed the status of the project and that realized that I had the about 12 pieces of the project to the stage where I could start adding ink layers. I prepped and tested the ink washes and set the selected pictures up for a mass inking. Immediately I knew something was VERY wrong.

I have never had any issues previously in regard to the watercolor paper that I use (I have in the past used incredibly OLD pieces of watercolor paper for the I Ching Project without an issues) … but it appears that perhaps August was NOT the time to add ink washes to the pictures as, I fear, the summer humidity affected the paper… and definitely not in a good way:

In all, six pictures were affected and now will need to be re-done. The good news is the designs have already been completed, it is now just a matter of re-creating them.

I also will need to re-do the diptych: Creativity and Determination as the ink wash dried a LOT darker than the tests, leaving the design lost in the wash:

In all, nine pictures from the Virtues Project will need to be re-done. Some due to the ink wash debacle and some due to design issues. I will admit to spending some time sulking and mourning the time that I have lost of this project, but I am looking at this all as a learning experience and will move on.

I have started a new diptych: Authenticity and Caring and, so far, like the direction that it is going in:

EDIT: 14 September 2022: I am beginning to suspect the issue with the paper may not be humidity after all. I found some reviews online about the paper I have been using and there were several warnings about the paper not being able to handle wet-on-wet work, leaving the ink or watercolors with a “granulated” look – exactly what I have been experiencing, and overall paper breakdown if the paper is sized. Perhaps the reason I haven’t really noticed it recently is because I haven’t used ink washes in my work for a couple of years. Regardless of what the issue is, the paper should still be usable as long as I am careful with the amount of ink/water that is used for the final product.

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

1. If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
2. You can also follow White Rooster Studio by using the direct links from the blog’s headers. For FB, please click on the FB button, and if you click on VIDA COLLECTION, LE GALERISTE or ETSY SHOP you will be directed to those sites immediately.
3. Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

White Rooster Studio

Copyright @2022 White Rooster Studio

I have come across a road block with my original concept for the Virtues Project and after many months of attempting to come up with a solution, I have come to the conclusion that as much as I like the idea behind the series… it simply was not working.

I have since revisited the project and have come up with a possible new direction for the Virtues Project:

I may need to re-do Authenticity (below) as I started to fill in the center circle with red lines which, in my head, looked promising, but when I saw the result on paper… well, it was not as exciting and simply is not working with the overall design:

Commitment was originally designed to be a landscape picture, but after I managed to get the image this far, I also saw possibilities in turning it into a portrait design, which opened the door to the next phase of this project:

For the next design, I started thinking about scroll paintings, which led to the idea of adding elements that would suggest a scroll-like look:

For Contentment, I started pushing the scroll idea even further and chose to only show portions of the design where the “panels” would be:

There will still be ink layers added later to the pictures, however, I am still deciding on whether or not I should continue in the style used for Commitment or if I should incorporate some of the ideas explored in the original Virtues series.

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If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

1. If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
2. You can also follow White Rooster Studio by using the direct links from the blog’s headers. For FB, please click on the FB button, and if you click on VIDA COLLECTION, LE GALERISTE or ETSY SHOP you will be directed to those sites immediately.
3. Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

White Rooster Studio

Copyright @2022 White Rooster Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Starting September with 15 Virtues Project pictures in progress – including the 1st picture that I have chosen to re-do. Please see new works in progress below:

Creativity: Organic Knot /Sepia ink background / Brown border / Navy & Berry ink:

Determination: Knot / Black ink background / Black border / Orange, Blue & Purple ink:

Dignity: Organic Knot / Black ink background / Black border / Orange, Berry & Teal ink:

Encouragement: Organic & Regular Knot / Sepia ink background / Brown border / Red & Lilac ink:

I have been trying to figure out how to finish these pictures – as I think that they need something “more” to call them completed. Thankfully, my partner had an interesting – although quite unexpected – suggestion: why not use a Spriograph? Check out Basil below showing off the Spirogrpah kit we found online:

First, I had to try out the designs… I think for this project, less is more as some of the more complicated designs would be much to difficult to incorporate them into the works in progress:

Then, a small test to combine the two ideas:

I think there is something here – the idea would be to “lift” the pen when the design comes into contact with the ink washes, the solution may be to use retractable pens for this purpose as the Spirograph is finicky and the slightest wrong move could through the design off.

This may require a lot more practice 🙂

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you enjoy the projects, pictures and posts, please see free to comment – feedback is encouraged and is always welcome.

Please check out White Rooster Studio:

1. If you enjoy this blog, please enter your email address by going to the Menu, then the Home Page to have White Rooster Studio’s blog sent directly to you once it is published.
2. You can also follow White Rooster Studio by using the direct links from the blog’s headers. For FB, please click on the FB button, and if you click on VIDA COLLECTION, LE GALERISTE or ETSY SHOP you will be directed to those sites immediately.
3. Any questions, comments? Please email whiteroosterstudio@gmail.com

White Rooster Studio

Copyright @2021 White Rooster Studios. All Rights Reserved.