Friday, November 21, 2008

Razor Blade Painting - First Try

At the Arizona Art Guild meeting Tuesday night we watched an excellent demo by John Erwin on painting with razor blades and India ink. This is sort of like using razor blades for palette knives and is a two-step process where you create the architectural elements first with the razor and ink and then do watercolor washes over it. He demonstrated this technique by painting a magnificent Italian village complete with towers, domed buildings, etc. I chose, for my experiment with this concept, a far simpler Taos Pueblo complex. I also have another pueblo scene ready to go that has more to it so I will try that, also.

While I dislike the shade covering I wound up with after playing around with the ink too much, I do think this method is a good way to loosen up and do something different than my usual "style" sometimes. We sure had fun working with these at the art club yesterday afternoon! And, I didn't cut myself one time working with those razor blades...hooray!



2 comments:

RH Carpenter said...

Oooo, I like this!! I can see you incorporating some of this in your sepia paintings, Susan :) And just think how much aggression you can take out on that paper with those razor blades! haha

Anonymous said...

It was certainly interesting for me to read the post. Thanx for it. I like such themes and anything connected to this matter. BTW, try to add some images :).