On the 30th of January in 2006, I inked this portrait of Bob Marley on stretched muslin canvas.
On the 18th of February, I discovered the ink was not "water-proof" to the chemical make-up of the batik dyes we were using. A couple of the other pieces I colored that day were "ruined." The ink streaks were not workable at all. "MARLEY!" was one of the "lucky ones."
The usual process in batik painting is to iron out as much of the wax as possible then have the piece dry-cleaned. I was not particularly happy with the results of my ink accident but I figured I could always attempt to re-ink after it was dry-cleaned.
However, I found the ironing process had left the canvas with a fairly even coat of wax in the weave of the muslin. The canvas was "stiff" like a piece of heavy water color paper. I started drawing on it with colored pencil. I liked how bright some of the pencil pigment showed up on this "waxed paper." Some colors didn't work as well or had no effect at all. And some of the pencil lines really sat "on top" the surface. I couldn't blend as easily as I use to when working with paper. But I figured, what did I have to lose? If it sucked, I would just bring it to the dry cleaners as I had planned anyway. The pencil would probably be removed as well.
This piece had me consumed! I pretty much finished it in one sitting on the 20th of February.
I had it framed like a traditional drawing. On the 10th of March it was accepted in in the Annual Northeastern Fine Art Juried Show at Green Trees Gallery in Northfield, MA.
