Access Gallery is a Denver Gallery whose mission is to bring the arts to young people with disabilities.
Every year Access puts on the ’99 pictures of art on the wall’ fundraiser. They hand out ninety-nine 10 inch by 10 inch mini-boards to artists interested in participating. This is the first year I was made aware of the event, and was asked if I’d be interested in doing a piece by an artist friend of mine. I readily agreed and took one of the boards home with me.
I sat on the board for a couple of weeks, mulling over what I was going to do for it. I settled on an oldie but goodie image of mine that I drew several years ago, but have used only experimentally since creating it. The image is of a cat, standing in profile, and holding up a chainsaw while revving it. I decided to create a border for the image as well, as it gives it a more formal/finished appearance, and I love doing borders for my pictures.
Below is the basic sequence I followed to create the picture, followed by the finished picture.
Step 1.—Draw the image to size in black ink. It is seen here on top of the 10 x 10 board.
Step 2.—Draw the border using black in, then color in the border, and the cat image using various ink pens.
Step 3.—After choosing the fabric for the background, I affix it to the board using a combination of polyvinyl sealer and staples. The image below shows the fabric after it has been attached and I’ve begun overpainting using various acrylic and gouache paints.
Step 4.—Below are two images of the finished picture. After getting the background to where I wanted it, I trimmed up the cat image and the border with an Xacto knife, then affixed them using the same polyvinyl sealer. Finally, I seal the entire front and back of the picture with three coats of water-based polyurethane.
That’s all folks!