Constructing Art

Mary Green has Deconstructing Art, so I figured I could have Constructing Art!

I’m going to participate in my very first Quick-Draw/Quick-Finish event on the 7th of August and my second on the 8th. So where to begin?

I was notified a couple of weeks ago that a couple of pieces of my art work on old paper had been juried into the Blackfoot Valley Art Auction. The notification came in the form of a nice letter and a business envelope with a corner card. They also invited me to participate in the Quick-Draw event, and I reluctantly said yes. The reason I say reluctantly is because I’d never done it before, and I have no idea if I can actually finish something in an hour! Because both letterhead and envelope had a Western Swallowtail Butterfly as part of the design, I at least had somewhere to start.

I decided to do a Mini-Poster because although most of my art work takes at least a day, there are a couple of things I can do fairly well including a generic landscape of mountains and trees. I started with a palette on which I put the particulars for the event using a couple of vintage lettering styles. All of my design and preliminary work is done with a pencil. I did perhaps six layouts in pencil of the palette and lettering before I was satisfied with what I had. I left the day area of the date line blank, intending to do the same basic thing for both events, but change three things: I’m going to use a different Red Rose Tea Trading Card, the day will be changed, and the landscape – trust me – it will be different. I simply can’t repeat it.

I purchased some heavier 30# scrapbooking paper in ivory, scanned my layout, and printed two copies of the layout. I proceeded to complete the lettering on the palette and since I used two different trading cards, the color of the lettering will follow the colors present in the butterfly wings.

Using the template again, I produced a layout on the same ivory paper, and did forty-five minutes worth of ‘landscaping’.

Using the Bog Fritillary butterfly wings as a color key, I finished the lettering on the palette for the Friday Night Event, and using the Western Tiger Swallowtail as a color key, I completed the lettering for the Saturday Night event.

The third image is as close as you or I are ever going to get to seeing what the finished piece looks like, or at least I hope it is. I realized by the time I was done with this one that I need more trees in the landscape, but that's easy to do.

Hopefully, it will walk out the door when the Auction is over!