After I carved my stamps yesterday, I knew I didn’t just want to leave the “test page” look. I wanted to use those test prints as the bottom layer of a painting. I had put the corner stamp together in a pattern that looked like two little houses, and when I brushed gesso over it, the effect was Chagall-esque, and/or inspired by Katie Kendrick. In the work of both those artists there are a lot of pieces that are about people and their place, their home. There are women in kerchiefs, very Eastern European, before-the-pogrom feeling. So I jumped into the painting knowing I wanted that inspiration and to utilize my stamps somehow. Here is the progression:

Just gesso and ideas for the painting over hand carved stamp test page. The gesso smeared the block printing ink. I just knew I wanted to integrate those stamp houses with some large face image.

Added my standard Modigliani-ish face with Neocolor II water soluble crayons

Added some gesso and line. Decided the face looks too much like a face I have in another painting, so I changed the face:

Looking scary with vague undefined features. Maybe a good design for some weird group of faceless women in Buffy or something.

I didn’t really want that, so I added some line with a fine brush and india ink:

I think the bluish cast in the first photographs has something to do with the lighting, but it did have a somewhat yucky blue cast (from smearing the block-printing ink) until these last few steps.

The painting isn’t done. I think I am going to make the upper right sky a dark blue to get a night vibe. I also want to add my repeating pattern stamp, probably in a gold paint, on that dark blue. Also want to add more village touches and get some patterned paper in there somewhere, even though I don’t want a busy piece. As of this point, I think the painting is successful as far as getting the Chagall/Kendrick influence. If I can get the stamps integrated well into these upper layers that will be great. We shall see.