Mule Creek Ruin, Beginning

A couple of days ago I was playing around with a photograph of a scene I had printed off from my files.  The simple shapes I ended up with were so intriguing that I had to draw it out right away.  Just for fun, I drew it on a piece of bleached muslin fabric. 

Drawn out on bleached muslin, ready for the resist

Today I got up early and put a black resist on the piece before I had to run off to other obligations.  This way it will be dry by the time I have a chance to drop color into the shapes.  I used Jacquard's permanent black resist in applicator bottles with varying sizes of tips; thicker lines for the foreground and the thinnest lines for background and little details.  It was fun to use.   

All of the areas with thick and medium weight lines covered with Jacquard's black resist

The resist should hold the different dye colors behind the lines so that they won't run into each other. I figured this'd be a fun way to work out the composition for an oil painting of the same subject and play with more Dye-na-flow products all in one go.  It's a twofer.

The resist in place and drying for Mule Creek Ruin, 19" x 28" on bleached muslin

The shapes all drawn out with the black lines look like a page from a coloring book to me.  Which is what I liked about the whole thing in the first place.  Details eliminated and basic shapes left to create value and perspective.  Fun times in the studio, woo hoo!  

Thanks for stopping by- Alice