Whining, and a hypnotic cat on canvas

Journal entry for Sept. 5, 2003

yesterday - index - tomorrow

1. Medical whining

I was home sick again; I saw a couple doctors today and neither had good news. The first doc tells me this is NOT a 24 hour bug as originally hoped; she says it's a virus that's been going around, typically lasts 7 to 10 days. Even though it won't be gone by then, if I play my cards right, I could get this stabilized enough to handle my commute on Monday.

The other doctor told me the "aqueous humor" in my eye is injured, which explains the white flashes I've been seeing, but that my retina is NOT torn and hopefully it will stay put. Definitely going to keep an eye on that (so to speak) to see (so to speak, har har) if it gets any worse. Bad puns, but, he DID say my "humor" is injured! ... okay, I'll stop now.

I did try to telecommute a bit today, but I was so busy zipping back and forth to the bathroom and the doctors, it was hardly worth the attempt. I'm going to try to make up some of the time this weekend, keep my act together. Bleh!

2. Positive art stuff: hypnotic cat canvas, already in progress

So: enough of the moping around. After a series of naps and lots of water-drinking, I had to try doing something constructive and self-affirming. No, not telecommute. ;) I'll try that again tomorrow morning.

I've been trying art-experiments for the last couple months, trying to come up with a variation on my monoprints. I wanted something in that same style but a different media, something that would be ready to hang, like a gallery-wrap acrylic canvas. I also wanted a more high-end item I can sell on my site and through my eBay listings. Of course, my painting skills are as always, totally abysmal...

Thus, I came up with a new plan which I feel pretty confident about:

• I draw as usual, scan, same as I describe in my monoprint tutorial. The difference is, this time I use the line art as the base for digital coloring. I set up the file to print at 8 by 8 inches, even though the final will be only 5 by 5 -- I want a nice border to wrap around.
• I print it on quality CANVAS which has been gessoed specifically for use in an inkjet paper, instead of using paper. It's great stuff; in combination with my archival ink, it gives great results.
• I "gallery-wrap" the printed canvas around a 5x5x1 inch hardboard, instead of stretcher bars. That way I get that neat wraparound edge look, and it can be hung as-is after I give it a protective gloss coat.
• I nuke the digital file after printing so the artwork is original, only saving a scan of the printed final version (as I usually do).

For this experiment, I came up with a cat design which I colored with concentric circles... in combination with the stare, he looks very hypnotic to me. Assuming this works, I'll use that as a title, "Hypnotic Cat". I already printed it -- here's a scan of the full 8 by 8 inch print, which is not done yet since it still needs to be mounted:

I don't have time or energy to do the actual wrap-staple-mount tonight, but I cropped it so you can get an idea of what it will hopefully look like when it's on the 5 by 5 inch block. Remember that the part that wraps around will still be visible on the edges:

I'm really happy with how well my printer can handle the canvas, even though it has such a different texture than paper. Here's an extreme close-up of the left ear, for reference. This zoom would be about an inch square, I guess:

As you can see... so far, so good. I now have original art on canvas with that airbrushy-geometric look and overly bright color that I love way too much.

Tomorrow I'll post pics of the final version. Hope my theory is as sound as I think it is... wish me luck!

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