For a little while I’ve been using a technique for my clay tiles in which I color the background (usually in black) and then take my Chinese bamboo brush and use it and various underglazes to fill in around a shape that I see only in my mind, until it emerges on the tile. Negative space painting, kind of, and something I learned from a book in the last year.
Anyway, for this tile, I did things a little differently. I colored it with random splotches of underglaze colors and then filled around it. The person emerged, dressed in a patterned personality. So did a grid of eyes.
I cannot explain. Don’t ask me how it all happened. It just did.
Terracotta clay, fired at cone 06, colored with velvet underglazes, January 2019.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Well, I think you score a success. There’s real movement yet balance to the composition and those intriguing eyes all emerging from a pleasing palette.
Thank you. I sort of happened on this image and I like how it turned out. I was happy it was coherent and pleasing rather than looking like something kind of slapped together! I’ll do it again.
Good idea, a very snappy dresser!
Reminds me of work I’ve seen you do lately, I knew I had this tile to post when I saw what you’d done and immediately thought of it. It’s fun and I’ll be trying this idea again.
Thank you Claudia – we inspire each other!
Wow! That’s all I have to say. (K)
Thank you. This was fun. I will definitely do it again, this technique.
Good idea.
Fabulous! The figure is really dynamic and I like the intrigue of those watching eyes.
Thank you. The eyes were kind of a brainwave that came out of nowhere, no idea why I put them in, but I do like making eyes and I think it makes the tile even more intriguing, gives it so much more to create a story about.
Love it. Love the guys shape and the eyes. LOVE the eyes.
Thank you. I don’t know what prompted me to put all those eyes there but I think it added another level of mystery to this whole crazy tile and its story, whatever it might be (the viewer decides!)
Yes once you finished in a sense it belong to others
I love the result!
Thank you. I was surprised, I did not know if it would work out after firing, but…it I like what resulted and I will certainly try this again.
Must try! Thanks for the inspiration.
You’re welcome. I’d love to see what you come up with.