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.
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.