Large canvas artwork, bubble wrap

The other day I showed my start of this art canvas piece. I thought I'd show my work in progress.

This is a large canvas (will be 30" x 36" when attached to stretcher bars). I used my sewing machine to sew on some other fabrics. One is a sateen with a leaf pattern woven in. One is canvas and one is probably polyester. After that, I painted it with watered down acrylic paint. I also painted some lace scraps separately and will be sewing them on tomorrow when they are dry. I just threw the circles onto the canvas for the picture, this isn't where they actually go.

 
This is my inspiration for the design (below), an altered page from a magazine. I used Citrasolv to "dissolve" the inks in a National Geographic. On this particular page, I had inserted a piece of large bubble wrap.  Here is one website that describes the process, but there are lots of web pages on this technique. Citrasolv tutorial.  I do use a foam brush to apply the Citrasolv, in order to thoroughly cover each page (wear gloves!). It may dissolve the brush as you go, it is powerful stuff. I pour some of the Citrasolv in a old tuna can or glass jar to dip my brush in.  It will dissolve a plastic cup. The pages definitely need to be ripped out and separated in 10 to 20 minutes. They will glue themselves together otherwise.  I did this during summer in Colorado, and 10 minutes was definitely enough, since it is not very humid here.  I tried using Citrasolv to transfer one of these altered pages to fabric, but it didn't work. If you've never tried it, it's pretty darn cool. They make great backgrounds for collages, etc. Make sure to work in a well ventilated area if you decide to try it. It smells like orange, but is pungent and I am sure it's not good to breathe it in.

Page using Citrasolv technique

I think the background color on the big canvas is too dark. Since I plan on doing small and large pieces this month, I painted three smaller canvas pieces different shades of green/blue. I like this one (below),but think I still need to go lighter.  I am leaving a piece of bubble wrap on the small ones overnight while they dry, to see if I could get a pattern in the paint. Tomorrow, I plan on painting the bubble wrap with a brayer and "printing" the bubble wrap pattern on these small ones. I'll post that in the future.

 So how do I make the larger circles on the bigger canvas look like the  bubble wrap pattern? Cling wrap.  I had painted my circles a soft yellow the other day.  I mixed up a dirty blue-ish gray by adding red to a mixture of Phalo (green? I will have to check) and ultramarine blue. I used the red to darken the color and also make it more neutral.  I sprayed my circles with water, and then painted this color around the edges of the circles. I did draw some of the paint towards the centers, and then laid down crinkled cling wrap on top.  My cling wrap is green so it is hard to tell exactly what they will look like after the paint dries. (I hate this roll of cling wrap, as it does not come off the roll easily, so I am trying to use it up. In hindsight, I should have used clear so I could see how well it was working!).

Tomorrow should be interesting. I get to unveil my cling wrap circles, paint bubble wrap on my smaller pieces, and most likely paint my background canvas a lighter color.

Also, I went to the thirft store yesterday and bought a huge roll of sheer fabric. I did a burn test, and I think it's polyester, but it has a very nice hand to it. I am sure it is meant to be drapery fabric as it is 120" wide by I-have-no-idea-how-many-yards. My guess would be 10 to 20, and it cost me a whopping $5.  I will have to come up with some projects for it. I may try burning it. I love that book "Hot Textiles" but have a huge fear of fire so that would definitely be an outdoor project with a bucket of water.