Cecelia (Codfish Project May 3, 2017)

This is a decorated wooden codfish that I am making for the Marblehead Festival of the Arts.  Local artists are creating decorated codfish to be auctioned off to benefit the Marblehead Arts Association. This is my third year participating, and this time my codfish, Cecelia, will be decorated with musical scales -- C scales. Yesterday I primed the wooden cutout with gesso, and today began drawing the design on the wood.  I had already drawn the design on paper (posted here on April 22)  But since then, I had decided to make some adjustments, so there were still some placement issues to work out.  I was using a mechanical pencil to get a precise point. Now, drawing straight lines for musical notation shouldn't be a big challenge for a person who had three years of drafting in high school, and years of piano lessons. But the lines on Cecelia aren't going to be straight; they need to curve to communicate the shape her body.  In addition, I had two other problems.  First, as I adjusted the placement of the lines of the music, I got lost and in a couple places, I drew in an extra line.   (Well, sorry, but it can happen. I  painted a mismatched number of stripes on a tablecloth in a still-life and assignment, and also once painted a hand with an extra finger in a portrait class.) So that had to be corrected and I had to remember to count off the spaces and lines as I went along. But as I erased, the gesso (primer) was really grabbing onto the graphite from the mechanical pencil,  so I am cleaning up and repainting as I go along.) This felt like a moment from a Mr. Bean movie until the cleanup process began to work and then I calmed down and remembered that the background color will not be white, but rather a pale iridescent silver. So any remaining graphite should blend in and might actually add to the metallic look. Tomorrow I will continue to draw the design onto the wood.  If you want to see how last year's project turned out, follow this link to see "Bella Bacalhau," www.flickr.com/photos/randiart/26803421380/