Poster Art is on my mind....

I decided to take a closer look at advertising art. It uses color and bold shapes, borders and lettering to entice us to attend or want more of a certain subject. Along with bold colors, different sized pen nibs are also used to outline and dramatize designs. Motion Picture Studios have a long tradition of using their images to persuade attendance to upcoming movies using posters. and offer a lasting snapshot of the actors and maybe a scene or two. It’s also a great collectible. Many a home theater, college dorm room and early apartment has been decorated with these favorites.

Lettering has long been a favorite study of mine. I learned several calligraphic alphabets over the years and have used the wonderful families of majuscules and minuscules of our 27 letters to create my own stylized alphabet. I encourage the use of this skill especially if you don’t like your own hand writing...you can do better!

The first poster will focus on the Texas music and wine scene that is alive and well in the small town of Gruene ( pronounced GREEN). A water tower, a river and several old dance halls ( including Gruene Gall, the oldest in Texas) mark the spot where many come to party and dance or just walk around enjoying the local sights. The music is first class country and the wine offers all varieties from local wineries. This year, due to Covid, will be virtual and will benefit United Way.

This sketch was my first pass at the design. I anchored the upper left and lower right with a swirling confetti that just looks like fun. After masking with Pebeo masking fluid ( blue lines) , I created an underpainting. Lots of bright Hansa Yellow, Quinacridone Red and French Ultramarine Blue were thrown on sprayed areas , then blown with a straw and splattered. The river is a combination of Cobalt and French Ultramarine Blue. I used Elegant Writer pens with various nibs to create a black edge in places while continuing my color processes.

Something about the bucket of wine in the bottom right looked too busy so I did change this and repainted with the following result:

Still...I thought a musical ribboned border with catch phrases suggesting fun and giving for this excellent cause

So much fun and hopefully a donation item!

New discovery: white pens that actually are strong opaque accents can be used effectively with watercolors. After trying several I settled on the Uniball Signo (broad) made by Mitsubishi and readily available at Michael's.

New technique?: Round Rock Arts Downtowner Gallery asked for our group to video a demo using wine as our medium. Here is a link to YouTube to see my effort which was also presented at a Waterloo Watercolor Group Meeting in early August.