“Innocence!”

3 pieces, Charcoal / Acrylic Paint / Powder, on Rag Cotton Paper, A4.

At one time or another, everyone has innocence. Sooner or later, that innocence is lost. It fades with life experience. For some, it is a far more abrupt process – ended traumatically. What become the “hazy days of yonder” for most are the hardened images rendered as mental scars for others.

There is a time in everyone’s life where they are oblivious to the pain and perils of the world. Unicorns are no different.

This is a continuation of my experiments using Rag Cotton Paper. It seems to be good for capturing a “child-like” image when using paint, there is little scope for blending and mixing. The paper will happily take a coat of paint, but anything beyond block- or line-work is out of reach for the brush. Charcoal, on the other hand, seems to love this paper. Or the paper loves charcoal. Either way, I love the combination of Charcoal on this paper.

I also tried grubbing UV powder everywhere to see if I could recreate some kind of avant-garde picasso-gone-neon effect. Lessons learned: Take all the photos you want to post before writing. Paint is good on cotton rag for creating an authentic “child painted it” effect, it’s great for linework. It’s not going to be good for detail.

Charcoal, on the other hand – is really nice to use on this surface.