17 August 2025
Orbital set: a solid, robust subject handled with restraint in thin washes is a good premise, but that can't be the whole thing, and I think this one successfully transcended it. What introduced itself was an extreme flattening, something that gave it the feeling of a 2D film set background, yet still implied a cyclical motion, a living quality. Which might have to do with the buzz of the layers—watercolor, two layers of loose but thick vertical touches, a layer of thin washy vertical lines, and a final application of vertical pencil. All of that clashing with the horizontal grain is fun. An effect I'm aiming to expand on in a new one (placeholder title Stand-in—focused on a fenced-in wood cutout of a body wearing a high-vis vest and construction gear based on a site I saw near Blackheath while visiting Gavin).