Liberty Face
©2010 Craig Ashby
8.5” x 11”
Pen and Ink

Liberty Face was another pen and ink sketch for further images in the Fritz series that never happened. The series just kind of died in my mind. Even with so much work done on them.

I think the failure occurred when I struggled so to get the first one perfect. I was having trouble because I placed the image on the oven to dry. It melted part of the color transfer.

Then I had to sand part of the image out. Remake the layer to fit what I had sanded and reapply. All of this without damaging the fragile layers underneath.

By the time I had gotten to the second and third variations of that first image, the failures were multiplying enormously. I got out with one great piece. At least I cut my losses before investing more time.

Every single time I do these kinds of heavily layers pieces the finished piece is pure alchemy. It could all go horribly wrong at any point. Frequently it does and results in me having to make quick saving moves to hold the piece together.

These pieces reached beyond any saving move. One out of three are not great odds when creating. Still, I wish I could have finished all nine images. Especially while writing this I feel a pang of regret for not persevering.