Commission piece finished - steps on the process

Time to clean up the studio as of I've just left it be when I finished my Creative Writing Journal and I've got a frame coming in on Thursday to prepare a commission piece and I've got to finish up two more Canvases and I"ve got all 12  of the 12 x 12 done...  then on to some other projects.  But I thought I'd share the commission piece I've finished and awaiting a frame...

 1. all the papers I've created especially for this piece because the customer had colors in mind to match a room and also she purchases another abstract landscape so keeping with them of the other one in color and design, here are the steps I've taken...I will be teaching a mini abstract workshop on Feb 19th that's a Saturday at the Addison Community Center through the Addison Art Guild...info on the sidebar of the blog here..

 2. prior to laying out the papers I've taped the edges of the 100% cotton 2 ply rag mat board I use for the substrate...it's about the same as 300 to 400 lb. water color paper.. I then coat it two times with the polymer medium, letting each coat dry separately.  I like to tear my papers especially for the abstract landscape the torn edge becomes part of the piece.. I layer it staring from the top and work my want down it really adds to the effect of a really landscape giving it a background and foreground. I use a heat seal tack iron and fuse the papers down to the substrate and each other...they have been all coated top and bottom,dried before hand so the coating on the papers is what fuses and melts the paper together.

3. I've mixed Sap Green and Glazing medium together and I brush on the acrylic mixture and then I subtract it off to a desired value for the piece... all the torn edges of paper soak up the glazing mixture of color and really define the landscapes shapes... it's my favorite part to see how it looks when I do this...

 4. After the glazing is dried I come back into the landscape and add more shadowing around the shapes and bring some papers to the visual surface and others help them stand back..being this is just a 2D piece of work and it's abstract it doesn't mean one can't have depth and light in the piece..

Finished piece- The title is  Connors Valley..

art size is 9 x 16 finished size mat and framed 15 x 22