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My first larger scale (approx 70cm x 1m)
shellac and bitumen on plywood experiment. I started painting shellac, following the grain. Then filled in parts with bitumen.
Bitumen over shellac is making some nice purples and good contrasts. And layers of bitumen is getting cool tones.

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Testing shellac and bitumen paint.
The shellac repels most of the bitumen, so it kinda fills in the spaces. Both seep into the grain a bit, a lot when I make them run.
I can get a decent range of colour too.

Playing around, carving my new 7 ply, with 2 hardwood layers, that was kindly donated by my partner's folks. They wanted to get rid of it anyway. One piece is 1200 x 2400. Score. Because the grain crosses between layers, I can chip each layer like this.

I sand blasted it and came out better than I expected. It ate into the softer parts, giving more definition between fibers. Kinda how drift wood looks. It's made lots of detail I wouldn't be able to carve. Could be great on larger scales.

I bought some shellac yesterday on Paul recommendation. So I started shellacking the hell out of everything. It's cool stuff, made from beetle shells, cheaper than varnish, and easy to thin out or thicken.

Another shellacked piece of ply. I was drawing a portrait, but wasn't working, so sanded it off. The hardwood part is good enough; there are variation in colour, knots, and it's been seasoned out side for a couple of years. I can take whole layers of ply off to make it look like a hardwood panel, which I'm going to do for at least 1 major work.

my go at wood carving, out of a chunk of pine carved with a hand saw and box cutter

haha. the creative process

Mid section of plywood. I put it in the fire for a bit, varnished it and it came out alright. The charred part looks like a night scene, I reckon

Played around carving into it with a box knife. I though that bit could look like smoke so I carved this. Took a long time and once the line's there it's there. I might add some charcoal on the shadow lines or get out the soldering iron and burn some more.

Playing with running ink mixed with retarder medium on ply wood

Detail of ink mixing with retarder medium, gives some gnarly effects. Tree and rock like

Black and white charcoal on ply wood. I had to mix black and white to get any sort of tone. I sprayed it with varnish which brought the wood colours out a bit

Bonsoir Paris. melting frames, kinda what I want to do

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/18044/bonsoir-paris-melting-wooden-sculptures.html