Mr. Rooster

Watching the rooster of my daughter and son-in-law’s brood of chickens gave me a good chuckle.  Strutting around with his chest thrust forward and almost a swagger to his step, I realized there is a lot of personality in these fellows.  They take their job as king of the roost very seriously!

I have had roosters on my mind for awhile now, paying special attention to images of them I see.  As with all of my pieces, they stir around and formulate themselves until they finally cannot be contained any longer and must express themselves!  The thing holding me back on this rooster was the background.  I just couldn’t decide what it should be. Then I hit on the idea of making my own chicken wire stencil…. with nice big openings suitable to one of my favorite Citra Solv techniques.  Check out a how to on that here.

So, I hand cut my stencil, and made my background.

For the rooster himself I used a variety of found papers:  book pages, vintage sheet music, napkins, pattern tissue, and other goodies out of my stash.  My family laughs when I carefully save clean printed deli papers, tray liners, napkins, and to go bags from fast food restaurants, but it all pays off when I am in the middle of a collage!  I love the printed deli paper that became Mr. Roosters comb!

I finished up the piece with touches of paint and my ever handy Derwent Inktense pencils , which I will talk more about tomorrow.

The original 18 x 24 inch framed Mr. Rooster is available at Tessera Fine Art Gallery in Wichita, KS.  If you would like to order a print, visit my etsy shop.