New Project - Untitled Long Skinny Painting

Process:

1. Paint muslin.
   I used a long strip of plain muslin I already had cut. I also used very old watercolors in a tray, and painted from right to left own the strip. Not sure why I started there... Hit all my current favorite imagery: a young girl, a crow and trees. Each image started as a "scene" (because somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking this would end up being a book of some form) which I tried to blend somewhat seamlessly into the next. It passed from a moonlit beach scene, to a girl, to a crow, to a forest to a blank area that was supposed to be water (but I painted the waves in reverse??) to a dark heavy city.
2. Wait for paint to dry.
   The watercolor dried a lot lighter than I expected it to, and looked faded and weak.
3. Bring out the details of the painting.
   Because of the result of step 2, I used my micron pen and some oil pastels to punch up the painting. I used the pen in the tree, in the face of the girl, around the bird and in the forest (looks kind of like lines, but it's a forest). Used the pastels in the girl's hair, the water and the city. I am disappointed in the pastels, I thought the appearance would be both more blendable and more subtle.
4. Transfer photos to the painting.
   I chose a couple of old photos to add. The barn was an image I printed out ages ago, so I just used it since I already had it. The water and wood scene (between the crow and girl) I happened upon while searching for the city scene I used. It was actually a nice surprise to find old images and find uses for them now. Since my purpose for the images now is so different than when I first shot them, they all seem new to me again. Oftentimes, I only need a texture or lines, so I am examining the images in a whole new way. I used acrylic medium to transfer the images. I think the water shot is the most successful transfer because there are no hard edges. I'm disappointed the bard transferred so weakly. I might end up covering that up.

That's as far as I've gotten so far. I found a bunch of beach glass on my walk today, so I have the idea to transfer them to painting by lightly gluing them in place and then sewing them down so the thread holds them in a kind of cage. I'm envisioning a kind of mosaic...

I want to use some painted twigs in the forest...

I want to stitch/quilt around the girl and in the moonlight scene, but I don't want to make this a quilt... I have an idea to lightly glue black felt to the back and then quilt with those two layers... just enough thickness with no quilt sandwich...

Still not sure how this is going to end up... a book? Maybe an accordion that isn't bound, but folds into it's covers? Maybe nailed to a long 1 x 4 board, painted down with medium?

I'll have to wait to see where it goes...