Dimensions are 30 in. by 40 in. Creating this piece was a very complex process. I first printed out a very very large image of a nautilus. Next, I got some very large acetate and outlined the nautilus and the significant details in its body. I then cut this outline out and used it to figure out the shape to recreate the nautilus. I got a sheet of newsprint approximately 30 in. by 40 in. I then mixed gesso, rubber cement, elmers glue, and black ink and poured this mixture all over the paper. Unfortunately, this weakened the paper and made it tear a bit. To fix this, I got a 30 in. by 40 in. illustration board to put the paper on. Unfortunately again, when I tried to attach the paper to the board, the paper stuck to the floor and ripped apart. I did not see this as a setback and instead used it as part of the process. So I continued by putting some of the ripped pieces of the paper onto the board. I then took another sheet of newsprint paper and put that on top of the original ripped remnants and onto the board. Next, I mixed the same materials as I did the first time but this time tried different amounts of black ink to get different tones. I spread this mixture on with a large brush and waited for it to dry before continuing on. After letting the mixture dry,  I put a layer of gesso and let that dry. Then, I put a layer of elmers glue followed by a layer of rubber cement. Once that dried, I put another mixture of gesso, rubber cement, elmers glue, and black ink. However, this time I also mixed in some spray adhesive. After that dried up, I decided to start working with the stencil image of the nautilus. To make the shell of the nautilus, I used pistacchio shells. For the body of the nautilus, I put a layer of hot glue which took over 30 glue sticks to make. After the base/background was completed, I started to add the details. I added even more pistacchio shells to give that mass and volume to the image and outlined the tentacles, eyes, etc. with green tea leaves. To keep the tea leaves and pistacchios on and to make the whole piece look more uniform, I sprayed it all with spray adhesive (which took 2 large cans). To add even more mass and volume, I poured some more hot glue on top and then more spray adhesive. I used acrylic paint to paint the details such as the stripes, dots, etc. I brought out the dots by pouring hot glue dots and then putting paint on top of that. I also poured layers of hot glue to make the eye pop out more. Once the whole thing was painted, I added hot glue to reinforce the outlines and shapes within. Finally, I used another 2 cans of spray adhesive to spray the whole drawing and give it a uniform appearance.

This side shot puts emphasis on the texture and shows that the nautilus sticks out. It also shows all the details of the nautilus up close