Thursday, December 23, 2010

Chapter One, Drawing Methods

Hi Sian, I attempted scans this time. Let me know if this is better. In keeping with the conservation them, I've used and reused paper I've had lying around for ages and mounted my samples on lovely strong pages from an old atlas.



1A Colour studies: I took my colour inspiration from this wonderful picture of a rainbow taken by my brother in Africa. The painting on the left is by Turner.

















1B Wonderful wax crayon and gold markal: The wax crayon buffs beautifully. I particularly liked the impressionistic effect of the dashes in seven rainbow colours.





















1C Coloured pencils and felt tips: I like the delicate marks that the coloured pencils make. The sunset was very golden so I've used gold markal and a gold gel pen as well.










1D: Oil pastel and coloured pencil: I loved the oil pastel. Great effects when blended with a cotton bud or kitchen roll, eg the blue and yellow circles blended to a lime green background and the red and yellow to an orange.

I also experimented with oil pastel transfers, ie placing the oil pastel drawing face down on another piece of paper and then drawing into the back of it. I read about this technique in a back issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

A Fine Line. Using a line drawing as a starting point for collage. Emma Jane Fashokun. September/October 2008 Volume 20.






1E: Wax crayon frottage over sequin waste: I was intrigued how just using the crayon at different angles produced very different marks. I particularly liked the wavy diagonal lines.












1F: Gold markal and oil pastel over sinamay: I thought the sinamay frottage gave a lovely representation of ripples.



1G Oil pastel over string block. Very effective over buffed gold markal.







1H Sgraffito: A knitting needle made a great sgraffito tool. Red oil pastel over buffed gold markal was particularly effective.




















1I Oil pastel resist with Brusho is a revelation. I love the vibrant colours, chalky finish and serendipitous patterns.


1J Brusho discharged with bleach: My favourite tool is a date serving fork left over from Christmas which makes lovely swirly marks.






















1K & L Transparent surfaces: Acrylic paint on tracing paper makes lovely mono prints on acetate. When held up to the light they cast delicate shadows which remind me of the work of Marian Bijlenga. I've chosen her as one of my Artist Studies. Here is a link to her website.