This final part of the course felt like a bit of a call back to tactile mark making from Topic 2–drawing and mark making to convey many different types of available information, this time not necessarily physical or touchable, but audible or showing what movements was capable of creating. It also reminded me of drawing with pattern (and colour) as in topic 4, by creating pieces that were made with repeating motions or by listening to repeating sounds and translating them, I created a different kinds of pattern and had to think about overlap and placement as well as size and scale.
I enjoyed seeing the merging of those two things in a more abstract way. I have tried to create abstract art in the past and often struggled, this part of the course has made me realise that it’s easiest, and more compelling, to create a good abstract piece when you have a reason for it. Whether that reason is playing with different tools in a particular way, restricting what you do to a particular degree, or reacting to some kind of stimuli and transferring that to the page. It’s definitely something I’m glad I have learned, in context to the larger art world, and it fits with some of the research I have done over the span of the course too, especially reminding me of the abstract art created by performance artists and sculptors that I looked at while researching three dimensional drawings.
All of the pieces I created for the topic Movement
All of piece created for the topic Sound
I think I have further to go in practising switching between different mediums and tools, especially in combining more than one in a singular piece of artwork. I feel confident with ink and wet paint for example, but sometimes struggle to create dynamic things with pencil or charcoal. But I think I have shown that I’m not afraid to play and experiment. \with more reading around the subject of contemporary art, and it’s application to textiles, printmaking, or illustration, I hope I could find a path that I am happy to explore further.
Some of the pieces I was able to create with either mixed media, media I am not as as practised in using, or applying the media in unusual ways. From top to bottom: paint and charcoal; pencil and marker pens; charcoal and pastel; paint and ink. These are all pieces that I was happy with the outcomes, or at least glad I attempted, there were others that didn’t turn out as well.
At the start of this course I was apprehensive about larger drawing canvases, and I’ve definitely overcome that. In this ‘Movement and Sound’ section I was faced with large and sometimes oddly shaped pieces of paper and had to fill them with no subject to look at and copy, and no direction on what the art should look like, just the tools, methods, and sounds at my disposal and free reign to create something. And once the art was finished I was able to look at my work, and see which things had been translated to the page the way I wanted, and evaluate which things hadn’t worked out as well. I wouldn’t have been able to do that so well a year ago.
Some of the larger, and oddly sized pieces of artwork. I didn’t like the longer thin one with the purple, or the square piece on the bottom right as much, but I wasn’t afraid to try them.
This section has definitely been the biggest encounter with experimental approaches to drawing, and learning which things I enjoy the most in that context; what I like the look of, what I am good at, and what processes I enjoy when creating. These feel like the three most important things to learn and what I will need to take forward into whatever I choose to do next.
A collection of some of the pieces I don’t like the outcome of, but that I learned from. Ones that weren’t dynamic enough, where the repeats were too particular, or that I just didn’t mark make in the most expressive ways. I’m glad I can now see what’s wrong.
A collection of pieces that make me very happy, look bright and colourful, and expressive. These are the kind of pieces I could see myself putting into a portfolio, which is very exciting to consider after all the effort of doing this course over the last year.
It’s strange to have reached the culmination of the course but I think it has been a successful journey, and I definitely have a large body of work that I am mostly very pleased with to show for it!
This topic is an investigation into ways to interpret and describe sounds on the page, through various drawing methods and mark making techniques. I worked through in order, and it was fun to see how my confidence and technique changed throughout the topic.
Exercise 5.4: The sounds that machines make
For this first exercise I found things to record from around the house that were either mechanical, an appliance, or a gadget of some kind. I ended up working from a recording of my stair lift in use, a printer, and recording a series of clicks and taps from pressing the buttons on a games console controller. First up was the stair lift. I was a little tentative with these ones and less sure of what I was doing, but decided not to re-do these pieces so that I could see my progression throughout the exercise.
I listened to the recording on repeat and used a graphite stick pencil in my sketchbook, making marks that the sounds evoked in tandem to the recording. I settled on using dry media (Pens, pencils, and pastels) for this series of works, and tested them on the opposite page to see what worked best to recreate the marks I’d made in pencil.
For the first piece I worked on a longer strip of paper as the sound felt like it travelled. I started by covering the page with jerky marks to depict the whirring clicks that were constant as the machinery worked, then added swirling marks to depict the loud thunks and hums over the top, as the sounds happened all at once it felt right to overlay the marks.
Some photographs of the process.I finished by adding scribbles and harsh marks where the beeps and clunks happened within the recording. This piece was done entirely with pastel, charcoal, and a graphite stick.
I tried a second piece, working in two sections on the top and bottom of the page, and overlapping the sounds on each section–trying to laying down the marks at the points I heard the sounds on the recording. With big scribbles for the largest sounds, jerky mark making for the whirring, and dots and stabs for the beeps and clunks. I did it in two rows, switching up which marks used graphite stick and which used marker pens when I moved to the bottom row. I’m not sure I like the effect, apart from the fact it looks abstract like sheet music.
The second piece.
I did a third piece, also long and thin, but working horizontally, and depicted each type of noise on the recording in three separate lines, on three listens through the recording. It feels less dynamic than the first piece, but more informative, and more pleasing than the second.
The third piece.The three pieces done while listening to the first recording.
I wasn’t that pleased with the outcomes of the pieces made from the stair lift recording, but moved on to using a recording of a printer working for the second set. After listening to it I decided to use wet media to have more room to play around with how to make marks, and I felt more confident with that. The noise of the printer all happened at once, different layers of sounds echoing across each other and I tried to convey that in the pieces.
Sketchbook pages of tests.
I listened to the recording through three times, picking out different sections to interpret each time, layering them up so the sounds that overlapped matched up at the correct points across the page.
For this first piece I used ink and a wide flat paintbrush to sweep across the page.
I did a similar thing on the second piece, but using pastel and charcoal, and then going back for a fourth listen and smudging certain parts of the drawing where the sound faded in and out.
The pastel and charcoal piece
For the third piece I used some very wet diluted ink, loaded up a paintbrush and painted along translating the sounds of the recording into sweeping brush movements until the brush ran out of ink. I’d then pause the recording, load up with ink again, and start another run underneath the last–until I got to the end of the recording.
The third piece
The fourth piece I actually started first, by using a roller to lay down thick swathes of ink across a large sheet (A2) to depict the overarching background noise of the printer. Later, once that was dry, I went back and used white and yellow ink and a paintbrush to pick out the sharper noises (beeps and clicks), listening to the recording a few times and moving across the page each time, adding white and yellow over the darkest pieces, building up a picture that shows the all-over, one on top of the other noise that you get from a printer
A process shot of just the rolled on ink and some close details from the finished piece.I think this one is my favourite of the four.
Overall the wet ink felt much more playful and I had a lot more fun with the printer recording, and managed to try out a more different methods.
All four of the printer recording pieces together.
For the last set of artworks I recorded myself playing with a games console controller, pressing and flicking the buttons. It was the hardest set of sounds to know how to translate into mark making but I’d made some good progress with the above pieces and tried to go into it with confidence.
I began again in my sketchbook, and the clicking noises where very sharp and short, so I took a while to work out how best to show that. Moving from pencils and pens, to ink and charcoal.
I did a long thing piece of artwork first, with charcoal (three pieces held together at once, to imitate the button clicks happening in tandem) and blue pastel. The sounds seemed to cascade, and come in groups of noises, so I did them in rows, listening through the recording and dabbing and then swiping, and then pressing, placing the marks in rows.
I like the result, and how it gets more frantic looking towards the end.
For the second piece I decided to show how the marks were very similar across the recording, by filling the page up with one type of mark–made with wet ink and dabbed as I listened to the clicks on the recording– and then sweeping with wet ink in the opposite direction, dragging the paintbrush through each chunk of sounds.
Process shots of each layer being applied on my page.
I finished it with green ink, flicking across the page each time I heard a more metal clunk of a joystick. I feel like this shows some of the rhythm of the clicks and clunks I was hearing, and how some parts were louder or went on longer, but how it was the same types of sounds being repeated.
The finished artwork.
Lastly, because the sound seemed to go on and on I chose to try and translate that into a spiral of ever increasing marks. I listened through the recording several times, jabbing the paintbrush in quick jerky motions each time I heard a series of clicks. I switched colours and listened for other longer sounds and added them in slightly different motions to finish off
The final piece from the recording of the button clicks.The three final pieces side by side.
Initially I wasn’t too sure about this process, it felt like an entirely new way of working. Once I found my feet it was easier to see some parallels with some of the earlier sections of the course like translating texture into marks as we did in part two–this was just a new type of information to describe.
I’m beginning to realise that I enjoy working with the more versatile media the most (I’m very glad I remembered and found my pastels and charcoal blocks, they came in very helpful!) because the smudges and patterns that emerge as I’m working with ink/paint or media that blends look much more interesting to me than just a standard pen or pencil.
I was very aware of not wanting to end up with the same few types of marks repeated across all the recordings. I’m interested to find out if this becomes easier or harder to accomplish in the further exercises with different types of sounds, and to see if variety in the sounds I’m hearing inspires me to feel more free in the mark making. And also to see if I can create something more lyrical and flowing than the structured, line-like series of marks that I ended up with from the mechanical noises.
Exercise 5.5: Sounds found in the natural environment
For this exercise I recorded three sounds from around the garden; some bees flitting from flower heads, birds chirping in a nearby tree, and the sound of a downpour of rain. I felt more confident to get started after the previous trial and errors, and began with the bee sounds. I also realised some of what I could do would be to show the progression of the volume as well as just translating the type of sounds to be heard, so I tried to incorporate that in quite a few of pieces, to give some variety.
I started in my sketchbook again, listening to the recording and trying to imitate the sounds with mark making, I then moved on to trying to recreate the marks with my chosen media–ink.
For my first piece, I decided to recreate the overall sound levels with bright yellow ink, sweeping the paintbrush across the page as the sound ebbed and flowed–lifting and lowering it off the page in relation to the volume. I then went back and listened through twice more, using different sized paint brushes and different colours and amounts of ink, and made marks that felt similar to the sounds I was hearing–overlapping them with the rise and fall of the sound level at the appropriate points. I worked on A2 so that I had plenty of space work. I also added some pencil lines following the sharpest parts of the sound, just to add some more depth to the piece.
The first piece. I vibrated my hand back and forth like the buzz of the bees at the places the recording picked up specific instances of buzzing, and flicked the brush in sweeps for the bird calls in the background.
For the second piece I listened (through headphones) for the way the sound travelled back and forth, and drew across the page to “follow” the sound. Then added marks across the page to simulate the types of sounds I was hearing–either sudden or concentrated in one place.
The second piece, which I don’t like as much, but I enjoy that it’s different from the first. It filled a whole A2 sheet.
For the third I applied ink with a sponge concurrently to the amount of sound I was hearing (the black ink), then applied more dabs and little half-swirls to show the type of sound I was replicating. Blue dabs for the clearest buzzing of the bees, and little sweeping turns of the sponge in yellow-black for the bird calls.
The finished third piece done on A2, which I like a lot
I didn’t feel fully finished with this recording, so I grabbed a smaller sheet of A3 and a graphite stick and put down some scribbles and slashes of mark making as I listened to the recording one last time, just working instinctively without planning. I then picked up a sponge still loaded with ink, and jabbed it and swept in little increments across the page when the sound was loudest.
I like that it turned out quite free and completely different from anything above.
The second recording was birds twittering and flapping about in a nearby tree. The sounds were a lot less distinct and clear, and blurred together, so I used this to my advantage as best I could. The sounds didn’t travel from one side of the headphones to the other like the bees, as they all came from one direction. I focused more on the way the recording made me feel and the overall tone, trying with my pencil, and then watered down gouache paint, to get a sense of the whole recordings flow rather than picking out individual noises.
I settled for gouache paint for this recording, as I wanted a medium that would blend together in the same way the bird calls and tree branch rustlings, blended into one another.
For the first attempt I dabbed with a wet loaded paintbrush, touching down every time I head a bird call or twig snap. Then there was a large section of pigeons warbling so I swept up and down with their calling, the end of the recording was much quieter so translated that by using less dark marks and sparser placement. I went back with a black pen adding a few sharp moments when a louder sound or bird call could be heard.
Once I was finished I trimmed down the A2 sheet I’d worked on so that it ended up longer and thinner, with no blank space either side of the artwork.
For second piece I worked much more quickly, rather than the above where I had carefully listened to each section of the recording until I was ‘done’ with each part of art progression. For this I listened through on repeat, used a sponge loaded with paint and dragged it across the page to show the volume of the recording, then picked up some smaller tools to dab and colour over sections where more specific sounds broke through.
This piece was also on A2 and only trimmed down a little as it filled more of the page. I like how my colours blended, and how it feels very imidiate.
For the last piece, as I didn’t feel finished experimenting, I used two paintbrushes together and just instinctively made marks as I listened to the recording one last time
I wanted to see how the two colours of paint would mix while being applied at the same time and how the movements I made would impact the blending and hopefully imitate the ways in which sounds overlapped–or not. The outcome is pretty much what I had hoped for, and the paint fades out as the recording got quieter too.
The last recording I had was of a very heavy rain downpour, and I was the one I most excited to get to. The sound was more constant and had less individual noises within in, and I looked forward to trying to find a few ways to depict and translate what I was hearing. I started by doing a lot of tests in my sketchbook, with various mediums, and settled on watered down ink and a few specific ways of applying it to try and replicate what came through the headphones
My first tests with pencil and pens, then moving onto ink and paintbrushes trying to find the way to apply the ink that felt most accurate
I decided to cut a large circle out of spare wallpaper and use that as my canvas for the first piece, as the sound came from everywhere at once a circle felt like a good example of that. I picked a large decorators sized brush, and swept down the paper, wobbling my hand and sweeping side to side, lifting off the brush when the recording got quieter. I had to listen several times to cover the entire sheet. I then went back in with a palette knife, listened through again and added some big splodges at random places when I heard large rain splatter. Once it was all dry I used a graphite stick to add more tones, rubbing in short jerky movements as I crossed the page, similar to what I’d done with the paintbrush.
Some close up shots and the main tools I used.The finished piece. It really does look like rain on a window, which is a fairly literal translation of the recording, but I like the random all-over look of it and find it pleasing to look at.
For the second trial I worked with both hands, listening to the rain and touching down the paintbrush in each hand as I heard it plink in my ears. I had to stop at various intervals to reload with paint, but I also closed my eyes at times to really focus on the sounds and my movement not what it looked like. Once the blue was dry I felt it needed more so i used a different application method and drew across the page with grey ink, lifting up when the recording got quieter. I listened twice, once to do the rows in each side, and starting a new row when I reached the edge of the blue ink.
Because the recording was a constant sound I wanted the marks to spread out from the middle as though the sound radiated outward. The finished effect, on A2, is fairly striking.
Lastly I tried a third way. I loaded up a water pen, dipped the tip in some grey ink, and swept in little back and forth motions–speeding up or slowing down for the volume levels–until the ink ran out. Then I paused the recording, reloaded, and started again until I reached the end. I picked up some blue ink on a palette knife and drew horizontally across the grey, quick and jerky, adding more ink when it ran dry, trying to show the hurried-ness of the rain falling. Some large blue splodges happened accidentally and I added more of them when I heard louder rain sploshes, to complete the piece.
The third and final piece made from the rain recording. On A3 paper.
I did find these series of sounds easier to react to, and to have a wider selection of differing marks and ways of applying the media. I’m pleased that the end results look more natural and free, and less structured than the first exercise, hopefully this means I did a good job of responding to what I heard. I definitely enjoyed this exercise more too, and I think that’s because I felt more confident, and knew more instinctively what mediums and tools to work with. Working with colour to add another layer of information to the pieces was good too; choosing whether to use watered down paint to convey soft sounds, or bright deep colours that help depict rain, for example, makes these pieces look more like finished artwork and less like experimental play.
Exercise 5.6: Instrumental and musical sounds
Working for this last exercise from three sections of music. It felt a bit like starting from scratch again as the process of adapting from music felt different from adapting sounds. It took through the first of my selection to really feel I was getting to grips with it. I started with an acoustic cover of a song, trimmed down to a shorter 30 second clip. This section had only vocals, a guitar, and a small amount of percussion.
Frank Turner, Blackout. I listened from 22s in for about half a minute, on repeat
I began in my sketchbook testing out the quality of the sounds in ways that I felt interpreted them onto the page. Trying out different mediums and ways of applying them.
For the first piece I chose to work large, on A2, and translated the picking of the guitar strings into circular motions made with a loaded paintbrush and diluted ink–as the sound rang out clear and precise.
I left a gap for a section of guitar strumming which on a second listen I filled with sweeps of a large paintbrush, moving downwards in time to the strumming. I added the variation of the vocals and percussion in pastel over the top, once the ink had dried. I chose pastel because the sound of the voice was scratchy and dry, and the percussion was short and sharp.
The finished piece and some photos of the individual marks
My second attempt I used similar methods, depicting the guitar and percussion sounds first in ink and then the vocals in black pastel over the top, corresponding with where they overlapped in the composition of the music. I worked on a long piece cut from A2, showing the progression of the song along the page.
The second piece, showing some variation in the volume of the various instrumental sounds, and the strength of the vocals.
The second piece felt a little too messy for my liking in comparison to the clean sound of the acoustic track, so I went back to something smoother and more sparse for my third piece. I worked with gouache and paintbrushes, laying down the instrumental sounds first with some thicker paint, turning my hand to create the shapes that the music conjured to mind for me. This took a couple of repetitions through the sequence to perfect. Then I watered down some paint and added the warbling vocals over the top, rising and falling with the notes and volume.
The final piece, which I feel encapsulates what I was hearing the best out all three of them.
The next track I chose to work from was entirely instrumental. The pace moved a bit faster, but had very distinct sounds.
The instrumental track I worked from for this next series of pieces
I started trying to depict the feel of the sounds in my sketchbook and then moved on to some test sheets to try out the messier media I wanted to use.
First off I chose to start with some brush markers, as the sounds were very crisp and clean and I wanted sharp edges to the marks I made. I listened through and planned out in pencil where the rise and fall of certain sections of music happened, and then picked out a different shape and colour for each instrument that could be heard and laid them across the page as I listened to the track multiple times.
I think the piece (on A3) looks a little sparse and unimpressive, but I liked the challenge of trying to use the pens, and only one medium in the piece.
Next I decided to try using pastels and pastel pencils. Some of the instruments faded in and out and I thought the ability to smudge the pastel would work well for that. I had an idea in mind of where each part of the track should be placed on the page and listened to it multiple times, picking out a different part of the range of notes to depict at different times. I tried to make my marks in a way that evoked the ‘shapes’ the different sounds made, flowing, or precise, or little smudged dots.
The final result, with the deeper notes in darker pastel at the bottom of the page, and the higher notes fading out at the top. In the close ups you can see how I smudged the sounds that faded out and blended one into the other.
I liked the second piece but wanted to try on with wet media and some different tools. I used sponges and gouache to make a blending of colours to show the different sounds, and moved across the page through multiple repeats of the track, picking out different sweeping sounds, percussion, and laying down the marks trying to make overlapping sounds overlap on the page.
I really liked this third piece and feel it shows the qualities present in the track and the placement, colour choices, and fading out of the marks also looks pleasant.
I still had some paint left, so I attempted a plan that I had drawn out in my sketchbook but hadn’t been sure of. This track felt like it was created with a cycle in mind, the main tune ending and repeating through the track. I tried to work in a circular motion, leaving the darker marks in the middle to depict the deeper notes that ran through the whole instrumental piece, and fading out the paler marks around the edge.
I’m not sure I like the finished piece as much, but it does translate well what I was hearing and I’m glad I tried it.
The last selection of music I picked to work from was very tuneful, with lots of instruments and some quiet vocals. I chose it as it had some distinct sounds compared to what I had worked from before, and some moments of silence too. I went a slightly different route with this one, choosing to try and encompass the entire feel of the section of music, rather than ‘copy’ each of the sounds with a particular brush stroke, trying to give an overall impression of the music not an exact translation sound by sound. The effects turned out pretty pleasing! I worked with orange and black ink, a green coloured pencil, and a pink brush pen.
The third track. False Alarm by The Head and The Heart. Section chosen starts at 14s in for roughly 30s
Starting with a messy sketchbook page, trying to feel out what I was hearing. I then sat down and tried to think about how that might look on the page–you can see some “thumbnails” and layout options on the left-hand page
The sounds in the recording seemed to trickle downwards to me, so first I split an A2 page into six sections (it was a thirty second recording) and filled each one with a vision of the sound available in each five second section of music.
I like how this turned out, and how the variation of sounds is depicted by leaving sections blank if they were missing from a section.
Following on from this theme, I did a second piece in a portrait orientation on A3, working my way down the page. The black flicks depicted the beats of percussion and strumming, the swirls of orange were vocals, and the pink was the trilling notes of other instruments.
I really like how this one turned out, and the colour choices I picked.
Thirdly I laid out the sounds of the track more individually, going back to more distinct mark making, to see what that looked like. I overlapped the inks in places to show where the sounds blended the most on the recording.
The third piece, a more literal translation of the beat of the percussion (black), notes of the vocals (orange), and rise and fall of the notes of the instruments (the green and pink)
I had some leftover ink and grabbed another piece of A3, using my fingers to dab and then smudge the ink as I listened to the vocals and tinkling of the instruments. Then I grabbed a paintbrush, hit repeat, and used black ink to sweep through and blend listening to the percussion sounds, and green pencil to translate the overall speed and volume of the piece.
This one was much less planned and I like how the spontaneity feels fresh and I find it more appealing than previous piece.
I think the last piece of music created my most successful artworks in this exercise, I had picked out the best way to translate what I was listening to and depict it in a way that I liked. It was surprising to me how different it was depicting music to other sounds, it felt much more complicated but I found it easier to tell if what I had drawn looked like how the music felt.
This last exercise felt like an exploration of how much to plan, and how much to leave room for free-play and spontaneous mark making. I found if I didn’t plan at all the marks overlapped in a messy way (like the second, long thin, piece from the first recording) but if I planned too much it began to look too contrived (like the circular drawing from my second choice of music).
I did really enjoy reacting to what I was hearing with emotion and sensation, which was much easier with music than the other exercises in this topic. It’s interesting to think about the relation of feeling and touch–experiencing something–and translating it to the page. That is what I’ve been doing through this entire course, but this felt like coming at it from a new angle. It reminds me that even when drawing a subject that is more tangible, I could use my reactions and how I feel toward it–as well as how it feels physically to touch, and how it looks–to add a new dimension to drawing. I hope to remember this as I move forward into new drawing projects in the future, it feels like an excellent thing to take away from this final topic.
This topic was all about mark making that can be done while moving the body and using all parts of the body to create pieces of larger-scale artworks. As a disabled student, with a chronic illness that saps my energy, and as a wheelchair user I have had to approach it slightly differently than the materials were originally written. After a discussion with my tutor, who was incredibly helpful, I have focused more on smaller every day movements and gestures, rather than the large, full-body, movements that were required. It has resulted in some interesting artworks, and a different way of thinking about things that didn’t include using traditional tools or particular paper sizes.
Exercise 5.1- Mark marking though every day movement
For this exercise in particular I threw out the idea (with my tutor’s go ahead) of using large body movements like walking, dancing, or jumping as none of these were feasible to me. Instead I started to think about ways in which I could create marks with the movement of my hands. I came up with a selection of things I do, or could do, in my daily life and used a couple of different mediums to try out different effects.
My chosen mark making gestures were to imitate
typing
strumming or plucking a stringed instrument
gesturing (as if while talking)
writing
hand sewing
For my first piece I decided to imitate typing. I cut two bits of a3 paper in half and stuck three of the half’s end to end to make something about the depth of a keyboard but many times longer. Here you can see where I started and the blank paper still to be used. I moved my chair down the length of the table, picking the next spot of blank paper to position my hands and “tpye” another few sentences.The piece when it was finished
I like the finished look of this piece, and how it tells a story, not just of the steps I took to make it but that there is a pattern of repeating marks, that if you could decode by overlapping with a keyboard, it would tell you what I “typed”.
For my second piece I started making marks my pretending I was plucking guitar strings, and then placed both hands on the page and gestured like I would if I was talking, smearing the ink that had already been laid down in the original movements. The next day I came back and did the same thing with blue ink, to try and add more layers and depth to the piece.
A short video showing how I laid down the first sections of the ink on a barely touched section of paper by moving my fingers as though plucking guitar strings.
One of the things my tutor and I talked about was that as I couldn’t change my mark making by using extra large surfaces areas, I could go the opposite way and restrict myself my going smaller. As I wasn’t full happy with the way this artwork turned out compared to the other pieces in this exercise I decided to try something different and cut out the sections I thought were most compelling and dynamic and turn them into a series of very small artworks, arranged as though they were on display somewhere, or as a series of small thumbnails. I played with a lot of compositions before settling on the final one. I like that it became a snapshot of the various marks and gestures I made, cut off from the rest of the paper they stand alone as mini artworks pretty well!
On the left, my original artwork, out of which I cut seven different sections. On the right, how I arranged them to create a final piece, showing a snapshot of movement in small “boxes”.
For this next piece I made marks in two separate rows, the top I imitated strumming a guitar, and the bottom I gestured as though talking. It combined the gestures from the previous exercise, but presented in a different way.
Here you can see the rows one above the other, two distinct pattern effects.
Once the black ink was dry I came back and used blue, turning the paper around and switching up which method I used where. So I strummed (vertical movements up and down, using the side of my hand) on top of the larger hand gestures, and gestured on top of the strumming effect.
It finished the artwork two rows of related marks, overlapping and complimenting each other. I enjoy that it looks a little like ink blots, I can see lots of patters and make images out of the shapes there, but that also it looks like an abstract depiction of sheet music, which is fun when I was imitating using an instrument to create some of the marks.
For my fourth piece I used powdered charcoal, spread it over the page and then began moving as though I was writing to erase and smudge parts of charcoal as I moved. And then I imitated the movement of sewing by hand, imagining pushing the needle in, dragging the thread down and lifting the needle out again, moving in vertical lines over the top of the horizontal writing.
The initial charcoal covered page and horizontal marks, and the last picture where I had moved vertically over the top, creating different amounts of erased charcoal in various places.To finish off I took a piece of kitchen roll just to rub away more of the charcoal from the lighter areas to give more contrast to the piece.
The charcoal was laid on quite thickly, and in the end it looked almost like a temporary piece of artwork as it was too thick to hold in place with fixative spray. Here I took some close ups of various parts of it to show the depth and some of the variety that of marks.
Though the previous piece worked okay I decided it might have been better to start with the charcoal in on section and move and smudge it across the page as I made marks rather than starting with the page already covered. So I started again on a fifth piece doing just that. It turned even more into temporary pieces; I was able to do one, tip the charcoal back into the middle of the page and start again.
I decided first just to imitate the act of handwriting, spreading the charcoal out with the side of my hand, fingertips, and a rolled up piece of paper that I used as a makeshift pen
Once I tipped the charcoal back into the middle I moved my hands through it with quick gestures and jabs, to spread it over the page haphazardly.
Then I took my makeshift pencil and wrote through it over and over again, after about a line and a half I realised I was mostly just signing my name over and over!The finished piece, with areas of smudged in charcoal, and still with piles of it that I had merely pushed and pulled through to reveal the white paper underneath.
I really like how this one ended up looking. With the way the charcoal spread without being uniform, and how my writing only shows up best in the darkest parts, it appears like part of a rescued document, only partly legible, or as though some of the artwork has been erased before viewing. And the fact it was mostly my name signed over and over, seems symbolic, and gives it a personal touch at the same time.
Here is just a small selection of some of the close-up photographs I took of some interesting sections of marks.
I was pleasantly surprise to find the limited choices available to me (working while seated, and not over stretching my body) still felt creative and freeing, as I wasn’t sure it would feel that way in comparison to some of the research I had done. The main things I took away from this exercise was that all of these mark making choices and results are an extension of me–my movements, my body. Though the movements themselves were small in scope the variety of marks they created is fairly large, it was nice to realise I could create differing and interesting shapes with only several ways of moving. Hopefully I can bear both of these things in mind as I approach the next exercises, that restriction doesn’t equal boring (should be helpful for 5.2), and that my hands and body is a tool that I can utilise to manipulate media around the page regardless of what other tools I am using (should follow on nicely into exercise 5.3!)
Exercise 5.2: Restricted movement during mark making
For this second exercise I had to find some ways that I could restrict myself while moving to draw that wouldn’t cause pain or put pressure on my joints. I settled on three simple possibilities: bubble wrap, clothes pegs, and a cardboard box.
My three restrictive devices.
I began by making an arm wrapping with the largest pieces of bubble wrap, covering my arm around the wrist to impede movement and flexibility and then securing it with masking tape. I wanted to start this exercise by following on from some of the actions I completed the previous one with. So I settled on imitating gestures and handwriting again, while wearing the large wrapping on my arm so I couldn’t bend each joint very much.
The bubble wrap on my arm.I did a test sheet first, seeing what movements I could make with the paintbrush in hand and my wrist wrapped. It ended up very dark, and too much overlapping marks, and the wrapping itself didn’t brush much of the ink around like I had hoped it would. So I knew to scale back slightly, and begin differently for the main piece.
So I started with adding ink to the bubble wrap itself, and then gesturing across the page. Then holding the paintbrush and sweeping it around, hindered by the available movements, to imitate writing. Here you can see the steps, and the artwork after the initial stage of gesturing.The final piece with both types of marks overlaid one on top of the other.
The restriction of the wrapping around my wrist wasn’t too impeding, as it was malleable, but it meant I had to work in larger, more exaggerated movements, creating bigger and more spaced out marks. I like the differences between the marks made by the bubble wrap and the marks made by the paintbrush, but how they compliment each other by both being made with sweeping motions and the ink being laid down in lots of thin lines (by the bristles, or the crinkles in the bubbles).
Two close photographs of the differences in the marks.
For the second piece I used a similar method of restriction, using a cardboard box to slip my arm into and trying to draw whilst it was on my arm. This time was a much stiffer restriction, and it went all the way past my elbow. I also decided to take this idea a bit further, and as well as having a large restriction, have a very small drawing area to work on. It was fun to try and deal with both thing at the same time.
My piece of paper was a6 in size, laid on a larger piece so that I didn’t get pen all over my drawing board as I swung my arm back and forth in arcs and circles to put marks down. You can see here the early stages, as I took pictures at various intervals as I added more marks. I stopped and turned the paper to different orientation at random intervals too.I completed the piece with a second colour pen, and this is the finished result.
This piece seemed to be going somewhere, so I began again with another even smaller piece of paper, a7, and used pencil to create the marks this time.
I swung my arm in figure eight movements, letting the pencil touch down as it moved past the paperThe finished piece, with lots of pencil laid down in certain areas to create depths of different tones.
I was still excited about where this was going, so I got another smaller piece, half of an a7, and used both pencil and pen for the next one. Again using sweeping motions to get the drawing implements to travel across the paper.
The finished third one, two pen colours, and a graphite stick were used here.
This gave me three small abstract art pieces, each smaller than the last!
I also ended up with an accidental fourth piece from this set, the paper I had attached my small pieces to so they wouldn’t move. I really like the way it show how the pieces developed, and the lines where each piece stopped with the marks of the next smaller one inside it create a very interesting effect.
I’m not sure which of these four I like the most, but it was fun to see what was created with basically one type of movement develop into four distinct pieces.
For the last attempt in this exercise I took a bubble wrap pouch, put my hand inside, and then attached pegs between each finger to pinch the bag in place.
It meant that I couldn’t fully bend my fingers and could only hold the pen in strange ways. I worked with a particularly narrow pen to make this more distinct.
I did some tests in my sketchbook first to see what kind of marks I could make. By the end of the tests I had mostly figured out how to make more competent marks by manoeuvring differently, which did mean that the final piece is less haphazard than it could have been and more controlled.The final piece, drawn with a dried up black brush pen and a thin graphite stick.
Some close photographs of the last piece.
I think the last one was the least successful of the three methods, even though it has some interesting overlap of marks, it looks less dynamic and organic than the previous two methods, at least to my eye.
What I like about this set of work is how the final results mirror the way I was restricted. On the first piece the mark making looks softer, and the wrapping was softer. The second has harsh lines in only certain directions, showing how I could only swing my arm like a pendulum, and the third is sort of squishy and indistinct, kind of like the odd–not entirely successful!–restriction around my hand.
I feel it is worth mentioning that although I enjoyed certain aspects of the challenges in this exercise I feel like I worked around the restrictions fairly well and managed to lay down marks I was happy with without the mark making results seeming particularly odd. Family members pointed out to me that because of the restrictions I live with on a daily basis because of my health problems I am used to thinking outside the box when trying to problem solve, and that I do this with artwork myself already–if my joints are bad I will change how I hold drawing tools to compensate, for example. I don’t know if this had a large effect or if this might have been a very different exercise had I been able bodied to start with, but it was interesting to think about. It was especially noticeable during my last piece, where I worked out how to hold the pen and still create smooth uninterrupted lines within a few minutes!
What I have learned is that repetitive mark making can be very effective and have a variety of results even when only using one method to lay down the marks, but the effectiveness really depends on the medium in use, and the amount of repeats used. As seen in my test sheet at the start of the exercise, too many overlapping repeats create a mess of dark splotches that don’t look much like anything; compared to the piece done entirely with pencil while using the box, where one type of mark was carefully constructed to create a variety of tones. This will be worth remembering as I head into the next exercise.
Exercise 5.3:
This exercised followed on nicely from the previous one, having drawn with restrictions I now had to draw with extensions to my body. I started with a large extension, which didn’t feel too different from drawing with my arm in a box at the end of the previous exercise, and slowly moved down to small extensions. First an extension of my arm, then of my wrist and hand, and finally added drawing implements to my fingers.
The first piece I completed fairly quickly, using one of my crutches I attached a large chunk of charcoal to the bottom and sat down to use the crutch to draw all over the paper. I had to move in large arcs, no fine movement available in the way I held the crutch, and could swing in circular motions or back and forth in lines.
The method used.
Once I had completed a covering of the page in random movements I took a few minutes to look and see what I thought of the piece. I decided to go back in and darken up some areas by holding the crutch slightly differently, and with two hands, and rubbing the charcoal over the areas that had more marks on already. This just darkened some areas and added more contrast and made me happier with the piece overall.
Some of the areas of the page before I darkened them more.
Some photographs of some of the detail. Here you can really see the texture of the marks that came about because I was working outside on paving stones, and some of the smaller dots that I made by pressing the tool down to jab at the page.The final piece. Kind of sporadic and with some mirroring from the marks at the far edges of the pages, if I squint it looks a little like and abstract landscape, which I like. I enjoyed the large movements and the jerky, hindered application of getting them on the page, it felt very energetic to create and like I was really connecting with the tool and the paper.
For the second exploration I decided to use some flowers and hold them between my fingers while making a fist. It meant that the movement available was by either just using my arm, or by flexing my wrist. It created slightly more finesse and control, but still dictated that I moved in certain ways.
The way I held them and the ink ready to dip them in.
The flowers themselves added a new dimension as they weren’t just a stick of charcoal. I dipped them into ink and then dragged them over the page, I could also use them to print certain shapes. The unpredictable nature of the ink collecting and pooling or soaking in to the flower heads and petals in different amounts created a fairly random sense of mark placement.
The tests I did in my sketchbook and the beginning stages of this second piece. I used sweeping motions to draw out from the middle, and then printed with the flowers to form a sort of border.I used a pink ink to go back and add more depth, including some swirls in the corners where I pressed the flowers down and rotated my wrist.
Some of the finer details.
You can see on this first piece how I attempted to make a pattern out of the marks I could make. I wasn’t sure I liked this effect in the end, it felt too much like trying to control something that should be more free and unplanned. So I grabbed another piece of paper and used one method of making marks in a repeating motion; first sweeping up from the bottom and then adding some sweeping curls by rotating my wrist.
The details. I really enjoy how this looks like flames, which wasn’t planned but is a fun outcome!
I’m much happier with the more organic feel that this second attempt created, and the way the ink mixed to create different shades adds even more randomness and depth. Working the same parts of the page over and over to make an effect that grew organically and I didn’t hold back on letting the ink blur and smudge was sort of liberating, especially compared to the first attempt.
The last method I wanted to try was to attach things to my fingers, which I had the most fun with. It meant I could move my arm, hand, and also wiggle my fingers to create marks in different ways. I used dried leaves first (picked from the garden), masking taped onto my fingertips. I dipped them in ink and moved my hand across the page while moving my fingers in a wiggling motion, curling and uncurling them.
The leaves were odd to work with, they didn’t pick up much ink at a time, and had a mind of their own about how to move. It was a lot of fun to play around with.
SSome of the first marks I laid down.
I added a second colour ink to add more depth, and having started the piece with two pieces of paper stuck together I was able to take them apart and see the result like a diptych.
I love the randomness of this, thought of course I did try and add ink into the blank spaces of the page as the piece progressed. I like that the marks swept off the page in places, and crossed the join of the two separate sheets, which is noticeable now I’ve pulled them apart.
For the last attempt I switched to sticking q-tips on my fingers and dipping them in ink to draw with. I did a practice sheet first and then switched to an actual piece.
A test sheet of the possible ways I could make marks and the method ready to go.
I used one motion, starting with my fingers spread and drawing them together as I moved my arm across the page in an arc.
I added a second colour and worked from the opposite side to create a mirrored effect.
The texture created by the q-tips and the thick application of ink reminds me of wax or crayon drawings.
I don’t think it was my most successful piece but I enjoyed playing and creating something different from the others in this exercise.
What I’ve learned in this exercise is to embrace the random. That the sporadic marks and unintended effects are something I like the look of more than when I tried to control or turn my mark making into patterns.
Using one or two methods to create an effect, and repeating it, ended up more enjoyable and pleasing to look at. I liked working from large (moving my arm) down to small (using my fingers) and it was a nice reminder to make marks using more than just hand motions–even when drawing with traditional tools it’s good to cast a wide net and not be confined to drawing with small details. It was also fun to work with some colour again, and let the colours drip, bleed, and soak into each other.
I want to take this playful experimentation forward into the next section– and all my work from now on–but learn how to really make the best use of it. Maybe by creating random mark making, but controlling where the repeats of those marks are placed; but also by finding the best way to mix different mediums and overlapping differing marks in the most pleasing way so that nothing gets lost in a “noisy” page.
For this research point I looked at the work of Rebecca Horn, Jim Bond, Tim Knowles, Callen Schaub, David Bohm and Jiri Franta, and a little at the work of Tony Orrico and Heather Hansen. It is a fairly long wall of text, so for ease of perusal I highlighted the main things I learned or took away from each stage of the research in a different colour, so it stands out at a glance.
I started my exploration looking at Rebecca Horn and her Finger Gloves and Pencil Mask, specifically. I grew particularly interested in the Finger Gloves for their size and apparent unwieldiness. You can see in this video here how large they were. From that video above I was also intrigued by the idea that using the gloves, in that manner at least, created a large sound and how that was part of the performance of using them. There’s a sense of distance between the wearer and the object, but it’s still very tactile and playful. Here there is a quote from Rebecca Horn that says “the finger gloves are light. I can move them without any effort. Feel, touch, grasp anything, but keeping a certain distance from the objects. The lever-action of the lengthened fingers intensifies the various sense-data of the hand; …I feel me touching, I see me grasping, I control the distance between me and the objects.’”
It makes me think that it’s a bit like working on a canvas and using longer paintbrushes, standing back from the work to see it better and work at a distance. It will be worth keeping that in mind as I do this next section of work, that I don’t have to be up-close to create something, and that working with something larger will create alternate effects than what I am used to.
They invoke both control, and the lack of. Free and playful in the sense that they are beyond the norm, but there’s also a constraint in play with what you can do (or probably more likely, what you cannot do) while you were using them. I really enjoyed looking at the machines that drew entirely on their own once they were built, how there is an element of human interaction because they were thought up and constructed by a person, but then the actual drawing was left entirely up to what the machines could do.
I noticed that the marks as they were made were jerky and not smooth or particularly controlled, but that that doesn’t make them “wrong” to look at, in fact it adds to the effect. I often want to create with fluid movements and mark making, to feel that the art is flowing, so this was a good eye opener in that regard too.
From Jim Bond it was an easy side step into the work of Tim Knowles and his work using natural elements to create pieces of art or performance. I looked at his Tree Drawings work and I like the idea of it showing, as he puts it, “each drawing reveals the different qualities and characteristics of each tree.”, how they are never the same depending on the ‘subject’ used, or the weather each day.
I was also intrigued by his Ink on Paper Landscape artworks, “A body of work tracing the path of ink as it flows over folded, curled or crumpled paper.” — as this made me consider that the movement of the medium will also dictate or change what I am able to create when working in these odd ways, and that that is part of the process, to be enjoyed/celebrated at the same time as the things I try to control or make use of on purpose.
His Vehicle in Motion series was also something I looked at, the movements of the car being the thing that make marks on the page–this was exciting as it is a scaled up more intricate idea of something I have considered doing during this next topic with my wheelchair and myself holding a drawing tool, and it was fun to see it in action on a larger more thought out scale. [Edit to say: this was not something I was able to attempt for factors outside of my control. But I still like it as an idea.]
After investigating these artists that were recommended in the course materials, I went looking on my own and found Callen Schaub. He draws/paints with tools he has made by hand, a swinging paint canister and a rotating canvas, “The image that is created is a relationship between the centrifugal motion of the canvas and the pendulum of the swing,”
I like what he said in this interview “Instead of trying to control everything I create the parameters for chaos to occur and within those parameters I’m hands-off. There’s no visual signifiers of a human hand…at the end of the day I decide where the painting starts and where it stops.”
His work is another reminder that the unusual can create very distinct and dramatic things, and that letting go and letting the materials take over during the process is something I will need to take on board for this next section of my own work.
I also did a quick internet search and found pictures of Matisse drawing with a long bamboo stick with charcoal on the end. It was a nice reminder that drawing at a distance from the canvas, and with slightly odd tools, is something many people have done over the years. Though I may not be able to draw with anything as heavy or oddly weighted myself, removing myself a step from the paper I’m working on– either by impeding my ability to interact with it in my usual way, or by using different parts of my hand/arm– can hopefully come fairly naturally once I begin.
I found this playful team of artists, David Bohm and Jiri Franta, who created this fun piece of drawing the image of Matisse drawing with his charcoal stick, by drawing it with a charcoal stick. I looked around on their website and found some other fun examples of playing with drawing and attaching drawing tools to different objects (like this punching bag, or this gym equipment).
It got me thinking about how they are drawing with impediments in place to see what can be created, not knowing what the outcome will be. The restrictions are what make their art what it is, it seems.
I also looked very briefly at the work of Tony Orrico, who does performance size pieces of art using full body repetitive movements and motions. The way they overlap creates a sense of scale. I like that although his marks are not always precise or complex, it’s the repetition that creates drama and depth.
Heather Hansen also does wonderful performances and large scale art pieces using her whole body. Her movements are very fluid, and what I took from her work was that starting mark making in one place and then sweeping outwards, and going back over the same areas to smudge or change the mediums that have already been put down can be used to great effect. Different shapes stemming from one point is something I should be able to utilize myself. I really like her work, and I hope to employ some of the methods (on a smaller scale) in my own work in this topic.
Overall this research has shown me that all of these artists are playful, experimental, creative, and testing the limits, an exploration of what can be done outside of the usual but also within the bounds of what can be achieved by human (or machine/implement) means. Sometimes hemmed in by the specifics of the methods they are using, but letting go and exploring what can be done within those limits.
The strangeness of the marks is what makes the artwork interesting, the marks don’t have to be typical of usual drawn lines or well placed if the tools being used only moves in certain areas (like the punching bag as seen above), but because they exist at all it’s something interesting to look at. The mark making process itself is a large part of what makes the pieces art, a performance or interaction, not just the means to an end.
My main points of learning from this part of the course have been, I think, that I have all the needed skills, I just need to refine how to apply them and not rush the initial stages of laying down marks on the page. I can make good thumbnails and imagine what I want to achieve, but sometimes the execution or the final result has still been disappointing; working out why has been the biggest help in not becoming frustrated and giving up. I need to focus on where to place things on the page, and getting my spacing right; this became obvious during the collage sections and even in my last figure drawings where I found the images didn’t fill the page with the proportions I started with, or the heads ended up too small.
A selection of the works I feel taught me the most. The collage– where I grew frustrated because it didn’t look as good as my thumbnails and had to work out how to get shapes sit together to way I wanted; to gaining confidence from the solid figure silhouettes ready for that topic; and learning that I knew how to depict colour, and could enjoy gestural mark making with colour, so long as I got the paint pigments strength right.
There are so many ways to depict pattern, design, or fabric shaping, and committing to one and embracing it will gain the best results. As always, bold, confident choices pay off; my solid silhouettes and some of my work with fabrics and washes of colour showed that well. I enjoyed learning that even flat shapes of colour can suggest form, and even though collage didn’t come as easily to me as I’d hoped there was plenty to learn from it about placement of objects and how different patterns and tones sit next to one another.
What I feel are my most successful pieces of work for this section, and the ones I enjoyed the most. The collage that finally worked the way I wanted and ended up the best of that whole topic; the drapery depicted in a few ways as that was my most enjoyable topic in this section and these three choices were the most effective; and two figure drawing pieces that I had a lot of fun completing and look the most daring and bold.
I feel confident with colours and paint mixing, and also with gestural approaches of applying colour as well as more the accurate detailed work of showing the light and shade. The second topic, Drape And Colour, came the most naturally and enjoyably and I think I managed to take the skills I practised into the figure drawing too.
Every piece of work completed in this section. (Minus any done in a sketchbook) I almost don’t have a floor space large enough to lay them all out!
A very colourful collection of work that looks cheery and dramatic, I had a great time working with colour and creating things that weren’t just black and white.
The research I’ve completed during this section has been interesting, I’ve enjoyed seeing working artists making the best use of the techniques I was going to attempt, and it gave me very specific ideas of what could be achieved. With the figure drawing I found it easiest not to expect my own work to look like other artists, as each artists drawings were very different; I found this harder with collage, wanting my first attempts to look as appealing as the images I’d seen during research.
I am hopeful that perhaps I can improve on the things that I find hardest–spacing and planning–by drawing on what comes easiest– using colour and tone to help guide me and let my eye see the shapes more clearly, and envision, and then create, what I want to achieve more accurately.
I also hope that I have learned the value of reading around the subjects I am interested in, and growing as an artist in that way too.
This exercise was the introduction to the depiction of drawing the body for fashion designs. I started with two fashion magazines and pulled out all the images that had full-body figures shown. I practised first in my sketchbook just drawing some random figures to get a feel for drawing the human form.
Some quick sketches, and at the bottom of the second page some tests with different kinds of tape that I could have used in the exercise ahead.
From all my gathered images I picked my favourites to create 5 silhouettes with collage. For the size of the paper I was working on (A2) I didn’t have many papers I could collage with that would be the right height to cut out a solid figure. I found some packing paper and two rolls of wrapping paper that had colours that sat well next to each other, and I also used masking tape to create one of the images.
These are the five images I worked from, but I flipped two over once they were cut, so that my selection looked more how I wanted it on the page
My collage silhouettes with their cut out portions, I tried to stagger their arrangement on the page so they were not just in a straight line.
For the one on the furthest left I cut out sections of the drapery that was in shadow., as well as the belt, because the pattern was so small it would have taken hours to cut such tiny sections, but I do like the effect. For the others I cut away parts of the stripes or parts of clothing that were different textures or patterns to the rest. The one in the middle made with tape was a lot of fun to do, I was able to fold or scrunch parts of the tape before sticking so that it created some of the body and drapery that was in the reference image, and I chose not to depict anything other than fabric and the head, hoping it would look the most dramatic that way.
Working in this way was a good introduction to the form of the body, seeing it as solid shape that can be broken down into smaller sections and details. It also helped me see that a solid block of colour can be very striking, and that lots of intricate details aren’t necessary to create an eye catching piece.
Exercise 4.11: Linear silhoutte
This exercise was done entirely in pages of my A3 sketchbook, drawing with continuous line to explore the shapes and forms of various figures and their clothing. You can see below how I started off more hesitantly, and grew in confidence and ability the more I drew.
My first two pages. Improvement is definitely noticeable after the first drawing, and especially by the second page where I felt confident enough to add in some clothing detail like pockets and collars.
Here I was starting to try to get the hang of playing with the proportions a little bit, using full height figures. The one on the right is more successful, though I like the movement of the fabric I was able to include on the running figure.
And here are the three most successful drawings, where I was able to lengthen the body and loosely describe the missing parts of the figures. The one on the furthest right was less successful, working from a fore-shortened image (the mans legs came toward to camera) did not serve me well. All of these were drawn out faster than the previous images, partly because my confidence grew and partly because I knew it would help me not to overthink the detail and just let the drawing implement move across the page more freely.
I really enjoyed being able to see that I improved so quickly from the first image onward, it was satisfying to know that a little practice and careful observation could have a large impact. I found it interesting to note that the figures drawn as just an outline, with no fabric detail, looked less striking than the solid figure collages of the previous exercise, that the white paper on it’s own wasn’t as lively to look it.
Exercise 4.12: Fabric on the form
This exercise was all about the detail of fabric qualities required in fashion drawing and the various ways to achieve that.
For the first part of the exercise I chose to use linear drawing methods, as I’d been having fun with that in my sketchbook. I chose two fashion images that had similar fabric qualities in different arrangements, so that they might look good next to each other:
I practised in my sketchbook different ways to achieve the detail, and settled on using coloured pencil for part of the designs, and drawing or stippling with water-based ink for the rest.
I tried to elongate the figures again, and used precise drawing/colouring methods with the coloured pencils for top of the dresses, and quicker gestural movements with the ink to show the drape and form of the lower halves more freely.
I’m pleased with how these look overall, though they might have had more impact if there was less white showing through the application of the detail.
Next up was to create a series of figures on a gestural ground of colour and drawing the image and the detail on top. I approached this challenge by choosing to use a different drawing technique for of the series of four figures, but also by choosing images that all had a white pattern element so I could make the series a little more coherent using white ink to finish off the drawings.
The fashion images I was working from
Once I had mixed some gouache paint and loosely described the shapes of each figure, I could move on to the drawing. I drew the first figure with quick scratchy marks, the second with staccato incomplete lines, the third with continuous line, and the last with repeated mark making and a pencil. And then used a white pen (as well as a red and blue pen on the third drawing) to add the pattern over the top of each in ways that I hope expressed the appearance of the fabric or pattern.
The four figures. I liked the repeating similarities of colours, I wish my placement of the grounds of colour had been more evenly spread, so my figures lined up a little better.
Some of the close up detail on the images where it’s harder to see on the main pictures.
The last part of the exercise involved drawing five different drawings on A3, using a different method on each one to explore the details and depict the fabrics.
I found my fashion images from this collection, hoping for some coherence in look and colour.
For this first one I used blocks of colour laid down with marker pens and then swiftly drawn broken lines to depict some of the drapery. The perspective of the figure is a bit wrong, but I do like the overall solid block of colour and slight shading I achieved with the marker pens.
For this drawing I used techniques learnt in part 2 of the course, using my pen to create different textures by changing how I made the marks in an effort to accurately depict the fabrics.
For this I combined collage with some of the techniques of creating surface texture by piercing the paper, pressing lines into the paper, and sticking sellotape over the the cream paper to create sheen.
This drawing was done with gouache, hoping to accurately depict the form and colours. The top half of the painting is more successfully rendered, but it is a striking image overall and I had fun mixing paint again.
For the last one I painted a solid layer of black, and pink, ink and then used rolled and scrunched paper to print with white ink to show the patterned fabric once the black was dry. This is the most stand-out drawing in my mind, out of these five.
It was enjoyable putting previously learned techniques into practice for the last part of this exercise and working out what methods would best depict the images I had chosen. There are none of the five that I dislike, though I think I could do the first one better if I tried to redraw it. I like being able to see where my mistakes are in the drawing though.
Topic Review
At the start of this topic I was apprehensive about how accurately I could depict the body and form, and there is some hesitancy in my first continuous line drawings. I definitely found it easier to accurately draw the figures with more solid shapes and blocks of colour, and I think this shows in the series of four drawn on the gestural ground colours, the collage pieces, and my last black-inked drawing.
I have learned that it can take very few lines to accurately depict the shape of the drapery on the body, it can be represented very minimally and still have great effect–from the drawing of the two figures on the page in the last exercise and the ones drawn on gestural ground, I can see that a few well placed lines, or sweeps of colour in the right places easily show the curves of the body or fabric.
I enjoyed every exercise here, especially seeing the way I grew in confidence over such a short space of time. Being able to pull from past experience in collage, the skill of alluding to texture by changes in mark making, and how to carefully paint different shades was very useful. I enjoyed being able to understand how to apply those skills to a full drawing and how it is is useful in various artistic careers, as well as just understanding them as individual drawing techniques.
The one thing I don’t think I fully got to grips with was playing with proportions of the body, as fashion drawings often do. I think more experience is needed there for me, especially when trying to draw people that aren’t standing fully upright. However, I’m pleased that I attempted it as best I could in the time frame, and that nothing looks too outlandishly out of place!
I had a look at eight different designers and artists and their approaches to drawing figures and clothing. Below is the result of that research, my notes and observations, and what I hope to take away from this research.
From this interview I read that he has “[His] instinctive, un-laboured collage techniques combined with painted and drawn elements bring together rough-and-ready textures with luminous colours for a touching sensitivity….each piece is made up of different layers and textures which make them incredibly tactile.” And it seems like John Booth is drawn towards saturated colour and a juxtaposition of tones and pigments.
My observations of his work: blocky bold shapes, thick black lines, unusual body proportions –small heads and wide bodies. He uses lines to show folds in fabric, and flat swathes of colour.
“but the most important thing is to learn to draw well. That’s your basis. Once you master that you can go anywhere with it.” This seems like good advice to follow and shows in his work too, Carlos Aponte knows the human form and can draw it with believable proportions. He uses tape, often on dark backgrounds, to create outlines and shapes to denote the spaces of the clothes and body. Also works digitally (as the image above) creating portraits. He also has work that looks like it is completed with marker pens or gouache, completed with expressive outlines, more illustrative than fashion designer-esque, but these still show the folds in clothing in precise ways. Everything is an interesting shape.
My observations: blocked out shapes in different tones to convey the shadows of the figure, or folds in fabrics. Simplified shapes but accurate depictions. Expressive line work. Looks lively. Some almost collage-like effects?
Cecilia Carlstadt
Experimentation is an integral part of her working process and she uses various techniques in her work such as ink, screen printing and collage. She uses multi-media methods– collage, ink (possibly spray paints?), in a mix of thick application and transparent colours.
Image taken from Cecilia Carlstadt’s website. A good example of what I like most about her work.
My observations: soft, shapely, with blurring edges. Using tones and light and shade to show the shapes of the figure and face. Stylised but based in reality. Lets the lines/edges blur together for effect, the pattern becoming almost a part of the figures. Application of media suggests movement and flow, without any hard edges the form of the fabric is still well suggested.
Daphne van den Heuvel
Daphne is inspired by colours, contrast and textiles and pays special attention to that both in her fashion designs and illustrations. She uses different techniques for her illustrations like paint, markers and collage. [As explained in this small bio, here] She works with plain backgrounds and simple drawing materials (pens, markers, fineliners, pencils.)
My observations: There is contrast between black and white figures and bold colours on patterns, which draws the eye. Focus on texture and pattern. Clean line work. Very tidy and contained, with vivid pops of colour, very impressive. Minimal shading used to great effect.
Manon Planche
Manon Planche uses multimedia drawings and paintings, as a means to design ranges of clothing. You can see the different media in her pieces, what looks like softer pencil shading, some finely drawn lines, and the swathes of ink/paint, and how they sit one on top of the other.
My observations- the images are a mix of soft and bold, of line art and full colour. More colour detail on the fabrics than the figures/faces. Some sections of collage too, which blend in with the bright areas of paint. Sometimes fabric patterns are flat blocks of colour with black and white shading on the faces and figures- all of these things make the clothing draw the eye, by enhancing it in one way or another.
Matty Bovan
Matty Bovan uses multimedia, and quick sketches that convey a lot of information. Uses simple media and thin linework overlaid with bolder, darker media.
My observations: he same basic figure shape, with changes to clothing that affects the overall look. The figures are minimal, with focus on pattern/material info. Accompanied by notes of what the sketches are depicting. Thin decisive lines, with expressive use of applying colour to show differences in fabrics and patterns.
Philli Wood
I really struggled to find any images online of her figure drawings and not just her clothing/fashion line, but after a long search found some links to an archived/removed web page that had one or two images. Made what observations I could based on that, but they are unattributed now, only found on fan pages, so I won’t link them here as they don’t feel properly sourced.
My observations, such as I could make: Incredibly detailed drawing of fabrics, realistic figures,the pattern and form of the fabric flows seamlessly across the figure but the shading shows the shape/drape of the garment.
Elyse Blackshaw
Elyse uses drawing as means to communicate ideas. Drawing media, marker pens. She uses exaggerated proportions. Some collage, like cutting out faces to put on top of drawn figures. You can see a large selection of her work here on her website.
My observations: she conveys a lot of details with minimal mark making. Uses the same tools to apply the marks in different ways to show the fabric and pattern. (rough marks, dots, lines, scribbles, blocks etc) Shows versatility. Bold, well placed marks. Black outline enhanced by colour use. Flat images — no real shading– but not hindered by this apparent lack of information, still manages to show a lot of detail. Cartoon-like and very illustrative.
What to take away
What I’ve observed shows there are many different ways to convey information, and to communicate the figures and the details of their clothes. None of these artists and designers were held back by there chosen methods; either using a small selection of tools, nor overwhelmed by the choice of the many media available to them.
I can see how the outline of the figures can be used to great effect (like in Daphne van den Huevel and John Booth’s work, where the outlines were strongly drawn and deliberately visible) to show where and how the material sit in relation to the body. And how these outlines can be exaggerated too with bolder, thicker marks; like some of Carlos Aponte’s work. But I also like how in some (most notably Manon Planche and Elyse Blackshaw) the body and figure are obscured by the clothing painted or inked, or collaged, over the top. This doesn’t detract from showing that this is a figure wearing clothes, but helps the fabric take centre stage.
Shading is something to think about, Cecilia Carlstadt and Carlos Aponte use shading in different ways- Cecilia uses soft blended colours and shades, and Carlos uses block of different tones to show the hard lines where shadows fall. But both approaches show that the figures exist in space and have 3D form. Whether subtly or boldly, it does add to the overall affect and appeal of the images to me.
Mostly I can see how there isn’t a right or wrong way to draw figures, just different styles. Some appeal more to my tastes than others but all of the artists I researched draw bold figures and depictions of fabrics and patterns. I think the coming exercises will challenge my ability to draw without hesitancy, and to be unapologetic in use of colour.
for this exercise all pieces were drawn with continuous line– the first two without looking at the page at all, the third looking at both the page and the subject. It was good to stretch the drawing muscles again after the time spent collaging, and I was glad to find I remembered the needed techniques and felt comfortable using them.
My four chosen fabrics (a pillow case, two skirts, and a scarf) draped over a chair ready for the first exerciseI tested lots of media to find the closest colour match, and it was good to have a reference of lighter and darker shades to come back to later on when I was mixing paints.
My first piece, drawn with four different tools. Two coloured pencils, one blue maker pen, and a grey brush pen- each picked to match one of the main colours of the fabrics. I really like the effect of each new layer being drawn one on top of the other. It helps bring more depth and make the folds and drape seem more pronounced, even though they don’t overlap perfectly because I was drawing blind.
Below is the second piece, where I drew the outlines of the draped fabrics with a black fine-liner, and filled in the patterns using the same tools as the previous piece. This piece looks messier with the pattern not being fully inside the drawn lines of the fabrics, but it looks fresh and vigorous too, it was nice not to overthink but to try and draw by looking carefully. The first two patterns are a bit more successfully depicted than the second too.
The third piece, drawn with a 2b pencil, still in continous line but changing the angle and pressure of the pencil to create different boldness of line and try and show the three-dimensional qualities of the fabrics.
My notes for the third piece: I ran out of room for the final fabric, need to check my spatial awareness for the size on the page. If I had used a darker pencil, or a bolder tool, the changes in line would have been more prominent and noticeable. I could have changed the composition of the fabrics so that when drawn in continuous line it was more obvious where one finished and another began.
Having evaluated, I decided to add the pattern in the same manner, but trying to bear in mind the points above to create more noticeable changes in the size and darkness of the line.
Adding the pattern I feel helps show the form and folds, and the lines between one fabric and the next are more noticeable. (Unfortunately I had forgotten to take a photo of the drawing before I added the pattern, so there is no way to compare!)
Exercise 4.6- Colour Mixing
Here you can see my foray into colour mixing and the different tests sheets I made ready for further paintings. Using with gouache paints, starting with the primaries (both cool and warm) and then mixing to find the secondaries and tertiaries of each selection. Then I moved on to using one colour (a tube of green paint) to practice mixing shades and tints, with with and black respectively. The colours I mixed on the left of the page, what I had picked as my warm primary colours, look less vibrant and slightly muddier. But these were the best results I could get after a few tries and when I went on to use them to mix matching colours for my fabrics I also got good results, so perhaps they were just too dark to show well enough here.
Next I had to carefully find the colour mixes to match each of my chosen fabrics. A process which took a long time, but had good results. It was good to see the colours develop and through practising, I began to get an intuitive sense of how much of each paint to use and how to get the desired colour more quickly.
Exercise 4.7- Colour and Pattern Studies
This was an exercise I really enjoyed, using the paint well and in different ways, and looking closely to try and replicate the patterns on my fabrics in the medium of paint as best I could. I used my camera to choose which section of fabric to use in my study, and I’ve put them side by side below.
Two of the individual panels. The colours of the second fabric, a skirt, are difficult to get the camera to pick up, the colours match much more in person.
I am pleased with all of them, but aware that the blue on my final panel really needed a second wash to fully match with the colour, which I only realised once the final details were already completed and it would have been too messy to add another wash.I feel I made a good effort here, and put in plenty of time and energy to try and make each study accurate. It was good practice for mixing my colours and I looked forward to making use of that in the next exercises.
Exercise 4.8 – Gestural colour.
My fabrics draped for the first stage of this exercise
I started by mixing my colours again, and creating five sheets with washes to indicate my fabrics. I did two of the pieces with more accurate colour placement to depict how my fabrics were laid out, and three more loosely.
Next was to add the pattern detail in five different ways, each using a different medium or tool. I looked back through the previous sections of the course to find methods that would look different enough from each other, and create a variety of effects.
For my first I used coloured pencil, attempted a representational look, and tried to depict each pattern by moving the pencil in a way to represent the different feel of each fabric. It’s subtle and harder to see the differences in ways I used the pencil, but I enjoyed using simple drawing techniques here.
For the second I used marker pens, and gestural mark making to extrapolate the pattern into a more simplified, print-like form. The end result is bold and exaggerated but with the pattern placement still fairly true to life.
The third used fine liners and continuous line to try and accurately represent the pattern placement.
The fourth used water based ink and non-traditional tools (a twig, a sponge, the lid of a pen etc) to do gestural mark making, reminiscent of some of the work completed in Section 2 Topic 1: Surface and Texture
For the last I went back to collage, going for extremely simplified and exaggerated pattern shapes. It was a case of picking out the pattern design and turning them more geometric in shape and scale.
After doing the washes of colour and adding the patterns with other methods and mediums I made some notes about the success of each piece of work:
All five pieces together, for reviewing what worked and what didn’t.
For the first piece the soft wash and the faint pencil marks do sit well together, and colour palette is good, but it’s not striking and it’s difficult to see the pencil marks on top of the wash. The bold marks of the marker pens helps enhance the flat wash, it looks complete and interesting. For the third I found the black marks, possibly especially because I used continuous line, over-power the wash, but the small size of the mark making does show the drape and shape a little better than some of the others. The fourth, using ink on top of the wash, looks good. They are similar mediums that sit well together, and the boldness of the mark making coupled with being able to depict the drape my changing the angle of the pattern placement is pleasing. The last, collage, is more abstract. I like the block effect, as it’s interesting, but there’s so much paper that it hides and washes of colour, making it less effective overall, in my eyes.
For the larger drawing, pulling the best bits from the previous five, I decided I also needed to rearrange my fabrics as the composition had been bothering me–each fabric was the same length and width and it didn’t look very dynamic.
The re-structured draped fabrics
I decided to use marker pens and ink and draw two pattern fabrics in each, for the final drawing. I re-mixed my paint to be even more closely matched, after learning in the previous part of the exercise how watering down the paint affected the colour once it was spread and dried. This made the washes look more pleasing and the practice of applying the washes five previous times helped me get a less streaky, more solid wash.
I used gestural and exaggerated mark making, whilst also taking into account the shape of the objects in front of me and trying to show the flow and drape of the fabrics. The colours of the ink and marker pens are a close match to the fabrics patterns as well, and overall I think this is one of my favourite pieces from this section of the course.
The larger piece side by side with the two that inspired it. I stuck with applying the marker pens in the same way I had before, but added in a second colour for the fabric on the left. For the two fabrics completed with ink and tools I make a better effort at size and placement, but used the same techniques I had before– the round end of a paint brush to create dotted effect on the grey, and a sponge for the pattern on the blue fabric.
Exercise 4.9 – Refined Composition.
This exercise required a full colour painting to carefully depict some of my chosen fabrics. First I tried out around 20 compositions before sitting down to paint; using the colour mixes I had perfected during exercise 4.7.
My sketchbook with an A3 page of thumbnails of possible fabric compositions drawing on what I found worked or not from the previous exercises, four refined thumbnails, and my final choice with notes ready to make the final piece.The set-up for my final piece. The scarf (fabric on the left) got knocked a little between drawing and taking the picture but you can see the basic composition here even though the pattern placement has changed slightly.
I chose to go for a square composition and cut down a piece of A2 paper into a square. I decided on three fabrics for an odd number and the fabrics all had colours mixed from the same set of primary colours, which I hoped would add some unity to the piece.
I’m pleased with the outcome of this piece, it had it’s hairy moments when the painting reached the “ugly stage” but each fabric looked good by the end. I was unsure whether to include any context or staging, like background or the shadows cast by the draped fabrics, as I’m aware they look a little odd just floating there, ultimately I decided against it as it wasn’t in the brief, and I didn’t want to detract from the desired look I had managed to paint. Finding the contrast of shadows between each of the fabrics isn’t something I’m sure I got 100% correct (the deeper blue cast shadow that perhaps should have fallen onto my paler pillowcase for example) and if I had used a more directional light while painting it might have been more obvious and helped me to include it, but I feel pleased with the overall look and ability to make each fabric look three dimensional and show the drapery.
Overall review for topic 2
After a couple of weeks looking closely into depicting the patterns and colours of my fabrics I was definitely able to notice how different lighting and amounts of shadows affects the colours. I’m hoping that having done this so intensely, that the ability will be easily attuned to new colours, fabrics, and objects. Certainly by the end I wasn’t needing to refer to my colour chart of paint swatches to know how to mix my paints, I could see more easily by eye and assessing what was there in real life, and mixed with confidence, getting it right almost every time.
My first colour swatches (from exercise 4.6) look muddier now compared to the clean colours I was able to produce by the end. Hopefully this shows my improvement and desire to work on something until I get it right.
Working from the two dimensional line drawings all the way to the three dimensional painting of the last exercise was a fun progression to watch. Seeing the different ways that the fabric came to life and seeing how to utilise each to its best potential. I particularly enjoyed laying together the flat washes and more accurate pattern placement, and how it made the appearance on the page almost graphic-like. I can also see how to do one or the other well–make an image flattened or have realistic depth–that the skill needs to be learned on both sides, so you know how to play with the possibilities in all the ways available. Especially if you want to mix exaggerated mark making and accurate depictions into one image.
The colour wheel is made of twelve main colour hues, although there are infinite varieties of colours you can mix. The main colours are: Primary: Red, blue, yellow Secondary: Green, Orange, Purple Tertiary: green-blue, green-yellow, orange-yellow, orange-red, purple-red, and purple-blue
Every colour can be mixed by using just the primary colours, and white or black to lighten (tint) or darken (shade). The theory behind the split primary colour wheel, however, dictates that the way to make the best and cleanest colours that won’t end up muddy or diluted is to have two sets of primary colours– a warm, and a cold.
The colour wheel itself can be split into warm and cool colours, a line that can be drawn down the centre with red-yellow-orange hues on one side and purple-blue-green on the other. Where the two sides of the line meet there are mixes of green-blues, and red-purples, that fall closer to warm or cool, respectively. In this same way, you can find primary colours that are warmer or cooler hues, and this happens by the mix of the colour containing at least a small amount of one of the other primaries. A red that contains a small amount of yellow, for example, will be a warmer hue and more of an orange-red than a red containing a small amount of blue, and having a slight leaning towards purple.
Picking the primaries is important, so you don’t mix a warm primary with a cool primary– unless you want to break the rules on purpose for a more semi-neutral colour to emerge.
The wheel is a reference guide for choosing opposite colours. Colours that are opposite each other on the wheel are called complements, they balance each other well, look harmonious on the page, and if mixed can create beautiful semi-neutral hues that fall on the colour spectrum somewhere between the two colours. Equal amounts of complementary colours mixed together will create a grey-ish brown, where each colour has cancelled the other out to create a truly neutral hue.
A complementary colour scheme is a scheme that only uses two complementary colours, lightened and darkened and mixed together to create many shades, tints, and tones. This is a scheme that is found often in nature, red petals on green shrubbery for example. It is a pleasing range of colours that off-set each other very well. Used in the best ways it can highlight where warm and cool tones meet in the composition and please the eye by not having the colour scheme overloaded by all of the hues being too warm or too cool.
An Analogous colour scheme uses three colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel, usually within one third, or smaller, of the wheel. These schemes remain either cool or warm depending on where on the wheel your choice of colours comes from. You could use the complementary colour of each three colours to create some semi-neutral hues in the work, but be careful not to mix too much in or you could lose the balance of the analogous scheme by making the other colour visible. It is one of the most harmonious colour schemes as all colours included sit closely on the wheel and are related to each other. It can be used to great effect to really set a tone for an artwork, creating mood and conveying specific lighting conditions (a snowy scene, for example, all in blues and purples, or a sunset or sunrise in shades of oranges and yellows.)
A split-complementary scheme starts life as an analogous scheme, and out of your three analogous colours, you use the complementary colour from the middle of the three to balance all three. This adds in the warm or cool hue that was missing from the analogous scheme. You can use the chosen complementary colour to mix with all three and in its own right, to balance out the hues and create points of interest to draw the eye. It is good for creating accents and hints so that warm and cool find more of a balance again.
A triadic colour scheme uses three colours that are equal distance from each other on the colour wheel–creating a triangle out of your chosen colours. Anything but the primary colours will work better for a triadic, because the secondaries or tertiaries will create more interesting and vibrant colours when mixed together, almost like half-tone semi-neutral colours. Mixing Primary colours together will only create versions of the secondary or tertiary colours. Because these colours are not neighbours on the wheel they create striking differences when used together, and mixing the right proportions of each together makes interesting middle-colours that you might not normally think to mix.
A Tetradic colours scheme is a four colour scheme consisting of two choices of complementary colour pairs. They form a rectangle when you view them on the colour wheel, it seems like a mix of complementary and analogous schemes, as each point on the wheel has its opposite and a colour chosen from nearby. In this way, it is a scheme that has balance and familiarity in two sets of colours that sit well next to, and opposite, each other.
No matter which scheme you use, it’s important to remember that light and dark create interest in a piece. A flat-toned painting will not draw the eye through the space. Tints, shades, and tones create lighter or darker versions of the colours you are working with, to create light and shadow and movement in the piece. -Tints are made by mixing white into a colour -Shades are made by mixing back into a colour, to darken -And Tones are made by mixing grey into a colour, to soften the hue intensity.
A complementary colour can also be used to great effect to create a different kind of tone that heads toward grey the more you mix in (a semi-neutral tone), and to either darken or lighten the hue.
I am most drawn to triadic and analogous colour schemes, the beautiful tones that can be mixed by using the tertiary colours are what I find most appealing. Purples and turquoises and yellow oranges.
Choosing a colour scheme to use can be done by looking at the colours of the composition in front of you and seeing which colours exist there, and then adding in any complements or analogous colours to round out the choices. You can also amplify the colours by narrowing down choices and ramping up the similarities between colours that aren’t as similar in real life as the colours you might mix, but you know will look pleasing on the page together if they fall into a particular type of colour scheme.
Most of my research here was pulled from the book ‘Color Choices’ by Stephen Quiller.
The first step of exercise 4.1 was creating bundles of fabrics. I used sewing fabrics, old towels and socks, two knitted hats, and one large scarf. I wrapped one with string, one with ribbon, and one with an elasticated headscarf. Three bundles total. Here they are in the composition I used for my collages.
The next step was sourcing and creating papers to match my fabric choices. I created three sheets of A3 that were painted with variation, and two that were a flat wash. Here you can see them with the other papers I sourced. (Newspaper, craft papers, wrapping paper and wallpaper)
For exercise 4.2: Some process shots of my first collage being made
My two collages for this exercise side by side. The first where the paper was cute directly; the second where I drew out the shapes first, and used more shapes for each colour of fabric in my bundles.
Exercise 4.2 – Comparing my two collages
I can see that my first collage looks a little more playful, but that the overlaps of paper look less messy and less muddled on my second collage, and they look more like wrapped bundles. This is especially noticeable on the bottom right bundle.
The composition on collage 2 is more accurate for each bundle, but I think I enjoy the look of the composition more overall on collage 1; it’s more engaging to look at as a piece of work separate from the objects it’s portraying. That feels important for a work of art made with collage.
The colours and shapes match well on each piece. On the second collage the fact there are more pieces, and they are more accurately cut shapes, helps show that the colours relate to, and depict, something.
Moving forward I’d like to take the playful nature of collage 1 and mix it with the accuracy of collage 2. This might mean drawing more freely, or drawing some shapes and free-hand cutting others. Also playing with the composition more before I stick them down.
The angle of my view of the composition had changed ever so slightly between collage one and two. You can see some of the differences between the two more noticeably here, along with a process shot of the second collage being put together.
Exercise 4.3: Surface Pattern
After creating patters and texture on my papers, I was ready to begin. I chose to do a mixture of drawing my shapes and cutting directly after seeing what I liked from the first exercise. I used three different compositions, each looking at the entire bundle, but some closer and some further away. For my second piece I focused solely on one bundle by itself.
The first composition I decided on
I tried the collage on these four coloured backgrounds before deciding the warmer toned yellow off-set and complemented the cooler colours of my papers most effectively. This collage doesn’t have as many complex pieces as the previous one, but I like the way the front bundle does look like folds of fabric. The large swathe of the folds of scarf, depicted with newspaper, might have looked better made of more pieces.
The first finished composition next to the thumbnail sketch
My second composition, with my medium sized bundle from a new angle. I tried it on several colours before choosing a dark background, I liked the way the dark blue added to the effect of the collage, creating almost shadow-like folds between my papers to help imitate the fabrics.The finished composition. Things didn’t fit together quite right but I decided not to re-do my cutting and do my best to make the composition work so that I could learn from what went wrong.
After becoming frustrated with the finished collages I stopped and evaluated why between my second and third collages. I realised what I’d been struggling with was getting consistent scale for the individual collage pieces; though most of them are correctly shaped, or at least make a good representation of the composition, they don’t always sit well together because their sizes don’t match across the board. I had tried to use this to good effect by going with the spontaneity and still trying to make the compositions look appealing on the page even though they didn’t perfectly match my bundles, but decided to be especially careful and check my pieces against each other for the third collage before cutting.
I also realised that in choosing a composition I had to think not only about what looked good in my thumbnails with pencil, but about how that would translate into a collage– where things look very different without shading, in flatter blocks of colour. This was easier to do when I had more collages under my belt, and I was able to choose more carefully for my last collage by combining the results of a couple of thumbnails and by making a new, smaller bundle to compliment the other two. This reminded me of what I learned at the end of Part 3, of having to evaluate what makes a good drawing for the medium being used and the intended outcome. And with this I was able to move onto collage three more confidently.
Although I thought the cream paper helped the darker colours to pop, I ultimately decided on another darker red background, partly to help show the folds and shadows again and partly because the red complemented the tones of my papers.
I made a new smaller bundle for this last composition so I could have a set up that I was happy with and very carefully made sure each of my cut pieces fit together with similar sizing. There’s still a playfulness about this that I like, where things don’t match exactly, and I think the balance of shapes on the page is more interesting than my first two collages in this exercise.
This all resulted in a third collage that I am much happier with, not only for the collage itself but for how it relates to what was in front of me. I still took some creative license; not all of the string is depicted line for line, and I arranged some of the pieces differently before finally sticking them down, so that it looked more balanced on the page– but I think it is the most successful of the three and shows off the patterned papers I created to best effect.
All three compositions together
Exercise 4.4: Material Surface
Here I was required to create a bundle of fabrics that started life as cleaning supplies . I used a large sponge, a J-cloth, some netting, a white bin bag, a rubber glove, and some smaller pieces of natural sponge. (the masking tape was used to help prop it up, as it was heavier at one side than the other!)
I was able to create the effects of some of the fabrics by sticking clingfilm to white paper for the bin bag, lightly scraping the top layer of some paper before I painted it to represent the cloth, and using a spoon to rub a patterned texture into some pink paper to represent the rubber glove.
I was also able to use a pearlescent pen to create the shiny netting effect, and paint to create paper that looked like the sponges, and to layer over the scraped paper for the j-cloth. Overall six good papers to represent each material in my bundle.Thumbnails and notes I made to help me choose an angle to view my bundle from and how to place the collage on the page. The two compositions I chose are the second from the left in row one, and the third from the left on row two.
I chose to ignore some the j-cloth in this composition as I thought the shapes looked more interesting without it. After cutting out all my pieces I laid them next to a few colours to decide which suited the composition best. I decided on green, to complement the red and pink, and so that the white shiny paper didn’t get lost on a white backgroundThe finished collage, on the green background, which I cut to size so the placement was how I wanted it. I like the gap the central teardrop shape of white paper creates and the symmetry on either side, I broke some compositional rules on purpose!
Here you can see some of the paper qualities
The composition I chose for my second piece, where I this time decided to leave out the large sponge and you can’t see the netting on the other side. One of my shapes before I cut it, and my trial with different paper colours.The finished piece, on a cream background. I liked that the background paper had a texture, and the cream off-set nicely with the soft pink and brown. The size and shape of this composition overall is accurate to the bundle, the paper pieces that represented the glove were not fully shaped right, so I arranged them in a way I thought looked as close as possible but also most interesting on the page.
Two close shots of the patterns and textures in my second composition
Exercise 4.4- I found looking for the shapes and forms I wanted in my composition much easier by this point, and chose my compositions fairly easily, even which bits to eliminate from the final piece. I like the shapes of both compositions overall, and find them to be interesting in and of themselves in an abstract way, as well as fairly easily recognisable as the bundle.
Though I realised once I had finished them that I had focused on the shapes and chosen interesting forms, but that the colours in the compositions were all grouped together rather than spread over the page. This bothers me a bit, and it’s something I wished I’d thought more about.
Summing up: I was able to create papers that matched well to the fabrics, but I also managed to have the painted paper tones look cohesive together, throughout these exercises. The patterns and designs on the paper I created were sometimes too large or spread too sparsely across the pages to show up once the collage pieces were cut, so size and scale are something to bear in mind moving forward.
Being happy with the colour choices helped and my initial bundles were mostly soft, rounded shapes and my collages portray that well; the folds and dips in the fabric were lost somewhat in the flatness of collage until I realised using more pieces of paper showed more intricate forms. The shapes are interesting in my initial exercises but they don’t all look like the bundles.
My initial four collages. They are bright and colourful, but they aren’t all as representative as they could be.
I feel I have a better thought and planned composition by the end of exercise 4.3, that is a great representation of what was in front of me and also looks like folds of fabric, and even if you look at it without the bundles next to it I feel it looks like fabric parcels and groups of folded material.
In exercise 4 I managed to utilize my new-found confidence, and those collages have some interesting abstract shapes. I think they are a broad representation of composition rather than picture perfect accuracy, partly because I left out some aspects of the bundle to create more unique compositions.
My three collages with more well planned compositions.
What matters when choosing compositions depends on what materials you are drawing with and what the intended result is. When flat shapes and patterns are involved things can look quite different. It reminds me of the printmaking techniques from an earlier section of the course, where the forms and shapes you want to depict need to be well thought out, but you can exaggerate and simplify as needed to make things work on the page. Accuracy also seems especially important for showing folds and form in fabric, for it to make sense to the eye. You can simplify, but it also needs to look like the object in question. I will try to take that forward as I move through the next topics.
Laura Slater is a textile designer who uses collage in her process to create screen printed designs. Her works begins with drawings, the finished works being a translation of drawings and surface texture onto the products she has in mind. In her collections she uses the same pattern elements in different configurations (as she talks about here) every time she makes a print, which makes me think of the potential for collage elements to be used more than once; first to make original shapes and patterns and then again, once they’ve been printed or stuck down, to rearrange those sheets of elements by overlapping and re-cutting, and re-sticking, a second time. That collage can grow and change up until the last second, the “marks” can be moved around and realigned as many times as you like.
What draws me to her work is the bold nature of it, I like the limited– sometimes monochromatic–colour palettes, and how the finished screen prints retain a look of collage, with overlapping pieces of the design. I like that collage is just a part of her process in getting to the final image, a means to an end, but with lots of creative exploration along the way.
Clover Robin is an artist and designer who uses collage to create prints and illustrations. She has a craft-based approach, using paper to play around and try out new designs, using hand painted papers to carefully colour match the elements of her artworks. Her work is mostly done by hand, with a final digital application to clean up the finished product. Her collage uses blocky shapes, but they take on new life and form with textured effect papers and how they are arranged together to make the final images look complete. It is joyful and playful, and looks painterly. Looking at her work feels like a good reminder that collage is just another way to make marks and create images. That the marks can look chunky or blocky, but if you decorate the papers in certain ways they can also look delicate and expressive, and that cutting the shapes accurately can make for a very informative and representative final piece.
After reading an interview with Clover Robins I happened upon the designer Alice Lindstrom and liked her work very much. She works with collage as her main medium, using it to create stories and pattern prints. She likes the versatility of paper and looking at her work I can see why. She scans her collage in layers, putting the final effect together digitally. I really enjoy the soft look of this approach, and how it doesn’t lose the painterly effect of the paper she has used and prepared. Her colour palettes create atmosphere [You can see especially in this piece] and the exaggerated shapes really highlight the collage effect and make her works especially pleasing to look at. What I really want to take from Alice’s work is the use of colour and theme, to try to make a coherent looking piece of work by carefully thinking about the pieces I’m using and how the colours will sit together. She really makes collage sing, and though she finishes digitally, I hope to be inspired by the precise and exacting nature of her artwork to create clean and lively works of my own.
I feel very inspired after looking at these artists’ works, along with others, and I’m excited to get started on my own collage and see what my own approach will be, and how many of these things I manage to put into my own practice!
These topics felt a lot like the basics building blocks of being able to draw a full piece of artwork. I can see from my first artworks in this section that my observational skills and the ability to transfer that to the page have improved as I progressed.
On the left, my first observational drawings; on the right thumbnails compositions. The accuracy with which I have drawn the shapes looks improved to me.
The exercises used mostly pencil, but from previous sections of the course where we used mediums that couldn’t be erased I have confidence to use the tool boldly. In general I feel competent with my tools now, as though it’s second nature not only to pick them up to draw but to use them to the best of their abilities; no longer holding or drawing with them in one way.
I enjoyed the shift toward learning how to transfer my drawings into other sizes and materials, and I feel as though I can see how to apply these skills to create more design work, not just one off drawings or compositions. Not least because I have learned how things look once they are transferred, scaled up, or repeated; I hope to take that forward and keep creating with contemporary drawing practice in mind.
I think I still have a way to go in feeling confident enough to think even more creatively. My final piece, for example, worked well but I’m not sure I pushed the boundaries of what the materials could do. I would like to find my own approach to some of the exercises, and not second guess myself. I feel I did this in my final tonal drawing in Topic 3, but felt a little boxed in by some of the other exercises, especially those that repeated the task a number of times. If I could find my own style within the drawing techniques covered perhaps I would get more enjoyment out of drawing a subject many times as I learn.
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Rebekah's OCA Learning Log 