Exercise 2.1 – Surface Highlights
From my first attempt with the charcoal to my second I:
Realised I needed to apply the charcoal to the paper differently so it would rub out more easily, I applied crushed charcoal for the second piece and wiped it over the paper rather than colouring the entire sheet with a charcoal stick.
Learned I needed to work across the whole object at once, rather than attempting to work and finishing one area before moving on.
Saw that sharp edges really helped show off the subject matter.
Learned that a dirtier eraser helped to remove less charcoal and get the mid tones easier.
This worked better by applying the above techniques, perseverance was key to make it look the way I intended. It’s not as effective as depicting the 3D form as I’d hoped but the overall look I prefer than my first attempt. Perhaps I also chose the wrong object to depict, one that didn’t have enough contrasting tones?
Thinking about light and dark tones in reverse is a new perspective. Realising that all forms are made just by subtracting or adding to the image depending on light, medium, or style. Rather than seeing dark points as the absence of the subject, they’re just part of what builds it in another way.
Exercise 2.2 Material Edges
I found the process — applying the masking fluid — tedious and difficult. It felt more like constructing an image than drawing; this became a theme as I moved through this part of the course, and something I enjoyed more over time.
The effect at the end was pleasing, however.
The first work (a) is bold and stark, somewhat imposing, and fairly representative and recognisable as my chosen object.
The second work is messier than I would have liked (my masking fluid didn’t cover very effectively in places, letting the ink bleed into layers it shouldn’t), but the finished product has a blocky tonal variation that keeps the eye moving across the image.
Comparing these two sets of work; the charcoal is softer and more transient, and has more nuances in tone to appreciate the longer you look. The cast shadows make the objects looks more real, to me, and they are more representational – or easier to see what you’re looking at.
The masking fluid works draw the eye more, and I worked in lots of fine detail especially in piece a.
Exercise 2.3 Exaggerated Surface
I liked this series of exercises, it was like finding the building blocks that make up the base surface of the texture — breaking it down into a simple series of shapes.
I found the value in the exercise to be looking very carefully and closely, and then working out how to translate that into playful marks — and also how to represent something in a limited number of marks. It’s an exercise in how to convey the feel of the object rather than a lot of specific information. How to “cut out the noise” and see the important or interesting parts.
It was also a good way to understand that large marks can represent intricate detail on a larger scale.
For use in textiles I imagine the overlap of information is good for creating bold patterns for fabric design, and a way to gather abstract information from a source material as a starting point for a pattern or print — to be inspired by what’s in front of you and take it to create new and interesting projects.
Exercise 2.4 – Expressive Mark Making
- Sticking string onto a badge to create a spiral effect
- Wrapping and sticking string around a cotton bud
- Using blu-tac to hold three mosaic tiles in place at an exact spacing
- Using pins stuck through cardboard to hold it in a stiff zig-zag shape
- Sellotaping three cut off ends of cotton buds inside a peg
- Sellotaping a leaf and a feather together, after snipping the feather into hard lines
- Fraying string a holding the two ends in place with a paperclip
- Sticking pins into a piece of cardboard to create a rake-like tool
The most effective tools were: the cardboard zig-zag — for stability and the options it provided, and how easy it was to use. Paperclip holding frayed string for the variety it afforded, especially compared to the stiffer, more rigid tools
The pins creating a rake like effect were not as effective at putting ink down but offered a nice simplicity as a counterpoint to the more involved tools.
My favourite to use was the string rolled around a cotton bud for how fun it was, getting messy and using it in a very different way to the others (rolling or dragging it across the page).
Most tools held up well and were interesting enough to craft an image, but I focused down to 5 of the 8 that I made for most of the pieces, and added a sixth one in when needed.
Out of the 10 drawings, 4 represented objects or their texture, 5 were all over pattern prints, and 1 was simple showing of a complex pattern that the tool could make.
All but one of my pieces ended up being drawn in landscape but the all over patterns look good whichever way you turn the paper which is nice.
The two all over prints on black paper are the most uniform but I still tried for variety – with some larger sections of white ink to fill in the space as well as using the black background to the best effect I could come up with – to move the eye.
I worked a lot on diagonals and rule of thirds to attempt to make them as interesting as possible — this is especially noticeable on the piece with the pink swirls, and the complex pattern from my rolling tool. And I particularly like the piece where I parts of the white paper with black ink before starting with my pattern making because it feels the most unique compared to the others.
The white ink on black paper is striking, but the marks are softer and as the ink didn’t define the texture as well. I enjoy the hints of pink in several pieces to change things up, and on the grey paper it stands out especially well.
Exercise 2.5 – Transient Surface
I wasn’t sure what expect from this exercise, or how I would modify the marks I could make depending on how the substrate reacted, but it was fairly intuitive to not just dig into my chosen substrate (almond flour) to see through it to the surface underneath but to cause cascades of movement with my objects and move the flour around. Creating patterns in the flour that were made of gaps as well as small pile-ups of flour. I took pictures of my favourite parts of piled and moved flour, as well as a full shot of each image – see below.
I think if I’d been asked to draw these three chosen objects with traditional tools or mediums it would have been a long, slow task to get them looking representational and depicted well. Learning how to use gestural marks with unusual tools and expressive print-pattern designs to suggest surface qualities opens up a whole world of possibilities for intuitive mark making. Seeing different types of marks sit side by side, or different amounts of ink/charcoal covering different areas has been a valuable lesson in composition and the many ways there are to fill the space on a page. I have enjoyed seeing large swathes of colour (in this case mostly black or white!) blanket a space and still represent something, or still show the detail of the tool I chose to use.
And it’s interesting to see how the thought-out compositions in exercise 2.4 look much more intriguing than the test sheets that use the same mark making techniques, it shows how well placed marks can really utilise the space.
The biggest points to take away from this Topic have been that not only do the surfaces of the objects I’ve been drawing inform the marks made, but the surfaces I’ve been drawing on can change the end result drastically. Finding out the best ways to make use of this have been the most valuable tasks. And hopefully from my above observations of each exercise you can see that I’ve taken plenty of care in noticing how each surface, tool, and coloured drawing surface affects the outcomes.
The main things I’ve taken away from this topic are:
- Explore what each tool, or way of mark making, can do before beginning a piece
- Do a task more than once to improve the end results
- Exaggeration of marks leads to more expressive pieces
- How to take what a series of marks looks like and turn the marks themselves into a point of interest
- How to suggest the quality of a surface more abstractly
- How to use tools to create a large variety of marks with the same medium
Rebekah's OCA Learning Log 