Project 1, Mark making exercise 2 and Stage 4 review

For exercise 2 I made the following drawings:

The objects were a seed pod, a small cone of thread, some rocks, a couple of stamps and a bank identifier.

Review of my work so far:

- Have you ever thought about drawing in this way before?
I am not used to this kind of drawing. Most of the time my design idea is only a few scribbled lines and the rest it is in my mind.

- Were you able to inventive about the range of marks you made?
I realised that - especially at the beginning - my marks were continuous line marks. Guess out of habit as I machine quilt a lot. After that realisation I really thought hard to avoid this kind of lines and bring more variety in my marks.

- Did you explore a wide range of media?
I worked with pencils, oil pastels, paint stik, acrylic paints, markers, brushes, sticks, sponge, templates, rubbing plates, different types of paper. Yes I think. Of course there are always more media to find.

- Are you pleased with what you've done? Will it help you to approach drawing more confidently?
My drawing skills are limited and it has been my plan - for a long time - to improve this.  For a beginner I am partly satisfied with the results. They can be better, yes I know that and I also know that my drawing skills will improve during this course.

- Which exercise did you most enjoy? Why?
I love color and that is the reason that I enjoyed the mark making with different media.

- Which media did you most enjoy working with? Why?
I prefer working with pencil. Depending on how you hold the pencil and how much pressure you use, you create different marks. Using markers or paint this is more difficult for me. And pencil is more forgiving. If it is wrong, it can be rubbed away. I realise that this sounds contradictory to my comment on the previous bullet point as I love color, but working with a pencil is enjoyable.

- What other forms of mark-making could you try?
I am not certain whether I understand this question properly. Is it referring to other forms of mark making I did or to forms of mark making I have not yet done? I will answer both. The other type of mark making I enjoyed was working with wooden sticks and paint. This technique gives a lot of texture. Forms of mark making I have not yet done is printing. I only used punchinella as a template, but with printing there are so many types of templates to try out. And I love doing multiple layers.

- How will these exercises enrich your textile work in the future?
I think that in the future more beading and embroidery will show up in my work. These two techniques create texture in textile work. In the past I have used zapped lutrador or other synthetic material to create texture, or (multiple) layers of manipulated fabrics but there are more techniques which can give a textured effect.

Mark makings, exercise 4

While I was working on exercise 3 I also worked on the next exercise. This one involved working with paints, water and bleach which all require a drying time before I could scan them and post them here.
Here are some of the results. Not all of them are equally succesful.
This one is done on a piece of my own handmade paper using a bottlecap (right) and bubble wrap (left) as stamp:

For this picture I used a tile composed of tiny pebbles, placed this under my sketchbook and did a rubbing with an oil pastel stick (right). At the left I used the same technique with bubble wrap (this one was not very succesful - bubble wrap give better results if you use them for stamping). Next step was to cover the paper with diluted paint. The oil pastel works as a resist for the paint. I like the irregular effect of the pebbles rubbing.

This sheet of paper has different try outs on it. Top right corner is (again) the stamping with the bottle cap. I had expected more texture showing when I did this stamping on the hand made paper, but there was not much difference. Bottom right is another oil pastel rubbing. This time over a woven metal basket. The two center pieces both have punchinella (sequin waste) as template. For the top one I used a Shiva paintstik (nice clear result), for the bottom one I used a brush and paint (more vague depending on how much paint was on the brush). The sample at the left is a pencil rubbing over a stamp. Using pencil I managed to get a soft almost airy effect.

This one is one of my favorites. It is build up using several techniques. First oil pastel stick was used, next layer was diluted water color paint. When this was dry I crumbled the paper, smoothed it again and added oil pastel. Because of the crumbling the oil pastel did not reach every part of the paper, a bit like a crackle effect).

For this sample I started again with an oil pastel covered with water color paint. The green and gold (Lumiere textile paint) was added on top of this. Final step was using a stamp with bleach. As you see some the Lumiere was not effected by the bleach, but the water color was.

For the next two samples I used printer paper. I sprayed the paper with water and applied diluted water color paint on it. Held the paper at an angle so that the paint could drip.  For some other project I had printed on them  and I really like the effect the partly visible characters give to the final result. For the first picture this was all I did.

For the next picture I took it a step further. I applied thick bleach over it and left it there for some 10-15 minutes before I rinsed the bleach of. As you can see, the bleach removed most of the water color paint. I love this paper!

The next 2 pictures are the front and the back of the same  (heavy sketchbook) paper. Again the paper was wet before I applied the water color paint on it. This time only a very dark green. Lifted it a bit so that the paint covered the whole sheet of paper and let it dry. On this paper I applied bleach as well and spread this out with a brush. Let it soak for about 15 minutes. I had expected much more color change at the front. What you see at the front is mainly a change to blue.

But if you look at the back, you see a break down of more different colors. I had hoped I would see the break down to yellow too at the front. Maybe I should have kept the bleach on the paper for a longer time? I like the result of this piece of paper so I am not going to do it with this particular piece, but I think I will do it again with another piece, cut it into pieces and apply bleach for different lenghts of time on it.

This picture is a combination of 3 different pieces of paper. Top right one is a sample of textured wall paper. I colored this with diluted paint and let it dry before I rubbed it with an oil pastel. The pastel colored only the higher surfaces of the wall paper. Top right is a piece of tissue paper with the same bottle cap printing. The result on the top of the tissue paper is the same as on regular sketchbook paper. However as the paper is thin, the stamping is partly visible on the back of the paper which can be interesting to use. The sample on the left is made from toilet paper. I wetted this paper and placed it (several layers thick) on top of a rubbing plate and let it dry there. Next step was to color it with diluted paint, again let it dry before I rubbed it with a Shiva paint stik. Same as with the wall paper only the higher surfaces got some paint stik on them.

Mark making, exercise 3

To be able to start this exercise I had to clean my studio tables first. Letting the wet sheets of paper dry requires space :-) and as I am working on several quilts at the same time, plus a weekend of atc's/apc's cluttered is the word which fitted best to how my tables looked.
This exercise is a repeat of exercise 1 but using a broader range of materials. Exercise 1 was using pensil only, which of course limits the color to one. With this exercise I could use the colors which - to me - are fitting to the words. For the word fast I used reddish colors. Top row from left to right: acrylic paint appliid with a thin stick - blunt oil pastel - sharp oil pastel. Bottom row: broad marker - inktense pencil with water - wet sponge with acrylic paint.

For slow I used relaxed green colors and wavy lines. Top row from left to right: blunt oil pastel - thin marker - wet sponge with Lumiere paint. Bottom row: wooden stick with Lumiere paint - blunt oil pastel - inktense pensil with water.

For hard I used bright dark colors. Top row from left to right: dry inktense pencil - acrylic paint using punchinella (sequin waste) as template - wet sponge with Lumiere paint (pressed with force onto the paper). Bottom row: blunt oil pastel - sharp oil pastel -wooden stick with print paint.  With all 6 samples I pressed with force and had the marker/pastel/stick at a high angle.

As you can see for the word soft I used very little pressure and light colors. Top row from left to right: wet sponge with Lumiere paint - paintstik rubbed from the template onto the paper - inktense pencil with water. Bottom row: blunt oil pastel - bubble wrap stamping with Lumiere paint - paint with almost dry brush.

For sharp I used thin (pointy) lines. Top row from left to right: sharp oil pastel - acrylic paint with thin wooden stick - writing pen. Bottom row: marker - Lumiere paint with stamp - inktense pencil with water. At this point I started to  get some contamination from the paper above and from the template I have been using all the time.

Delicate: soft colors and not much difference between the colors used. Top row left to right: inktense pencil with water - sharp oil pastel covered with diluted paint (to reduce the color difference between pastel and paper) - blunt oil pastel covered with pain. Bottom row: marker covered with diluted paint - wet sponge with mixture of colors - acrylic pain with almost dry brush.

To expresss bumpy better I either used 2 colors or a combination of thin/broad. Top row from left to right: wooden stick with 2 colors of Setacolor paint - brush with 2 colors of Setacolor paint - sharp oil pastel covered with paint. Bottom row: marker both blunt as well as fine tip - inktense pencil with water - sharp oil pastels in 2 colors.

 For smooth I used flowing lines. Top row from left to right: foam stamp with paint - mask with paintstik - brush (almost dry) with Lumiere paint. Bottom row: thin marker - wet sponge with paint - inktense pencil with water.

The most fitting color for sensuous is red :-). Top row left to right: acrylic paint with wet sponge (little pressure so that the markings of the sponge show best) - foam stamp with acrylic paint - wooden stick with acrylic paint (curvy lines). Bottom row: brush with acrylic paint - marker (blunt tip) - inktense pencil with water. With this word I used mainly curvy, rounded lines.

For the word sad I used - not surprisingly I guess - dark colors. Top row from left to right: marker both broad as well as fine tip - sharp oil pastel (multiple lines crossing each other) -wet sponge with paint this dried up lighter in color than I had expected). Bottom row: wooden stick with paint - thin stick with print paint - almost dry brush with paint.

And the last word for this exercise: happy. For this word I used different bright colors.  Top row from left to right: wooden stick with paint - marker (fine tip) - brush with acrylic paint. Bottom row: inktence pencil plus fine marker and water - blunt oil pastel covered with diluted paint (the dark spots are contamination from the stencil) - sharp oil pastels in 2 colors covered with diluted paint.

My conclusion is if I compare exercise 1 and 3 that the added colors and materials increase the range of expressions the markings can give. I had more fun with this exercise than with the one only using pencils.

Making marks, exercise 2

After I posted the previous exercise on this blog I realised that for all the mark makings I had used continuous line marks. This was not my intention, but apparently it just 'happened' as I do a lot of machine quilting. When I worked on the 2nd exercise I paid more attention to differentiation in the type of marks I made.
For this exercise I made 3 different areas of tone (light, medium and dark) using the same marks and the same pencil. Holding the pencil at a low angle and with little pressure creates light tones, putting more pressure on it and raising the angle the darker tones are the result.

 Some of the marks are so light that they hardly show. This is especially the case with the 1H and 2H pencils.

Making marks - Exercise 1

The first exercise is about making marks and how they look depending on what kind of pencil/marker you use and how you hold this pencil/marker. For each of the following words (fast - slow - hard - sharp - soft - delicate - bumpy - smooth - sensuous - sad - happy) I used the same pencils (1H, 7B and 4B), a Pritt Artist Pen Bold and an oil pastel (blunt and pointed/sharp side). Every time I used them in this order starting at the top left and ending at the bottom right. For each word I used the same type of marking.
For the first word fast I drew quickly lines from left to right. This is how the marks look like:

                                      

For the word slow I used circular lines holding the pencil loosely in my hand and writing with the side of the pencil:

For hard I held the pencil at an almost 90 degrees angle to the paper and pressed hard to make the (linear) marks. This is the first mark where the markings of 1H show. With the other words the lines were too light in color to show up in the scan.

With sharp again an almost 90 degrees angle for the pencil. The markings are not round but have sharp angles. As the Artist pen has a brushtype top, it was only possible to make the sharp angles by holding the pen very lightly so that only the top of the brush touched the paper.

For soft I held the pencils very loosely and the tip hardly touched the paper. As markings just light lines, no specific design. 

                                       

A similar position of the pencil for delicate in a curly design.

Bumpy is my favorite. Think about bumper cars on the fair :-). Pencil was held in an almost 90 degrees angle, only a light pressure on the pencil while drawing.

For the word smooth I used serpentine like lines, light pressure on the pencil.

For sensuous my lines were based (loosely) on the female shape. Intriguing this might be the effect commercials have on our thinking. I noticed that the design improved when I put a second layer over the original drawing. With pencil and oil pastel I could play a bit with the pressure so that the second layer really layed on top. With the ink brush pen this was not possible.

 With the word sad my mind makes connections with tears, bars, being locked in. This shows in my samples. The pencil was held in an almost 90 degrees angle and a lot of pressure was put on it while drawing.

 For happy I used open wavy lines. Pressure was light when drawing these

To me some of the words call for the same type of marks, like slow, soft, smooth, sensuous. I think that this is because the meaning of the words is not that much different (of course depending on where you are and how you use them). Does this make sense?

Bumpy and sharp are my favorites. To me they show a lot of action.