Wednesday 24 November 2010

Day 15 in the haberdashery house…

Ok, so have decided to ditch working in pencil for a bit, as I seem to work better in coloured pencils and other media. Got my first bit of inspiration from something other than a magazine or a work of art, so decided to play with it a while:

1.      Quick sketch of a sunset – done in oil pastels, with silhouetted trees (just like the real thing). Very quick sketch, and the oils range I have wasn’t quite enough to really capture the vibrant colours (best sunset I’ve seen since we moved here a year ago). So I thought I would try something else with this scene…
2.      Same sunset, but with Tissue paper and black card. I saw bundles of the stuff for 79p a packet (10 large sheets per packet), so I got some, then hey presto, the sunset beckoned. It was fun randomly playing around with the effect of overlaying the translucent colours, and lends itself so obviously to layering organza, so there is a possibility this could be translated into a project piece…
3.      Just for fun, I found some glaze and decided to go with the opposite effect. I drew the outline of the scene with the glaze, waited a couple of days for it to set, then did a watercolour wash over the top. Once dry, I cleared the excess paint off the glaze, and the effect was quite nice. I imagine it is not far off a wax resist print effect, so again, could provide inspiration for a transfer to fabric.

Collecting

I have now collected some materials for the course. I have a selection of muslin, linen, cotton, velvet, poly cotton, net, and a very interesting rubber non-slip material that looks very much like counted embroidery canvas. I find that I have to have the materials generally in order to find inspiration, so am looking forward to working with them. I also have some silk and voile. I have some fabric paints, drawing inks and acrylic inks. I have tried them out on paper, but yet to see what they do on fabric. The cotton is going to be very handy, as I have enough to try out all sorts of dyeing techniques. I have researched the careers and works of Vanessa Bell, Paul Klee, Picasso and Van Gogh as well. Bell, I find intriguing, although I only actually like one of her works, Klee I have always liked, Van Gogh I have never understood (and am unlikely to, Starry nights and Kinetics aside), but Picasso is a revelation. Before I add this work to the blog, I need to work out how to acknowledge the Bridgeman Education website, before I breach every copyright law in the world.

I have created a couple of paintings purely in trying out my new acrylic inks (pearlescent, and lovely to work with), and my drawing inks (equally lovely on watercolour paper). There is something about each new material that inspires a new idea. I have tried to keep up my sketchbook, but so far, husband and cat pictures are very uninspiring. Husband looks like a 60 year old Van Gogh (he is only 30), and cat looks decidedly unfinished. I seem to do better on loose sheets of paper.

Monday 1 November 2010

Mark making

I have embraced the first exercise in mark making. Picking words to depict as pencil marks is interesting. How I reacted to the words was interesting: 'Soft' and 'hard' seemed easy ones until I tried them. In the end, I reacted with the most interest to 'delicate' and 'sensuous'. The latter ended with two completely different representations, one using the end of a round stick of compressed charcoal which almost seems to melt into the paper as I roll it around randomly, and the other a  weave of rounded lines. Both completely different, but still made me react in the same way: I wanted to reach into the paper and touch them. So now I am thinking about how that would translate into fibre, and I haven't even got to the mixed media element of the mark making. Oddly, 'Sharp', I found really difficult. In theory this sounds obvious, but trying to take that onto the page was not. I shall have another go at that. I am going to have a go at some other words: rigid, fluid, agitated, opaque, translucent, shimmering, vibrant. I have also started looking at other artists. Franz Marc was a revelation. I had never heard of him and instantly connected with his work. I think I shall have a detailed look at him. I set up a slide show within the Bridgeman Education website, and realised afterwards that the majority of the pictures use really bright, mainly primary colours. I also chose some very 'organised' work, with lots of angles and straight lines, but generally it was all abstract. Generally, when I visit galleries, I like sculpture and all manner of art, so I  think perhaps I have my textile thinking cap on, and I am thinking what is practical in terms of textiles that I could replicate. Anyway, I am gradually building up my stock of supplies now, but am rather lacking on the fabrics (lots of fur fabric from my foray into bear making, but that's about it!). Time to cut up some single bed sheets and see what else I can forrage....