Making Marks in an expressive way - Exercise 1

I don't think I'm too bad at drawing. I'm no expert but it's usually obvious what I'm trying to draw. It was really difficult putting pencil to paper this time. Much harder than I expected it to be. If I actually thought about creating an image to convey 'happy', it's usually a smiley face or if the word is 'fast', well, it would be a car or a rocket ship. But this was (or so it seemed to me) about using pencil strokes on paper to try to convey the meaning of the word.

Given a choice of descriptive words to start me off and the first hour dragged. I think I expected to be able to just whip up a couple of images and was disappointed in myself for not being able to do that. Some words were definitely easier to draw. Sharp - easy, being someone who loves to sew, sharp to me, means pricked thumbs on a regular basis, sharp sharp needles! Happy was smiles, birds over water. Bumpy was a cobble stone path or pebbles on a beach.

I really struggled with slow. I tried drawing slowly and still couldn't get it. No one would look at those small blocks of pencil work, knowing that I had drawn slowly. I think I was trying to convey unmoving and still rather than slow. It was also difficult to show 'sad' as well. I've been sad and I tried to get some of the blackness across but also the criss-crossing of the marks to show some confusion which is often what I feel when I'm sad.

I attempted this again to see if any there were any other images floating around and I actually felt more confident with this attempt.

Exercise 2 involved using different types of pencils and use of pressure to give three different areas of tone. Going from light to dark and obviously the one in between. I really enjoyed doing this. Getting hold of supplies in Qatar can be anything from brilliant to awful so I was restricted to using the few 'B' types and a graphite pencil that I already had. I'm fully intending to do this again with some more grades and types, when I've been shopping again.

Exercise 3 - I had a blast! This was 2 hours of unadulterated fun, painting and stamping and colouring and smudging. Using various types of paper, a mix of chalks, pencils, paints and felt tip pens - watching the different effects of each combination. I can't remember having so much fun. It has definitely given me of an appreciation for experimentation. But I also found that once I could introduce colour and texture to my mark making, I was more able to try to convey what the words meant. At least to me.

I used standard drawing paper and a variety of pencils, pastels, chalks and paints. I've worked with acrylic paints before and like how they appear when very little water is used (or no water is used at all). I also took great pleasure in rooting through old paper bags, ripping the slightly smoother brown paper from a corrugated box. I find myself looking at everything now, with a new eye. Objects that I before, would have taken at face value, a paper bag that the deli put my cheese in or the box that we brought the bottles of wine back from the booze barn in, I now look at and can feel my brain ticking over and analysing them. Wondering what they feel like, trying to imagine what chalks would like on them.

It's very liberating as well, using different items to make the marks, scrunched up paper dipped in acrylics or a palette knive, an unravelled skein of embroidery thread (thanks Henry - our rescue dog) or the round lid from a paint tube.

Another benefit for me, was seeing the effect of my movements on the materials used, affected the outcome. Using a pastel pencil on a scrap of linen, caused the fabric to move, altering the line of the pastel. I knew that water based materials or a felt tip pen on kitchen towel would cause the colour to spread, it's size all depending on the amount of water used or the length of time I left the pen tip in contact. But these were all things I had forgotten.

The act of turning the colours and textures used, into the 'words' came a lot easier to me this time. Sensuous to me, means soft and pink or flesh toned, the curves of a body I suppose. Blue bubbles definitely convey happiness, memories of childhood and running around the garden with washing up liquid and water in a small plastic tube. I had, I think, the greatest success trying to make the marks of Sad or Fast.

Fast - well, that means speed, quickly, a blur fading to almost nothing. I also imagine lines, I don't know if that comes from a line on the road or the line of an airplane's vapour trail in the sky. Using the acrylics, straight from the tube, enabled me to give the texture and appearance of the line as I used a palette knife to flick across the paper. When it was dry, I liked being able to touch this as well. If I closed my eyes, did it convey 'fast'?

Sad or Sadness to me, has always meant a blackness, a scramble of emotions. I used the tangled skein of embroidery thread, dipped in black acrylic and then stamped onto the paper. Then, using the same thread (still with black paint on it) I dipped it into the scarlet. This was to show the anger that can sometimes be one of the emotions that are in the mix.

I think I mentioned earlier on, that 'Sharp' meant pain, too many needle injuries from embroidery or cross stitch. So red was always going to be the colour for that. Again, I was attracted to the acrylics and the pointed palette knife this time.

I have really enjoyed exercise 3. This has definitely opened my eyes to the difference that can be made, simply by the choice of paper/fabric and by the choice of mediums used. I was able to lose myself in this exercise for several hours but rather than feel that I had just wasted a few hours messing around with paints and pencil, I came away feeling that I had made powerful progress in my way of seeing things.

You can see all the images in larger scale on my flickr page