Sketches and a gift

Sketching took a bit of a back seat as the Christmas period was very busy but I did manage to get a few sketches done. I'm trying to add other things to the images along with the sketches, like small scraps of fabric in combinations that might work if I decide to use the sketches as a base for a piece of textile work.

The photograph was taken on the 8th of September as we were driving back from Ythanbank in Aberdeenshire. I always love to see the large round bales on the hills and in the fields and looking back at my sketches, I am surprised that I focused instead on the textures of the trees.

We've recently welcomed a new niece into the family, a little girl born on the 22nd of December who I decided to make something for instead of a store bought card. After several sketches of storks with nappy wrapped babies, I settled on balloons instead. I'm not sure that the colours have been reproduced very well in the photos but it's a watercolour image on heavy watercolour A4 sized paper. I used a mix of water soluble pencils and watercolours. I felt that the pencils gave me a little more control over the depth and range of colours used.

I'm really happy with the finished painting, I'll be adding a label with the baby's details on as I would hate to make a monumental mistake directly onto the image.

I have really enjoyed the last few days working on this, although it has been frustrating at times. I feel a bit of my artistic mojo creeping back.

Project 5 - Painting and Printing on Fabric - Silk Painting

Let me first start by saying that I have NEVER painted on silk before. I didn't even realise that I needed a frame to hold the silk taut. It has just been something that has never appealed to me, mainly because my only experience of painted silk had been garish scarves covered with bright flowers. Once you put 'silk painting' into Google, you will see plenty of that, however you will also see some amazing images created by very talented artists. It opened my eyes to what is achievable with silk paints.

I'm still going with the honeycomb pattern as I like how it has developed since those early sketches. When I used the watercolours to create the initial image, the small cells started to look like very strange landscapes as seen from the inside as opposed to the original context of cells filled with larvae or honey. I wanted to build upon this with the silk painting as I knew that the qualities that the paints had, would give another level entirely.

The first attempt was quite good in my opinion, it was really just about using the materials and getting used to how they worked in my hand. I realised that in places, I hadn't used the gutta effectively and that the colour started to bleed.

The salt that is intended for silk painting use, didn't give me the effect I really wanted for this piece. It was far more grainy than coarse sea salt for example. I made the cells quite big and the 'alien' landscape that I was trying to convey actually looked more like the original drawings.

For my next attempt, I was a lot more patient. I allowed the gutta to dry overnight rather than attempting to paint when it was still damp. I also took a lot more time placing the grains of salt to make sure that it wasn't just a haphazard sprinkle.

Initially, the hexagon outlines were in a very pale yellow similar to the one used in the first attempt. however when I had finished the cells, I felt that they needed to be lifted more. So I used a brown and black mix of paint which I feel, framed the cells and gave the image more of a 3D effect. 

This is definitely a medium I can see myself using in future work, I like the way the paints work together but I know I will need a lot more practice. Hence the the dark cell, as that is what happens when you are careless and drip where you don't want to!

Project 5 - Printing & Painting on fabric

It's been a long time since I've done any kind of printing and I think that was with a potato when I was in Primary school or with one of those little printing sets I got one Christmas.

I decided to go with one of the sketches I have done from the honeycomb set, this was one of the earliest sketches I did and I was actually very pleased with the way that the bee turned out.

I chose to focus on the honeycomb that you can see I coloured in. The next step for me was to choose a printing material that I would feel comfortable with. I have never tried lino block cutting before and it took several attempts to get an image that I thought looked anything like the honeycomb. I found the traditional lino block very difficult to use and tried using a much softer type of lino cut. This had a definite advantage in that I didn't have to exert too much pressure on the cutter to get the shape or lines although I had to be careful not to mark any of the areas that I wanted to keep in the print, as the softness of the lino would definitely have been affected. I'm also printing these on paper with printing ink to get an idea of what they look like before I take the step of printing onto fabric.

I was disappointed that some of the lines in the outer segments weren't raised enough to leave a print so decided to try again.

As you can see, I tried repeating the pattern. I'm going to have a couple more attempts at the lino cut before I make a decision which one to try on fabric although I actually prefer the second one, above. 

Looking for Shapes & Drawing

Whilst I was reviewing some of my sketch and photo resources for the next stage - 'Developing Design Ideas' - I realised that I actually have very little in the way of sketches. I had been trying to make more of a conscious effort to draw but I know I set my own standards too high. I either want it to be a perfect representation of what I'm trying to draw or it's not good enough to show anyone or use. Again, I've been making a conscious effort to change that aspect of my approach as well.

Recently we went to the Embellished exhibition at Provost Skene's House in Aberdeen and I took quite a few photos of objects that were not in the exhibition itself, including one of a horses skull. I'm not sure why this particular object interested me and if I'm honest I don't think I even intended to ever use it, however when I was trying to decide what to sketch next, this was the one I chose.

Then I chose a section of the image using the viewing frame.

Oil Pastels

Watercolours

Watercolour close-up

I definitely feel more confident about my sketching now whether I think it's good enough or not. I am very much looking forward to developing my design ideas as prints or sewn projects.

Project 4 Stage 2 - Looking for shapes and drawing

Exercise 2

Exercise 3

Project 4 Stage 2 - Looking for Shapes and Drawing

Exercise 1

"Take the image you most enjoyed working with from your viewing frame. Make 3 quick drawings, to set down different aspects of the marked off area"

Project 4 Stage 2 - Looking for shapes and drawing

A section of honeycomb

Bouganvillia and Papaya leaves 

Coloured dust blown from hand in festival.

Oil Pastels

Watercolours

Thing fragments of cut card

Project 3 - Colour -

Stage 1 Introduction and Preparation

I'd always known about primary colours and secondary colours. I'd never even thought of tertiary colours and if I had, I wasn't aware that's what they were called. Or even what combinations were needed to make those. To me, greys were usually made by mixing black and white or browns were made by generally mixing together several colours if a ready made brown wasn't available.

This section has taught me how to see colour differently for sure. Where I might call a colour 'intense' or 'vivid' I now know the word for that is 'Saturation'. I also know that 'Unsaturated' refers to those smoky colours, the muddier and more greyed down colours.

I'm not confident with colours. I'm that person who goes for an eye test and is worried whether I'm giving the correct answer when they ask me to say which is brighter - the green or the red? I love bright and vivid colours although if I look in my wardrobe, it contains mainly slimming black. When I have created pieces of art in the past, I have always gone for the bold reds or blues. Subtlety is not a word to describe anything I have flung at a canvas.


Stage 2 - Colour Perception - Exercise 1

I'm not sure that the photographs will show colours effectively but I think they still convey a little of what I saw when I looked at my colour compositions. Above, using the red square make the backgrounds seem much darker overall, than they are. This in turn makes the background colours seem cold to me.

Using the yellow squares brought out a lighter background shade overall...to me anyway. Almost like warmer hues.

In all honesty, I'm not even sure what I think of the grey squares. What I actually see, is a darker edge around the grey, so that on the green square, there appears to be a darker green edge around the grey. With the purple square, there is a darker purple edge around the grey and so on.