Bones

September 2015

When preparing fabric pieces for my final piece (a fabric vase for Assignment 5 of Textiles 1: A creative approach), I started to feel that priming the natural linen with white fabric paint was some reminiscent of dipping bandaged in plaster of Paris ready to make a cast for a fractured limb.

The fabric seemed to take on a “chalkiness” which reminded me of bone. It also reminded me of the work of Katarzyna Coleman (Admiralty Road 1 and Admiralty Road 2, 2012), which I had seen at the OCA study visit to the “Reality” exhibition of modern and contemporary British painting. The construction lines visible through the paint, and the partial coverage of the paint over the canvass gave her work a sense of atmosphere and movement.

I decided to take a scrap of fabric and use the paint to make a sketch. My fabric remnant was not large enough to include the whole femur. Some of the fabric paint I used neat, some I watered down to get different tones in the drawing.

I love the texture of the fabric, the paint (in different states of being watered down) and the graphite lines showing through. I tried to emphasise the curvature of the bone, by painting in some of the background negative space. I would like to take this idea further and make more ‘bone drawings’, maybe of animal skulls or limb bones, and paint them in this way.

 

 

 

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Sketch of my son asleep

October 2015

Watching my son asleep and very still, I had the idea that I would be able to sketch him. I produced this drawing using a watercolour pencil on Khadi paper.

I am pleased with the texture of the marks and spontaneity of the drawing. What pleases me most is that people who have seen it have commented that it is a good likeness. Thinking back to a year ago there is no way that I would ever have been able to produce a drawing like this. I feel encouraged to continue to practice learn.

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Some coastal inspired sketches

October 2015

I decided that I would like to make a ‘coast-inspired’ theme book – things like boats, estuaries, fishing nets, rudders and sea-shores, nick nacks found during beach-combing, lighthouses, container ports and such like! Living near the East coast there is lots of inspiration.

I decided to take a trip to Aldeburgh, where there are fishing huts and small fishing boats on the beach which cast out daily to catch cod, lobsters, crabs and flatfish. I was slightly disappointed with my initial drawings and I’m not sure that I shall include them in my theme book. The boats proved very difficult (perspective) and I wished that I’d bought my picture plane, which I think could have given me some valuable assistance on this occasion (I have been following Betty Edwards book “Drawing on the right side of the brain”).

This boat was particularly difficult to draw, not least because I was sitting on the beach looking up at it. The curved hull and lines of paint made it difficult to get the perspective, and the relative proportions of the length of the hull to the width of stern were also tricky given the effects of foreshortening. I would like to try this sketch again! Top right is a seagull – a separate sketch to fill a blank space (I think I had already lost my confidence somewhat by this point).

 

This is a view up Aldeburgh beach across a steep shingle bank looking up at the Victorian houses and hotels. A fishing boat which has just reached shore and is being hauled onto the shingle. I filled the foreground with some seagulls.

The fishing boat had been dragged up the beach and the fishermen were unloading their catch. There was a lot of detail in the scene and it was difficult to make a quick sketch. 

Some rope strung with rubber buoys was strewn across the shingle. I was interested in the way that the ‘doughnut-like’ circles juxta-positioned. The seagull is not my best attempt.

I tried to capture complexity of nets, rubber bouys and ropes.

Another fishing boat, this time bold, bright turquoise, red and white, and some rusty anchors in the foreground, half buried in the shingle. They were large (probably about 4 feet across). I would have liked more time to capture the colour and texture of the rusty surfaces.

 

A much more pleasing sketch of a whelk shell collected from Dunwich beach which was drawn at home in the tranquility of my workroom. It is a single shell viewed from different angles.

Conclusion:

The coast is a wonderful and varied subject and I will probably continue and challenge myself to produce some sketches which I feel are good enough to include in a theme book. It has surprised me in the past that sketches I didn’t like became ‘acceptable’ (in my own mind), even ‘valuable’ and ‘worthwhile’ when included in a themed book. Something magical and inspirational seems to happen when a collection of drawings is assembled in meaningful order.

 

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September sketchbook challenge and others

17 Sept 2015

This collection includes a few sketches which I completed in the last two weeks of the school summer holidays and into September. Some of these were put forward as part of the “September sketchbook challenge”, a Facebook event created by ex. OCA Textiles student representative Miriam Ward on the page “Sketchbooks and Experiments for Textiles”. The idea is to encourage participants to sketch daily (although it is just for fun and there is no problem if you miss the odd day (or even decide not to continue). I managed until mid-Sept, when I was involved in a textile exhibition.

Some old cottages in Dedham, Essex.

Some poppy seed pods in a vase at a pub.

I sketched this man as he was eating his picnic at Duxford. The focus is almost equally on the hod and jacket.

I sketched my boots in charcoal. I pleased with the boot in the foreground, but the perspective is wrong on the one behind.

I met up with “East Anglia Extreme” (my local OCA student group) at Loddon church, and I sketched this internal door and surrounding plasterwork.

 

A negative image study of some clematis and bamboo leaves from my garden. This could maybe be used as part of a screen print?

Not my favourite image (or subject) – the rear of a car parked in front of me. I was trying to capture the reflections in the rear window and also the partial view looking through.

 

I made this sketch with graphite and watercolour pencils during a walk across fields near my home. It depicts a broad-bean field just after the harvest with all the dead broken stems still in situ. The colours and subject matter reminded me of the work of Anselm Kiefer.

I sketched the cliffs and some abandoned fishing nets, boats and fishing huts at Dunwich beach, Suffolk. What I find most difficult is to capture the texture and colour of the pebbles. I think I will have to look for a new approach, maybe by examining how other artists have captured these surfaces.

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Out and about in Hamburg

Aug 2015

I short break in Hamburg gave an opportunity for some informal skeching. I tried to make at least one sketch each day.

I sketched my son’s feet with water-soluable graphite, as he knealt on the floor to construct a Lego toy. It was difficult because he changed position every few seconds! An interesting exercise with some results more sucessful than others.

A sketch of the small lake, Hamburg in pencil and only A6, so not much detail was possible!

Looking down from my hotel room, I sketched figures as they walked along the pavement, and as they paused for a pedestrian crossing. The hotel was opposite the main station so there was lots of people traffic.

 

Hamburg has a new building which will house the philharmonica. It is not finished yet and is set to hugely overspend. It is an interesting structure because the windows each have individual panes of glass. They look like bubbles (a bit like the old fashioned panes on hand-blown glass on very old windows). Each is unique and reflects light differently.

I wasn’t satisfied that I had captured the light well on the sketch of the whole building, so I made a close-up. Very difficult! and I feel that I still haven’t done it justice.

 

Another tiny sketch – A6, of a man in a cafe.

Warehouse balcony opposite the Minature Winderland.

A hurried sketch of Hamburg main station (Haupbahnhof), A6.

This final sketch is a partrait of my son at the airport on the way home. I used charcoal pencil and didn’t have a fixative, so unfortunately it’s rather smudged.  

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Sketches from the Norwich puppet theatre

7 August 2015

I visited Norwich puppet theatre for a 3-day summer childrens’ workshop which my son was attending. 

What a remarkable place! Housed in a converted church it consists of a theatre and stage, and reception areas full of vintage puppets of all types.

I had about half an hour and made numerous quick sketches:

 

Thinking about presentation, I’m wondering whether I should remove these sketches from the A6 book and stick them in a larger sketchbook along with colour samples and maybe even fabric swatches to remind me of the materials the puppets were made from.

Finally I also sketched the lady on the refreshment desk!

I’m quite please that I am finally able to make ‘free’ gestural quick sketches. The marks are a lot more spontaneous and interesting and I hope this will give a new dimention to my textile work.

 

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Experimentation with surfaces and textures

3 August 2015

Below are a couple of experimental papers which I made, basically to test out different surface effects and use up dyes/tissues which would otherwise have been thrown away.

First is an abstract pattern which I made on smooth 230gsm A1 cartridge paper. I had previously done some dye colour mixing work on paper, to get to know how the Procion dyes behaved before committing to cloth. This colourful work was made with the leftover dye and now hangs in my studio.

Working with a large piece of paper was exciting. I placed it on the floor, first made a wash with the dilute yellow dye.  Before it was dry, I used a pipette to drip on additional colours one at a time. Finally I sprinkled on dishwasher salt crystals to get extra pattern. This patterning technique could equally have been used on a piece of pre-mordanted cloth.

Secondly, I had accumulated and saved (I am learning to horde!) lots of dye stained kitchen towel which had been used for wiping down brushes and surfaces during Procion dyeing. They reflected the projects that I was working on and were individually quite different in colour.

I first used PVA glue diluted with water to stick the paper towels onto some thick A3 cartridge paper. This gave a crinkled surface.  Once dry, I then ‘unified’ the surface by applying a dilute coloured wash of yellow paint. I then dipped a cocktail stick in Indian ink and dripped and trailing the ink over the surface. Finally, once dry, I rubbed the surface with dry Derwent Inktense stick (blue), which highlighted the rough, raised parts of the surface. I left this dry and did not apply any more water.

Although I don’t think that this paper would be smooth enough for sketching, it does make an interesting surface for stitching or collage work.

 

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An aquilegia drawing

3 August 2015

I made this watercolour pencil sketch of aquilegias in my garden. I had intended to post a series of garden flower drawings together in one post, but never got around to making any more.

 

For the drawing, I used one of my pre-prepared papers. This one was cartridge paper onto which newspaper had been stuck using PVA glue diluted with water. Once dry, I washed it over with watered-down acrylic paint.

I am pleased with the added interest and texture that I have created using the patterned background. I think the result would have been better had the sketch been more tonal – difficult because the flowers were pale coloured and the background very patterned. I used quite a lot of white watercolour paint on top of the pencil sketch and this has helped to soften the image and give a more natural feel to the petal texture.

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A study of negative shapes

30 July 2015

A quick sketch of some reeds whilst I was waiting to collect my son from a wildlife activity day at Lackford Lakes nature reserve.

I used a background paper which I had previously prepared – rubbed over with a household wax candle, then washed with pink acrylic paint.

I sketched using graphite pencil. Then when I got home, I added some detail with water-soluble graphite, and picked out the negative shapes with watercolour pencil. By outlining in pink, I experimented with changing the colour. I liked the fact that I was able to emphasise certain curves more than others my darkening or lightening the shading and varying it’s width.

 

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Fifth portraiture class – 1 July 15

1 July 15

The model Beth, did several poses of about half and hour each. She is challenging to draw because she has strong features and it is difficult to capture this without making her appear too masculine.

I tried to get different effects. One main lesson I learned today was to have the easel in an upright position. I worked with the sketch pad on my lap, and when I help the drawing up, it looked elongated and squashed. In effect when on my lap I was seeing the picture in perspective and it appeared correct.

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