I made detailed study of the part of the wall which first drew my attention to this particular area, because of the lovely rusty colours in the stone contrasting with the dark blue-black lichen (Collema Crispum - common on calcareous rocks, walls and old mortar, especially in shaded places). This is the photograph I used:
For this piece I first treated the paper with white Gesso, allowing textural brush marks to remain, and worked over the top with many layers of oil pastel, blending and rubbing with my fingers as I worked. I then drew into the pastel using a sharp graphite pencil to add fissures in the rock and surface detail to the dark areas of lichen. Finally, I used more Gesso and crumbled Inktense blocks to add the white and yellow lichen. The photograph used as reference is included opposite my drawing.
Here are some close up photographs to show some of the surface detail described above.
Ideas/thoughts for textile work:
- Possibly dyed/rusted layers of scrim as a base
- Lichen: blue-black - dense stitching using a variegated thread/yarn - consider tightly packed french knots
- Lichen: yellow and white - this has a more open texture and needs to have a stronger texture -overlaid long arm cross stitch?
- Couch fine threads for fissures?
- Could also use free machine stitching techniques - but I'm not confident with this yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment