The colours and textures attracted me to the area of wall for my study, however it has quite a complex structure so I found identifying clear shapes (beyond uninteresting blobs) quite challenging; there are many different elements which make up the surface, and multiple fissures so it was difficult to decide what to focus on as positive shapes, and avoid straying off into the negative spaces between. In the end I decided to try and capture the essence of the wall, to represent it's basic structure and form by using the building materials (brick and stone) as the main shapes - but also incorporated some of the fissures in the large area of stone (bottom right) to help break up this 'block', and capture something of it's natural structure.
It's interesting that whilst working on this close study I have to keep reminding myself that this is a wall. The configuration of shapes and raised areas constantly makes me think of a bay surrounded by rocks, so I often find myself thinking of it as a landscape! When I went back to look at the wall recently, I was also surprised just how small this area is - I am so used to working on it at a larger scale.
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| Area of study |
I first made a print block using mount board treated with acrylic wax (to seal the surface) and then cut shapes from a self-adhesive foam sheet; once stuck down, I nibbled into the shapes with scissors to add some texture. I then created a page of repeat rubbings using a tinted graphite block, which was sealed with a fixing spray. I was pleased with the effect, which looks like a patterned fabric.
Next, I lightly sprayed the surface of the print block with water and applied representative areas of colour by rubbing Inktense blocks across the surface and block-printed as a repeat pattern into my sketchbook, re-wetting and re-colouring the block as necessary. When I created the print block I overlooked the fact that when printing, the image will of course be in reverse! I felt it created a pleasing pattern, though I prefer the rubbing.
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| The print block |
I used 150gsm black paper for the torn shapes and applied them to a sketchbook page using acrylic medium. This took quite some time to do, because of my struggle with identifying meaningful shapes in the composition and bringing those together so that the final piece was representative. If I have time, I may do some interpretive, simple pencil line sketches to capture an idea of the network of patterns created by the fissures across the area, as I think these are interesting. This was a productive exercise and I was happy with the outcome......in the end!
Exercise 3 - stick and ink drawing
This was an attempt to capture the fissures using a free way of drawing, with a wooden skewer dipped in ink. I first prepared the page with a layer of gesso to introduce some texture the surface. I enjoyed the method but wasn't thrilled with the outcome and I'm not sure how helpful it will be - but I'd like to do some more stylised, interpretive sketches to try and capture these better - perhaps as part of the design stage.
I did however make some lovely dimensional spirals by laying the inky skewer on it's side and twirling (the skewer!) while dragging it downwards - an accidental discovery while cleaning it on a piece of rough paper.
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| Accidental spirals |
Exercise 4 - recoloured photograph
I also recoloured a photograph of the area in Word, creating a 'negative' image, which highlights the high points and lighter surface areas of the wall. The image can be seen in the top photograph (unfortunately I'm unable to attach it to my blog independently). The textural patterns are very interesting and could be explored further as part of the design stage.
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