Sketchbook: Module 1 Chapter 4: Coloured Papers

Introduction

It's so frosty outside today I've had to resort to tea and crumpets to keep me on track. I've finally decided to draw Chapter 4 to a close. I was getting to the stage where I was definitely going into other places and well away from the subject of this chapter...but it's been fun and I've learnt a great deal, even being able to bring elements of colour wash into my own work in the form of mosaics!

In general before I start a project or chapter I tend to mentally plan things out and do preparatory sketches and notes. This chapter therefore started off as a bit of a challenge as colour washes are by nature done very quickly. I found I wasn't able to mix colours quite as I wanted and dots and daubs on the paper weren't to my liking. I discovered I really loved doing colour washes allowing the colours to run together. Spots I also enjoyed. Exercises with clingfilm were fantastic and I also tried out sprinkling salt fine grains and flakes, but by that stage I realised I was moving on somewhere quite different. I also tried out resists and really got a great deal out of this.

I worked with a variety of water soluble (?) paints including:

Acrylics - I started off with these but didn't like the effect much. However undiluted acrylic and clingfilm was marvelous;
Watercolours in tubes. Absolutely great and I started off by making a colour wheel or two for myself;

Inks - This was the first time I've used inks and I really loved them. They have a beautiful jewel like clarity and mix sumptuously. I found that inks and clingfilm created a shiny surface;
Caran D'ache Neocolours. I have been using these as my staple for colouring fabric for a couple of years and enjoyed them in this exercise but found they were not as useful as expected;
Inktense sticks - beautiful colours but a little grainy with no luminosity.
Graphitone pencils - I only just remembered getting these with a job lot of Derwent pencils. Very interesting and took me well off the path, and I'll definitely look into these further.

My Initial ideas about what might possibly be achieved - a little optimistic at best and off the remit probably

I only had access to white lightweight and heavier watercolour paper and some tissue. If you would like me to look in particular at certain kinds of paper I can order some and revisit as directed.