Raising the Surface (M4, Chpt6)

There are lots of interesting - and challenging - things that can be done with paper to raise the surface. I've looked at the following areas for this chapter: folding, piercing, cutting, embossing, weaving and layering. I'm particularly drawn to layering and although I didn't really investigate this thoroughly, I will make a more detailed study of this technique, maybe for the last chapter in the module.

I used various weights of paper throughout this chapter: standard weight printing paper for 'folding'; tracing and layout paper for 'piercing'; 220gsm for 'embossing'; 120gsm for 'weaving'; pastel board for 'cutting'; layout and 120gsm for layering.

Folding

The surface of the paper can be raised without going into the world of origami, and a simple sheet of paper can become something more architectural and structural with pleats and folds.

I tried out some simple folds:

Mountain and valley folds evenly sized

Alternating depth of mountain and valley folds:

Step pleat:

Pleating and folding paper:

Parabolic folds

Can be twisted in various ways:

Tessellated folds: this took quite some time to work out but was worth the effort.

Piercing

This was a remarkably rewarding exercise. I started by trying out different thicknesses of piercing tools:

Varying intensity of piercing:

Some simple writing

Patterns:

An attempt at something more depictive. Using different size of piercing as part of the process:

Embossing

This can be done with a press. I put various collograph (made for earlier chapters) and lino cut boards through the press without ink:

String print board made for M3

Collograph with threads of varying thickness

Linocut

Linocut

Weaving

I wasn't enormously taken with this but made two examples:

Cutting

Lots of things to try out here:

from a lower angle

Layering

This is a logical continuation of cutting. I think I may have used this technique in the past for resolving design issues for embroidery:

Drawing design and initial cutting

Removing cut pieces and placing on another sheet of paper, then adding a few cut out flowers to raise the surface even more.

Layering sheets of paper on top of each other is a really exciting way to make illustrations and paper designs. I made a really simple design and will definitely take this forwards in the future, spending more time on introducing supports between each layer to help with the depth of layering and also trying out different types of paper.

1st layer

2nd layer

3rd layer

4rth layer

Drawing with Colour (M4, Chpt5)

Introduction

I'm not entirely certain that I got to the bottom of what was really being asked for here despite trying out various water soluble and non water soluble mediums; however I did have good fun attempting this exercise.

Deciding to continue with the theme of flowers, I bought some interesting flowers with various forms and made three colour drawings/pictures. I also continued to do some observational drawing from life and these are appended at the bottom. I have no idea what any of these flowers are called.

Drawing 1

I used Caran D'ache watercolour pastels for this exercise. I think I went a bit too heavy on the colour which was then a little difficult to rectify: 

Preliminary drawing - free hand

Trying out a sample flower head, no pencil, only colour:

So far so good. I decided to forgo the black background which seemed a little dark for these flowers and went instead for a dark blue. I had picked up from the notes (erroneously I think) to start with the dark colour first, which was a stupid mistake on my part. So I went in a filled in the background before doing the flowers - I did not repeat this mistake again:

Adding the flowers in colour:

I was already having to play with the background by this stage, wetting then layering additional colour, blotting out as much of the blue as possible

I was quite relieved when the whole thing was completed. I relied on white crayon to lift the background and it also gave a sense of vigour that helped rescue this piece:

Drawing 2:

This was undertaken with water soluble and non water soluble colouring pencils. I enjoyed this particular drawing even though the flower head posed lots of problems for me and I didn't really get the light in the open flower head.

Initial drawing was scaled up to help me understand the flower head, but everything was sketched quickly

I'm sorry, no working details:

Drawing 3:

This is a magnificently exotic looking flower and it was exciting to work with. I worked with a base of neocolur ii, used lightly then gone over with water, then I went over with non water soluble colouring pencil for definition and detail. I finally went over with white gouache to pick out where the light caught the flower. I think this was the most successful technique and I'll try and use it again.

Preliminary sketched done free hand:

Trying out oranges and using neocolour ii lightly first:

Getting stuck in 

Daily drawings:

Varied success here, kept to flowers as above which was quite a challenge. The first drawing I forgot my half hour time rule and just continued to draw. It's the same flower I used for the first colour drawing:

Drawing 2

Drawing 3

Some other exotic thing from the flower shop