Developing Drawings (M4 Chpt 8)

The aim here was to continue trying out and developing drawing ideas, in  particular with colour and pattern. It was a good opportunity to try out some ideas I omitted in chapter 5, try out something completely new and revisit other ideas from previous chapters and modules

I started out with a few observational drawings of new flowers I thought I might incorporate into ideas for my final chapter in this module.

Orchid: drawn from life. In the final analysis I didn't use the orchid. It was a little too complex for this exercise, but I might come back to it for chpt 10.

Crocosmia, from the garden (also incidentally one of my favourite flowers)

Developing drawings


Seaweed
I first revisited the seaweed I'd drawn for chapter 2. I took one piece of the seaweed and made a template:

I turned the seaweed template three times to make a circular pattern. Then used colouring pencils and really went for this in a quite rough style:

I then went over the whole thing with three layers of watercolour washes. I'd neglected to try this with my earlier drawings. I wasn't entirely happy with the final outcome, possibly down to a poor choice of background colour:

I put this through the photo edit to see if it could be improved:

Tulips

I love tulips, simple, silky and seductive. I made a quick drawing and then made a template of a single tulip stem. I forgot to take pictures of course:

I coloured the tulips in with wax crayons then went over with water colour wash in strong red purple colours. I really quite like this

Then I tried out a new idea. Wax crayons, watercolour and gold acrylic ink. I was looking for an overlay of gold, like gilding rubbed off (?). It was hard to photograph this piece. I think this idea is worth taking forward and I can see something along the lines of Japanese chrysanthemum on a gold background developing from this...….

Old and new ideas

I went back a few modules for this idea. I got out some newspaper, cut it up, stuck it on some paper applied gesso in a rough way so the newspaper wasn't entirely covered and then set about drawing the crocosmia I sketched earlier. I went over this in biro, working around the outside of the sketch in cross hatching - leaving some of it intentionally without shading. Then applied a layer of gloss medium to seal the whole thing. I really liked this idea:

This piece reminded me of how I had used scraffitto for my 'scraffitto city' in chapt 4, so I had a go at using scraffitto as background shading. I think it could prove useful in creating a quite ominously dark background, if I used black paper as a base:

Using Stencils

I've not tried this technique before but I really liked it. I made some leaf shapes on paper and cut these out so that I could use both the stencil shape and what was left behind:

I firstly used the base and built up layers of watercolour, brushing through the base. I love this idea. It would work well as a base for an illustration or to draw focus, work as a frame, to the main drawing:

Next time, I'll make the stencil base out of something more substantial and varnish it so it can withstand being used multiple times:

Then I turned my attention to the individual stem shapes. These I layered up with wax and watercolour:

It lacked oompf, so I worked over one corner with biro to add clarity and depth:

Then went over the berries and paler leaves to lift those a little:

I only did that corner, and was quite happy to leave it there, however I'll definitely revisit this idea:

Returning to an old theme

Right at the start in Module 1 we were asked to paint a lemon half in light layers of watercolour. I was going to return to the lemon and try out all the different techniques we had covered in this module, however I somehow lacked the enthusiasm required. However; it did occur to me I could have a go at intaglio printing, which is like drawing and it would enable me to revisit tonal drawing with a bit of a difference. I used 3mm Perspex and a Japanese fine point for this:

I photographed and quartered the image, then adhered it firmly to a surface and attached a small sheet of Perspex to it:

The print before inking:

Inked up:

The print:

I've now got lots of ideas to take forward for my altered book.

Altered Books (M4 Chpt 7)

I found a number of ways to make alterations to books: folding pages, drawing over pages, pop up pages and altering the book either through cutting through the pages or building on the surface of the page. Although the main aim of this chapter was to simply look at ideas I found it impossible to resist the lure of doing a little book altering myself.

Working over text:

Lots of really good ideas for this on the internet either leaving various bits of text visible or simply using the page as a basis for drawing:

Despite not really doing much with this idea in module 2, I was encouraged to have a go this time round with a little more enthusiam:

A particularly steamy page merited flames

Folded Pages

I found some beautiful sophisticated approaches to folding (and cutting I expect) pages. However didn't have the patience to work through an idea at this time:

I think these last two examples are quite beautiful and may have a go at the idea when I've figured out how the folds really work.


Pop up
Lots of really good things here ranging from the simple to the complex. I had a quick go at this because it was impossible to resist the temptation:

Having a go:

Quick drawing pencil then ink and washed over:

Then using tabs to adhere to page

Three dimensional and cutting into books: 

I love this!!!!!

This is fantastic

Had a very quick go at this, with plenty of ideas to come back to and do something more complex. A YouTube video was most useful in explaining the technique: I made a three layer cut, working from the base forwards and using mount card in between layers to make sure not to cut through the original layers (I worked that bit out myself - fortunately not the hard way). I left 4 - 6 pages clear in between each layer to give a lift to each layer, although I think more layers are necessary the closer you come to the foreground of your design.