Project 1 – Feeling and Expression
Exercise 1 – Warm Up. Temporary Drawings
22.4.19
- Decorated Easter Eggs
This comprised spraying shaving foam onto a print tray and dropping drops of acrylic ink into it and mixing it around, creating swirls and patterns with two different colours.
This is a video of the process.
A hard boiled egg was then rolled in it and it was allowed to dry in the sunshine. The mousse evaporated leaving a somewhat furry effect texture on the egg. This was lightly rubbed off. A paper print was taken of the mixture on the printing plate.
The exercise was repeated with 3 colours, a different egg and another print.
These eggs were then used for an Easter egg roll. The decorated egg gets smashed with that activity and the temporary art is destroyed.
2. Pouring Sand
Sand was poured onto a sheet of paper, in the vague shape of a snail. Real shells were used to redraw the shell of the snail. This was then blocked in with sand.
Grass effects then covered the snail until it disappeared. The remaining image was then rubbed out with my hands and a simple snail redrawn with a finger.
This is a video of the process
3. Drawing in clay
Various tools were selected to draw and mark make a human figure image and some textures.
This ‘drawing’ impressed into the clay was then erased and the surface primed again for a second drawing which used different drawing instruments and textures.
This is a video of the process.
Reflections:
Value of exercise?
- Artwork created without extensive pre-thought or planning of content. It just evolved as I used the materials. Liberating experience. The non-permanence makes it ‘freer’ and mistakes were ok.
- Clay exercise made me more reflective about different mark making tools.
What did I learn?
- Once I have an idea, just try it out
- It is instant, and imperfect, and that is ok
- Valuing process over product
Part 1, Project 1, Exercise 1 – Feeling and Expression
Expressive Lines and Marks
‘Anger’ had to be my first experiment with these expressive marks. It is a strong negative feeling for me and I was keen to deal with this and then refresh myself with more positive emotions.
From left. Set 1: charcoal powder, charcoal sticks, fixative, tissue.
Set 2: graphite powder, compressed charcoal drawing too, chalk pastel, oil pastel, tissue.
Set 3: Black Indian drawing ink, assorted sticks, ink pens and brush, glass jar.
Set 4: black gouache paint, water, glass jar, assorted brushes.
Masking tape and plastic sheeting were also used.
Anger
Black Indian ink was dropped from a great height so that it ‘splattered’. Life blown into bits… thoughts racing in. Sticks were grabbed and fierce marks made at some speed. It was all instinctive without thought, and virtually without control. Tools were gripped fiercely, the paper was damaged and torn with the rough and sharp tools. Dagger like shapes seemed to appear. Sticks made dual lines, side by side, but then one of the lines disappears; is cut short. A partnership from one stick, two into one, and then one into a half… Emotive, upsetting. Strong lines fading away. Thin lines, barely there, barely visible, barely leaving a legacy.
Paper accidentally torn, but perhaps appropriately given the rage of feelings weighing upon a sheet of paper. Exhausting.
Charcoal and Charcoal powder – Charcoal powder was rubbed roughly around the edges. It does not go black enough. Reaching for the chunky charcoal, the lines are angry and powerful that the charcoal keeps disintegrating in my hand.. A hand shaking with energy, with anger. Black holes, sharp, hard lines, lines with a trail, an echo, a memory. Lines up and down, strong, fading lighter, but never lighter getting darker. The first touch is always a hard and strong one. Powerful. Lines outwith the boundaries of the page. Without thought, just feelings. Rapid marks and breathing hard as the last marks are made. When to stop? Any more and the variation of marks will disappear. It will just be black. Space is needed to feel the power. It has the essence of stormy clouds and a raging thunderstorm.
Graphite powder, brush, chalk and oil pastels. compressed charcoal drawing pencil –
Graphite powder is spread on, but it is too weak. Add water to it. Now it has a beautiful metallic sheen and seems darker. Adding the chalk pastel, but again too hard, it it breaks and begins to crumble. I do not want to destroy all my drawing tools. How then to use my tools more consciously and still capture the raging emotions? A variety of lines, slower, thicker, darker as the anger moves from hot to cold. More deliberate but still unconscious. The variety of lines capture different versions of anger. Black hole is the deepest, darkest, blackest. There is more darkness at the bottom of this art than at the top. It is heavy, draining… a physical and emotive response. The darker metallic of the wet graphite powder has evaporated.
Gouache –. I am a little shocked how quickly ‘anger’ can be summoned. Loaded brush in hand, eyes closed… The sheet already had a blob of Indian Ink from exploration 1, and a few tiny splatters, but that is ok. It is a bonus that in some way these sheets are interacting with each other. I used a broad house painting brush but was surprised when I opened my eyes and saw how horribly splayed and damaged the bristles were from the pressure and energy exerted. I swapped to a smaller chisel brush and summoned a cold controlled anger to make the next marks. The red ‘hot’ anger lines were wild and curvy. The ‘cold’ anger ones were tighter, straighter, there was more variety of thickness and a blacker blackness than the wilder ones, which often trailed to ghostly marks. Ironically perhaps, this paint version invaded into the earlier ink image.
OK, now I need to go for a walk to get rid of the residue of these feelings. The area under my diaphragm is fluttering. It is unsettling.
From top L-R: 1. pastels, graphite powder, compressed charcoal pencil. 2. black Indian ink. 3. Charcoal powder and charcoal. 4. black gouache.
Hanging together, I see these four pieces of work as particularly powerful. They are not just pictures, they are memories of an experience and feelings captured in a moment in time. I look at them and feel uncomfortable. However, I can see how different they are, and yet they are clearly linked by a theme.
I left these hanging on the wall overnight, and when I saw them again in the morning the sight of them rekindled some of the emotion I had in creating them. It felt so personal. I will be glad to put them away in my portfolio.
16.4.19
2. Happy
Graphite, chalk and oil pastels, charcoal pencil – Keeping my eyes closed and starting with the graphite powder I became aware that I was starting from the bottom of the page and working upwards with my media, repetitively. The ‘happiness’ mark making felt like like a conductor conducting an orchestra, savouring the journey, in the moment, valuing every loop and twist and turn, wanting each mark to last as long as possible. Twisting and turning the mark making tool, aware my body was moving along with the rhythm; smiling.
Looking at it afterwards, I was surprised how all the marks occupied one portion of the paper. The bottom left of the space is virtually empty. The graphite ephemeral curly sweeps are delicate and filter through the other lines drawn on top. Happiness transcends, like these lines. Lighter pressure, gentle hold, whilst positive energy moves through my body, shoulder, arm, wrist, hand, tool.
Charcoal powder and charcoal – Eyes closed, music without sound, surging up through my body. I am conducting some intense, beautiful music, sometimes quietly, but powerfully, controlled, and the line is light. It changes, the charcoal moves on to its side and the sound of the feeling is rising; head and shoulders move in unison with the hand. Similar curves and shapes. Some breaks in the lines as the tools dictate whether they are connecting with the paper, or gliding for a moment into air. Silence or quiet or just because the moving hand strays from the paper?
Opening my eyes, the marks are occupying a similar space as before, similar negative spaces at the bottom left, low down, the outer edge. Once again I had envisaged I was using the whole paper.
Indian ink, sticks and ink pens – This ink sheet I did on the wall rather than the floor like the ‘anger’ one. The ink makes thin wispy lines with all the varieties of sticks and pens. I try pushing harder. There is some variety but the ink quickly runs out and the lines are gone again.
Eyes closed.
It is still the left hand bottom edge that is empty. I am aware of my instinct to begin my lines over to the left and work to the right… right-handedness, the habit of writing perhaps? There is still a subconscious preference to start at the bottom and work to the top. Happiness elevates. I think I will do my next ‘ink’ exploration on the floor again so that perhaps there will be more variety of line styles and weight.
Gouache and brushes – What a different experience from the ‘Anger’ painting. Smile, relax, enjoy. I want to do more. The big brush first – light upward dashes, like leaves floating on a breeze. A big tool, yet delicate marks. I move my wrist fluidly and the brush dances and skims the paper. The chisel brush next and my wrist, arm, and shoulder rotate as the brush aims for the paper. The brush is floppy in my hand and sometimes it makes contact with the paper and sometimes not. I twirl the brush hoping for a variety of lines and tones as it moves. The round brush skips lightly along, jumping from the paper and brushing it lightly.
Trying to feel only happiness and as few conscious thoughts as possible, the marks are there – upper right. The lower left is empty. Bizarre. Being right handed perhaps plays a role, but it is still very curious.
The empty bottom left of each of these becomes more apparent when seen as one large display. For each quadrant I looked at the space, visualised where the ‘edges’ were and aimed to ‘fill the space’ with ‘happiness’ marks before I began.
Overall the lines are similar throughout each media; curves, swirls, no rush for lines to finish. The last one, gouache, has more broken and angular lines than the others, but the ‘drawing media’ the paint, isn’t physically in my hands in the way that it is with the charcoal and chalks. However, the same could be said for the ink, but these marks are still very fluid and languorous.
This was an enjoyable exercise. I had no preconception of what these lines might look like beforehand or how undertaking this activity would feel like a ‘whole body’ positive experience.
26.4.19
3. Calm
Indian ink with brush and twigs – For this one I felt my eyes should be open. I did it on the floor rather than the wall as I found that for the last one on the wall, the sticks did not effectively make marks. I was calm and curious about what would happen. As the marks began the curiosity grew. What mark would be made if I turned the drawing implement in my hand, held it loseley, pushed harder, lighter? I was a curious observer. The media moved slowly, luxuriously across the paper doing what it would, and I valued each mark and each variety of mark. I was surprised to see some jaggy lines, but that happened as the instrument made and broke contact with the paper. What happened just happened. Calm. The brush lines were sweeping with generosity, the stick lines were much finer, broken, curious, rotating, thick and thin.
Charcoal, charcoal powder, pierre noire charcoal pencil, soft and medium charcoal pencils – A calm, sweeping exploration of feeling and mark making. Loved the grainy texture of the wet charcoal powder rubbed on lightly with a damp tissue. Body, shoulder, arm and wrist moving slowly. Introduced some charcoal pencils into this having found them in my art supplies. Noticed how these style of lines are similar to the ‘happy’ ones, but much more delicate.
Oil pastel, chalk pastel, graphite powder, 9B and 4B pencils – Just sinking into the enjoyment of exploring the mark making effects of the materials I am using. Recognising that this ‘calm’ state is a very good one to find questions you then feel an ability to follow up in your next marks. The ‘take it as it comes’ feeling brings with it a consciousness of the effects of your marks and how holding the tools losely and twisting and turning them creates new styles of marks. When to stop…I was conscious of starting at different points on the paper, and gave thought to how the marks could vary with thickness and pressure. Still slow, still pondering and marvelling at the overall gentle effects.
Gouache – I began with watered down gouache and a big brush. I loved the effects of the brush hairs fading in to individual hairs as the brush ran out of paint. The dry brush effect leading in from a loaded brush. this ‘calm’ state allows a sensitivity to the medium and tools which the higher energy, faster states of ‘anger and happy’ did not permit. The undiluted paint had a similar effect
Although the lines are similar in the way they move to the ‘happy’ ones, they are all lighter and there is more ‘space’ in each of the pages. This was the first exercise I looked at the marks that I made as I made them and the inquisitive state of mind engendered by the calm feeling maybe allowed for a wider variety of different types of marks.
Reflections Pt 1. Ex 1
Value of the exercise?
- Exploring an aspect of creating art I would never have chosen to do on my own.
- Freedom to use a range materials without any pre-thought or considerations.
- Instant, quick, instinctive.
- Recognising the impact of different materials when exploring the same emotion.
What did I learn?
- How easy it was to summon, in particular, happiness and anger feelings with my eyes closed, and respond instinctively, primitively, unconsciously.
- To value the ‘process’ of this ‘new’ experience, and not worry about a ‘product’.
- Feeling ‘calm’ evoked a state of curiosity, wonder, experimentation, although it did rely on me looking at the marks that appeared as they were created.
Future considerations/ wonderings
- Perhaps explore the creation of art using different media as the effects can be very different.
- Consider using ‘unusual’, unconventional materials (eg. sticks) to mark-make within artwork.
- Recognising that the ‘calm’ state of emotion had the effect of making me more curious and experimental. This would be a good state to try and be in to maximise my art creation.
Cathy's OCA Drawing 1 Blog 