Ex 1.2

13.4.19

Expressing Texture

Part 1, Project 1, Exercise 2, Section 1 – Creating Textures

The textures I chose to represent were:

1. The top of a wooden log –

I did this image twice as I thought two different sets of media would both be good and I didn’t know which one to chose. The first used just charcoal powder. I had more success painting with wet graphite powder and it gave extra tones to the drawing. Applying it wet with a fine brush allowed for a variety of thick and thin lines. It does create a fairly realistic effect although I was disappointed that the highlights with a putty rubber were not very effective.

The second version of this was completed very quickly using a grey and black oil pastel. This allows for light, medium and dark tones more effectively

    b. Textured surface on a piece of patterned pottery – The area was wetted, and a light wash of the indian ink was applied. Whilst it was still wet, the lose shapes of the design were bled into it. I hoped this would recreate the effect similar to when you rub a raised surface. When it was dry the shapes were drawn in with a stronger mix of ink, and then a light brush over with a big brush was to emulate the strokes that a rubbing would give. It added to the texture of the image. Finally, when it was dry highlights were added with a Chinese white pencil.

Plastic hole pattern on top of the coffee machine – again I used Indian ink. The ‘c’ shape of the design was completed first and then the wash for the background. The opposite edge of the holes was hinted at with some finer, broken lines. Finally the shadow cast on the left of each hole was dropped in whilst the highlights are white paper.

Metal grater pattern – I was drawn to the grater image as there were highlights, medium tones and dark tones. I used charcoal but was conscious the white space needed to be left from the beginning to maximise the effect. To help with blending I used both a blending tortillon and a cotton bud. These proved to be effective. The smaller charcoal marks were made with a charcoal pencil.

Plastic pattern on the side of a plastic box – I was keen to show the negative space created by the holes in the plastic box. I used a paper template. Initially I shaded off the triangle, but then found it was more effective to simply rub the graphite off the back of the triangle and it created enough difference in tone from the background in a more subtle way. The tone on the inside of the shapes was lightly lifted with a putty rubber.

Rubber tread on a step ladder. I tried to lay a background with a conte crayon for this but found it was too hard and just made lines on the paper that did not soften sufficiently. Instead I tried a soft black chalk pastel. This blended well and gave even coverage. The conte crayon created the patterned texture on top. I did try to use the Chinese white pencil again to suggest a tiny highlight on one side of the dots, but it does not show up well

Fluffy material towel with a border – I am pleased with the way the border looks in this exploration. The shapes, patterns and tones within this part of the drawing work well, and the range of subtle tones available from a biro made this a good tool for this exercise. The marks for the towel are perhaps somewhat more haphazard and less effective.

Reflection

Value of exercise?

• Learn more about the drawing materials and their capabilities and weaknesses
• Developing observational skills
• Value of experimentation

What did I learn?

• To think creatively to problem solve challenges of what materials to use for each subject
• To consider effect of using tones and washes of Indian ink, not just raw, black ink
• To use charcoal pencil alongside charcoal sticks

Future ideas, wonderings

• When is drawing ‘painting’
• Can you use paint and just ‘draw’
• Beginning to think about combining more materials in future works eg. charcoal and white chalk, inks and charcoal
• thinking about other surface options eg cardboard, coloured paper, gesso

Part 1, Project 1, Exercise 2, Section 2: Frottage

Reflection

Value of exercise?

• Build up a set of references of textures
• Increase awareness of textures
• Value of experimentation

What did I learn?

• That soft fabrics and surfaces do not make good rubbings, even if visually they look textured eg. bubble wrap, hand towel.
• Metal surfaces do make good rubbings
• Metal surfaces with patterns can create particularly good images
• Some etched pottery or ceramics gave decent impressions, but the more curved the item, the harder it was to get a good facsimile of the texture.
• leaves I chose were not very effective and the pressure of colouring over it meant the leaves were damaged and ironically there was more of a ‘green’ memory on the back of the sheet.

Future ideas, wonderings

• I wondered if a harder, Staedtler, coloured pencil might give better effects. I tried a blue and a brown. I think these pencils did give more variety in tone.
• As an extension, I wanted to explore harder and softer pencils to explore their impact. I chose three items, a metal chessboard, a ceramic vase and the top of a wooden post. The 4H captured quite a lot of fine detail, but there was little variety in tone. The black conte crayon was far too soft and chunky and the results are poor. Both the 4B and 9B pencil gave pleasing results, but the 4B had crisper details and still managed a good range of tones. It was an interesting personal extension to this activity.