Reflections on Fractured marks 1: I felt this was more of a warm up. I got more interesting effects overall in the bottom two pictures where I used the charcoal stick on its side, particularly in the picture on the bottom right where I varied the pressure considerably. I was more inclined to use a lighter pressure when using the charcoal stick on it’s side or at a slighter angle off the page.
Reflections on Fractured marks 2: This was a bit more fun. I liked the effect of building up layers, charcoal, then removing with the putty rubber, then adding in further crosses and squiggles. I think it looks quite dramatic with the contrast of very dark charcoal marks against lifted out parts and anticipates the second part of this particular project (see below).
Reflections on Fractured marks 3: I was excited about using some new materials for this – a dip pen and Indian ink, brushes and various pens, including a brush pen. I’d never used a dip pen or brush pen before. Quite different from the previous example. I found it more difficult to create as dramatic contrasts using a brush and water. The ink from the pens and even the dip pen dried very quickly and I think the ink was permanent so brushing over with water had little effect. I found I could change some of the lines of the dip pen if I had only just used that. I could then use the brush to take some of the ink and create new broader curving lines in various shades of grey.
Unlike in the previous example, the brush strokes didn’t create dramatic contrasts of lighter colour but overlaid broader lines of lighter greys that had a watercolour feel about them. The lack of control, made using these materials more experimental and I found myself trying out things as they emerged – one example are the spider shapes that came out from adding blobs of ink that were easier to then manipulate with the brush and the dip pen.
I loved using the dip pen and the other pens to make clear dark lines, particularly when using the brush pen or when exerting some pressure initially with the dip pen fully laden with ink to make sweeping curves. I do like the feel of pictures that make use of water colour and pen and ink.
Reflection on dramatic marks 1: I really enjoyed making this, even just creating the even background of dark charcoal, but I liked too creating the contrast between the dark fine lines of charcoal and sweeping curves lifted off bu the putty rubber. Yes, I think charcoal lends itself to creating dramatic effects. The end result feels like a painting. I felt this before when using charcoal in the warm up exercises at the start of the course. I didn’t realise what a great medium it is to use.
Reflections on Dramatic marks 2: As before, I don’t think the materials for this created as a dramatic contrast as the charcoal used in the Dramatic marks 2 exercise. Nevertheless it was fun to experiment with a mix pf materials this time, a 6B pencil, dip pen, brush pen and water applied with a brush. Again the brush added layers of further lighter grey rather than removing colour, but provided some interesting blurring and water colour effects in some places on the paper.
Use of the putty rubber produced much more subtle lifting off of pencil shading, but I feel the highlighting it creates is almost luminous because of the blurring around the edges of each lifted off area.
I enjoyed being free with the way I applied the pencil, shading the whole paper initially and then using sweeping bolder lines later. I also liked the mixing of media and how the use of the brush pen and dip pen made nice dark contrasting lines against the subtler greys of pencil,rubbed out areas and greys provided by the application of water with the brush.
Kris' Art Learning Log 