Sketchbook Explorations, Part 6

Continuing on with Week 5 of Jane Davies' packaged instruction, I pulled out the small gestural compositions that I made in the previous lesson, using black paint and black wash.

We were asked to add one piece of collage to each of these little studies, and then to add "something else", which could be a mark with a drawing tool, another piece of collage, some paint or some pattern. We were to note the relationship between the original marks and the collage piece, and then use the next addition to strengthen the relationship between them.

red, textured collage pieces added, then opaque black paint

deli paper scribble collage added, then quin gold wash and
white marker scribble.
I found the quin gold wash acted to unify the parts.

I found myself using positive/negative, black/white contrast for some of these.

The next exercise had us go back to the thumbnail compositions made in a previous lesson. We were to choose one design, and express its shapes using paint / collage / line in various media.

my initial design:
I like the small, somewhat rectangular shapes contrasted with
enormous rounded shapes, so big they exceed the margins of the frame.

paint and collage, with white marker defining the lines

paint and collage, using a narrow range of hue and value,
uniform black marker

contrast of highly textural areas with flat and patterned areas,
smudgy line

more variety in small shapes, less definition between large shapes,
brushy margins

variety in small shapes, some texture in large shapes,
hard edges define large shapes

lots of texture in background areas, red collage defines large shape

I may well go back to this exercise and choose another thumbnail design to work from.

Finally, the lesson ended with self-portraits, using blind contour. I allowed myself to look at the drawing when I needed to lift the pencil and reposition it. Otherwise, my eyes were on the mirror at all times.

without glasses

with glasses

I am struck by how the distortions evident in these blind contour drawings express the tenor of our times.