Module 3 Chapter 2 - some reworking

I wasn't very happy with some of the work in my last post but one. It was OK as far as it went, but I was being far too literal, a problem which I tend to suffer from.

Sian gave me lots of ideas for pushing things further and freeing things up a bit, and this first batch of drawings were made before Summer School. They are all on A2 cartridge paper, and 2 colours of ink. The first few were made with a 1" brush. I had in mind the scrappy little drawing of steam billowing out of a chimney which was in my last but one post. The added lines are oil pastel and felt tip pen.

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It struck me that if I used a bigger brush then I would have spiral staircases. I found a tatty old 5" brush in the garage, and it made lovely marks. I added the linear marks using the edge of a piece of card.

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Sian saw these at Summer School and encouraged me to continue, so I have.

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One of the things that Sian suggested was to draw some lines on the back of one of my black and white drawings from the last but one post. The idea is to cut on the lines and mount the cut shapes on to black paper to introduce thin black lines into the design. She put some work with bicycle wheels she had been doing using this technique on to her blog for me to see.

For this first one, I simple drew some  simple radiating lines on the back of the drawing, cut it up and laid it onto black paper. This is the actual A2 drawing.

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For the next sheet, I printed out the original drawing onto A4 paper and tried various different cuts. The results are stuck  onto an A1 sheet of black paper.

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I then isolated and cropped them.

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I think these are interesting, but I don't particularly like them. 

Then I had great fun making a series of patterns using spirals torn from some of my painted papers. None of these are stuck down, so it was very quick to make a series of patterns. Looking at these, the spirals are quite "rectangular" rather than "round".

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Summer School at Farncombe

Summer School again - how quickly it seems to come round! And how lovely to meet up with old friends and make new. Good to put faces to blogs!

Farncombe Manor is half way up Fish Hill in the Cotswolds, overlooking Broadway and the Vale of Evesham - a new venue for Summer School. Excellent food, superb accomodation, including a wonderful studio, absolutely spectacular views. This is sunset over the Vale of Evesham - there had been several hot air balloons floating gently across, but by the time the sun got to this point, they were gone.

I was in the group working with Sue Dove - an inspiring and generous tutor. Day 1 - making collages in sketchbooks, Day 2 - monoprinting and continuing with sketchbook work, Day 3 - we actually did some stitching!

Module 3 Chapter 2 part 1

Chapter 2 Design work – spiral warm-up exercises

I got a bit bogged down towards the end of working through this chapter, and it coincided with enough work to pay for the rest of the course, so nothing has been done for some time.

However I wasn’t happy with some of what I had done, so I am putting what I have done on my blog along with why I’m not happy and what I am going to do about it.

IMAGES OF SPIRAL STAIRS

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I don’t think I did enough drawing in Chapter 1, so I decided to start by making some more drawings of  spiral staircases. I made 4 drawings on A1 paper with charcoal with the addition of chalk in the fourth drawing.

I wanted to make big free sweeping drawings, and I think I have succeeded. But, I haven't been very successful in capturing what interests me most in the pictures of the spiral staircases, and that is the juxtaposition of the sweeping curve of the stairs and handrail, the flat radiating planes of the stairs and the vertical bars joining the handrails to the stairs.

One of my main problems is that I tend to be too literal and not interpretative enough when I make drawings. The perspective of spiral staircases is complex, and I don't really think I have got to grips with it.

I’ve found that if I draw with a pen when I am recording things in my “travelling” sketchbook, which is A5, I don’t attempt to make an accurate drawing, but draw quickly and try to capture the essence of what I am looking at and get down the information I need to remember..

Here is a relevant drawing made in the last few days on our travels. 

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And also notes of an installation by Fabrice Hyber, part of an exhibition of his work at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Arts. 

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So I am planning to make more drawings of the spiral staircases, trying to be less literal and more interpretative.

COLOUR, PAPERS 

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I’m happy with  the colours  I’ve chose, and with the papers I’ve painted. When I start putting together fabrics and threads, I shall expand the colours .

SIMPLE TWO DIMENSIONAL SHAPES.

All of this is OK as far as it has gone – in fact some of the shapes are beautiful. But, it’s exactly the same problem as with the earlier work – too literal. I’m planning on spending some time trying to free myself up. I’m just going to draw  and  make cut / torn shapes in my sketchbook,  without having the source material in front of me and see where it takes me. 

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SIMPLE THREE DIMENSIONAL SHAPES

This is also OK as far as it has gone. I found the corrugated card quite frustrating to work with because of its “grain”, and I couldn’t make it do what I wanted it to do. I may well return to play a bit more with the corrugated card.

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This is a spiral cut freehand and then suspended. It is interesting that the grain of the cardboard makes it hang differently.

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This is the triskelion from earlier work.

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DESIGNS USING MONOPRINTING METHOD

I’ve been quite successful with monoprinting in the past, but have only ever worked with one colour, and I did struggle a bit because I hadn’t really thought using more than one colour through. Also, I’ve only ever worked with an A4 plate, and I got given a bigger plate and thought I would try that – big mistake!

It’s a few weeks since I did them, and looking at them now they are not as bad as I thought they were. I shall tear and cut them up as I revisit the 2D work.

I plan to do more, and I shall stick to A4. I shall probably ask for a gelli plate for my birthday, and am looking forward to what I can do with that.

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Canadian Red Cross Quilts

Went to a lovely exhibition today of Canadian Red Cross quilts at Maidstone Museum. These quilts were made in their thousands by women and men in Canada and shipped to the UK by the Canadian Red Cross and distributed to bombed out families.

There are about 20 quilts on display, beautifully but simply made. Some of them are showing signs of wear (not surprising given that they are now getting on for 75 years old), and the colours are now faded and subtle. A lot of them  were tied and not quilted.

I couldn't take photographs, so you will have to make do with some drawings:

There is one quilt made out of suitings thought to have come from a tailor's sample book.

There is a similar quilt in Sevenoaks Museum, made in the early 1900s by a lady living in Sevenoaks, and that too is made from a tailor's samples book. I was lucky enough to attend a 3 day workshop about 18 months ago, the aim being to make a quilt using the tailor's samples quilt as inspiration. The drawings and notes I made at the time are all in pencil and haven't scanned well enough to include, but here is the piece I made. It's about 26" x 16", has been deliberately left raw edged to reflect the condition of the original quilt. What entranced me about the original quilt was the diversity of woven patterns and textures, which I tried to reflect in the very dense quilting. The piecing is English Paper piecing, and the fabrics I have used are mainly Oakshott cottons,.

In case you are wondering where the bright orange came from, the backing of the original quilt had gone apart from a narrow strip down one side - a reference to it had to be included!