Chapter 6 and 7

 

First a little extra: variations on gray

Taking up Viv’s idea from her feedback I placed my gray cards on varied  backgrounds.

The phtographs are not very good (also my cats were eager to play with the pieces), but the difference in the impression of the colour is still striking. Thank you, Viv, for the suggestion!

 

Chapter 6: Colour matching

6.1 Match a picture

This is a catalogue photograph of a cocoa fruit. I chose it because of the lovely red tones.

The small painting on the left (A5) was my checking instrument in the search for the colours. When I thought I had “got” one I filled it in. It proved very helpful for keeping track of the colours.

The red is my version of crimson with the addition of a little ultramarine, the shade down left was done with sea blue. I had to add more black than I thought to mix the darkest shade. The range of greens on the photograph is surprising, as always, and I do not think I got them all. For the dark gray in the twig I used red, ultramarine and black with very little yellow, for the light gray ultramarine with a little green and white. There is also a warm grey in the twig, for which I mixed red and green (leaf green from the tube). Of course with so many reds and greens there is good material for all sorts of greys.

 

6.2 Pattern using the colour palette

After I had drawn the lines with transparent oil pastel I noticed I could not see the spaces – so I added a thin pencil line to help.

 

Extra activity: variation of colours

I became aware a little late that my original colours were mostly complementary – red and green. So a couple of the suggested variations were not so promising.

Light and dark colours swapped in larger shapes with fewer lines. I think the changed spacing makes the real difference here.

I wanted to make a greater change in the painting, so I chose colours two steps away on the colour wheel.

The complementary colours are now blue and orange with tints and shades. It makes me think of cool surroundings like a swimming pool. After I had finished the painting I painted some shapes over with even

lighter tints and darker shades to get more contrast. I notice that I tend to lose this aspect, and the result can be boring even if the colours are nice enough – a very instructive experience.

 

I remembered that many years ago I tried colour matching with threads, inspired by Jan Messent’s “The Embroiderer’s Workbook” from 1988. I have still kept the cardboards on which I had mounted the results.

 

Chapter 7: Printing

7.1 Fruit/vegetable print

I cut a fennel in quarters lengthwise and printed with this. I like the  wavy lines of the sections and the way they can be combined to patterns, also the piece is big enough to paint a range of colours on it. As advised I used acrylics for this activity (unless otherwise indicated). 

The first two prints and the right one in the second row were done on my coloured papers.

For the other prints I used white paper. Some were painted over with a colour wash when dried, and I dabbed away the wet wash in parts with paper tissue.

 

	Left: printed on leftover cuts of Canson mi-teintes, glued  in my sketchbook. That was actually a way to use up leftover colour, a happy accident.

One more happy accident: the last drops of another palette

 

7.2 Potato print

After working with the fennel I found the potato a bit wet, but I left the pieces on a paper towel for some time.

	I found that a wash of background colour always added depth to the pattern.

 

7.3 Make repeat patterns with a card printing block

My choices from Chapter 5, not surprisingly:

The print was done on flipchart paper with a smooth and slightly absorbent surface which shows the details well.	Left: the printing blocks, cut from very strong cardboard, 2 mm thick, so cutting was  very hard on the fingers! I used the negative shapes as well and coated all four blocks with spray varnish for protection. They are quite sturdy.

	Left: After printing I rolled colour on the dried sheet with a foam roller (A4 strong office paper). The bell pepper shape is almost A6 in size and needs a big sheet of paper to form a pattern. Below right: A2 strong cartridge paper.
Above and below: Shapes and outlines on coloured paper A 4
	Above right: shapes and outlines on A3 brown paper (Kraft paper), outlines filled with watercolour
	A piece of rough off-white woodchip wallpaper, right (rough) side, size about A3. The prints are just recognisable. I brushed emerald ink  over the printed background and rolled dark red over the paper with a hard linoleum print roller. Finally I rubbed gold and metallic red wax crayon over it. I like this piece very much, it looks and feels like a textile.

	Left and below right: the peach (tree)  on coloured paper, A4.
Above: outlines printed over shapes, afterwards background and outlines were painted with watercolour
	Left: for each print on the dark green background I covered the block thickly with loosely mixed paint
The back side of woodchip wallpaper painted red, printed with very dark red, then washed with emerald ink. This is a detail, see the whole strip on the right with the finished A2 pepper sheet and some other prints.
	One of my coloured papers (wetted, painted, crumpled) with two upper left prints on dry paper and four others on wet paper. I also added more water to the printing colour and ended up with almost watercolour fluidity.

I found printing enormous fun – and I feel I have only scratched the surface of a huge range of possibilities. A hard piece of rubbing gum is currently waiting on my work table to get cut. I think it will make a good printing block. 

Acrylics have never been my favourite colours, but during this activity I got better acquainted with their possibilities and quite warmed up to them.

Creative Sketchbooks 1: Chapter 3-6

First a second variation of the last activity. I have always thought of blue as my favourite colour but during the coursework I find red and its variations very appealing.

 

I used several templates to make the shapes, an onion, a tomato and a pepper. The overlapping shapes are more varied, at the same time the grid  appears more clearly.

 

And a new warm yellow: cadmium yellow light, mixed here with ultramarine blue and black. My middle yellow is slightly orange which shows in the mixtures.

 

Chapter 3: Light and Shade

3.1. Use paint to make a range of different grays

For this acitivity – mixing grays using combinations of primary colours, complementary colours, black and white and water in varying proportions – I used acrylics. After mixing for some time it became difficult to keep track of the combinations. I doubt if I could ever reproduce exactly the same colour, although I noted the combinations on the backside of the cards.

	The range of “coloured” grays is quite surprising. Some cards looked very different depending on which colours I placed them with. Finally I spread them all out on a white board and sorted them from neutral / cool grays to warmer tones and from light to dark.
	It took a lot of shuffling. Some tones started to look not gray at all, but I left them in. The whole board reminds me of an old brick or stone wall where you can find a wonderful range of colours.

 

When I thought the arrangement made sense I gathered the cards on cord rings. The black and white mixtures (on Gray 13, first on the left) seem straightforward, but whenever I look at the others I feel I could start sorting them again.

 

 

3.2. Composition in monochrome based on a photograph

The first photograph I chose from my collection is one I liked very much.

 

	Only when I started working on the study I realized it was perhaps not the best choice. The colours are very vivid which made it difficult for me to focus on shades of gray (no pun intended).

 

I made an enlarged print of the photograph and worked it over with a pencil (above left) to get a clearer idea of the thing. Then I started to outline the shapes with a thin brush, blocked in the highlights with transparent oil pastel and painted the study with gouache – forgetting to note which mixture I used for the grays. My watercolour habit of making the tints by adding water rather than white also showed results: the colour “broke apart” resulting in blue and brown blotches. Nevertheless I like the study.

For the next try I chose a more suitable photograph and decided to make it a little easier for me and trace the outlines.

	I used a dark violet with a little yellow for the gray study. Extra activity: For the coloured variations I wanted unlikely colours: cold blue and lemon yellow.
	In my small sketchbook I made a pencil drawing following the same principle. The ground is slightly shaded with graphite and the highlights are taken out with an eraser.

 

Chapter 4: Coloured papers 

4.1  Decorative coloured papers

I used gouache, acrylics, watercolours and ink, on high quality office paper, the backside of old posters, brown paper (Kraft-Papier), tissue paper and watercolour paper.

I started with cool blue and red and added other colours as I went along.

I dripped colour on wet sheets, let the colours run, used the mark making instruments from the first activity to create patterns, rolled over the wet colours with a foam roller to spread them. I often made prints from a very wet sheet, folded and kneaded the wet paper to create colour mixtures and patterns.

Some of my first sheets

 

4.2 Complementary colours: some examples

 

I used wet clingfilm (from sheet on the left) with drops of colour left on it for a print (right) and added a coat of light blue.

It was also fun to build up layers of soft pastels. On the right: lines in emerald and carmine ink on a red and green pastel ground. The left belongs to analogous colours: red over yellow and orange Below left: carmine ink on a blue-green gouache surface Below right: acrylics scratched on with a palette knife.

 

4.3. Analogous colours: some examples

 

Acrylics stippled on dry paper, printed, washed with clear water, rolled over with a sponge roller (right)	Above left: gouache swirled with a brush right: ink dripped and swirled with a glass nib

Left: blue and yellow ink applied with a dropper Right: wavy stripes brushed closely on moist paper	Gouache dripped in stripes on wet paper which was then rolled and folded.

 

4.4: Colour some pages in the sketchbook

I liked the cling film technique very much and used it for pages in my sketchbook (upper right; below: same technique with watercolour in my A5 watercolour sketchbook).

Upper left page: gouache ground in yellow with red drops, swirls of yellow ink  applied with a glass nib.

There is no end to this … and always an enjoyable way to use leftover colours! You can see more examples of the papers in the next chapter.

 

Chaper 5: Stack, cut and stick

5.1 Create a design by cutting a paper shape into segments

My first shape was taken from this photograph of a peach. I thought a simple shape would offer a lot of possibilities for cutting.

 

 

I also took the shapes of a lemon and of a bell pepper.

I like this shape on the right a lot, it looks like a silhouette of trees against a sky.

The “leaf” is the lemon shape again – very versatile.

 

Cutting shapes from the coloured papers left me with some nice negatives.

 

	I added my favourit cut-out shapes and put the sheets into my sketchbook over the coloured pages.

5.2 Cutting layers for design

For this activity I chose the lemon I painted at the beginning of the course. I thought the segments of the fruit would make a nice intricate pattern.

 

	This is the tracing of the original image with a little simplification. With a violet and an orange paper I tried out several backgrounds and arrangements.

Different arrangements:

	I got so caught up in arranging the pieces that I forgot to take photographs for some time. The left arrangement is the one that ended up in my sketchbook.

Extra activity: Repeat with more papers

I had two photographs in mind and could not come to a decision, so I used them both, the first with three and the second with four papers plus background.

With the first motive I used mostly analogous colours with small contrasting areas.	Final arrangement
Variations: The black background is more dramatic, but I liked the “rain forest feeling” of the gray-violet one.

 

The second motive and its variations:

	Above: final design These are more or less the true colours. The photographs were all taken in artificial light and look more yellowish.

This design was much too complicated. I felt that the distribution of the red and blue pieces was the most important feature, so in the end the process became like painting with the pieces. At this point it was handy to have so many of them. And I have acquired some skill with the cutting knife!