Chapter 6: Changing faces (part 2)

 

I have numbered the images continually from part 1, so here I start with P 44.

2. Developing the drawing: Tlingit shaman mask

 

For reference here once more the pastel drawing from my skechbook.

I began with some colour variations of my drawing on Picasa. Here is a collage of the ones I liked most. The grey version in the lower right corner looks spooky. I like the strong warm colours in the upper left corner. This is my colour scheme for most of the work.

P 44

 

 

    P 45

    To examine the face more closely I copied a traced
    line drawing on a sheet of copy paper and cut it up.
    Then I made several arrangements of the parts, taking
    them away step by step. It is interesting to see the
    changes in the expression when
    the position of the parts is changed.

    I was especially fascinated by the lines of the eye
    section

 

 

	P 46 Cutting up the mask like I did in the first step led me to make a cut paper version using pre-decorated paper from former modules. The background paper was also made in a former module. The pattern in the wavy stripes seem to indicate the right cheek. For the eye section I cut a red and a black layer and glued the layers in a mirror arrangement.
	P 47 I remembered the paper cuts with several sheets of papers from module 1 and decided to try this. Here is the photograph of the paper sandwich after cutting, on top is the copy paper with the lines. I put this sandwich very carefully in a plastic file pocket, but still the parts spread out and were displaced. It looks a little psychedelic.
	P 48 Version in cut paper with three layers on a black background as the fourth and darkest layer.
	P 49 Working with a Gelli plate: I put the Gelli plate on my cut paper sample (P 48) and painted areas of colour on the plate. I covered the dried colour  with a layer of heavy acrylic gel and pulled a print. It did not quite work, for the paper got pulled away in places, and some of the colour remained on the plate. It had not dried enough. I washed the uncovered paper with walnut ink. Now this is really a bear, quite wild. I could never paint like this on paper.
	P 50: The lines of the mask were drawn with masking fluid on a sheet of cartridge paper. When this was completely dry I covered the Gelli plate with three colours, drew wavy lines with a cut up credit card and pulled the print. After drying I painted around the face with burnt umber and washed the lines with light blue gouache.
	P 51 Lifting off dried gold colour in fine lines from the Gelli plate. Fine lines have formed on the edges of the shapes.

 

The eye

P 52 The pastel drawing in my sketchbook (A5). I was  fascinated by the lines around the eyes of the mask.	P 53 Cutting a printing block based on my drawing, size A6.
P 54 First print on A4 paper with acrylics	P 55 washed with gouache
P 56 Print with acrylic on A4 paper The middle shape is an ornament in itself.	P 57 With watercolour wash and red pastel in the middle.
	P 58 Printed from a gelli plate with acrylics. The basic colour was gold, I printed into the first  layer on the plate with blue acrylics and then drew the print. There is also dried colour from a former print..
	P 59 Print with Brusho wash in two colours, A 5
	P 60 Printed on a different kind of line printing and sewn lines from Module 3. Two pages size A5
	P 61 Why not combine the Nuba face and the eye? Both have a strong line pattern which combine and form interesting shapes. The Nuba face was drawn from a tracing and painted with bister ink, the eye was printed with black acrylics, an ochre wash with gouache was added. Finally the eyeballs were painted with white gouache and the negative spaces filled with red gouache. I like this a lot.
	P 62 Another combination: Nuba face, the eye section of the Tlingit mask, both printed from the Gelli plate, and the eye printed over with the vinyl block.
	P 63 Rolling acrylic colour on the printing block left the pattern on the rubber brayer. I rolled this on an envelope for later use in my folder.
	P 64 I cut another printing block, size around 4 x 4,5 cm, with a quarter of the middle ornament (P56 and 57) and printed a pattern on one of the envelopes prepared for my folder.
	P 65 Random printing and a few pastel marks suggest a craggy face.
	P 66 I covered the Gelli plate with turquoise acrylics and pressed the printing block into the colour to take colour away. This is the second print from this layer of colour, with a colour wash of burnt siena gouache. It seems I am a long way away from the face now.
	P 67 A Gelli print of the Nuba face on a catalogue page was overprinted with the ornament block in a geometric pattern. It looks like winter – leaf skeletons.
P 68 What goes into my folder:

 

 

Folder

	P 69 Front view. Size: 34 x 23 cm. I glued newspaper to a piece of cardboard from a book package, covered it with gesso and glued a page from my work on it. The background was painted with gouache.
	P 70 The folder opens like a book. I like the panorama format and the space it creates. The folder  is constructed with three A5 and four A4 envelopes which were glued to a folded piece of calendar cardboard. This piece also builds the spine.
	P 71: Gouache painted on gesso, the eye printing block was pressed into the wet colour.
	P 72 The envelopes were coloured or sponged with gouache. I cut back the open edges a bit to make it easier to put paper into them. Some of the evelopes have a window.
	P 73 I put stencil prints or prints on some of the envelopes, but I did not want to decorate them too much.
	P 74
	P 75 This envelope was decorated with leftover paper shapes from P 47/48. They remind me of Miro shapes.
	P 76 I cannot work on the floor without inspection from my cat.
	P 77 The window in the envelope P 64.
	P 78
	P 79 The envelope was printed with the roller, blue gouache was added later around the printed strip.
	P 80
	P 81 Inside of the folder back: gouache was rolled on gesso and the small Nuba stamp was pressed into the wet colour.
	P 82 Folder back, decorated with a Gelli printed page with texture and a Nuba stencil.

 Construction of the folder

	P 83 This is the folded piece of cardboard which builds the spine and carries the envelopes. Each fold is 2 cm deep. At the beginning and the end there is one fold each for the covers.
	P 84 At the spine the image on the calendar cardboard is still visible, at least the colours. The folds are glued together at the back side.
	P 85
	P 86 With this method you can combine envelopes of different sizes in one folder.

 

Notes

I have made notes during work on this chapter in my sketchbook and on slips of paper which I then glued in. 

 

 

   P 87, notes on construction and artwork

 

 

 

 

However, I put my thoughts mostly on a new blog I opened in September. I started it because I felt the need to keep a kind of journal which contains all creative work regardless of technique or material or whatever, as well as photographs etc. Here is the link: blaufrau57.blogspot.de 

That blog has more than fulfilled my expectations. It has developed into a space for gathering, looking, reflection, finding connections and coherence, and, most of all, a feeling for what I am really doing. By labelling the posts I can easily access my coursework or any other theme. I can also think in German about my work – as the course is in English and I read a lot of books and online material on artwork in English, my thoughts tend to be in English, too. Thoughts in German give me another angle and are close to my heart (much as I love the English language).

Finally: The eye section of the shaman mask on a well-known face

Chapter 6: Changing faces (Part 1)

I will post the work for Chapter 6 in two parts, one post would be too large for the server. The images are numbered to make reference easier. The numbers will be continued in the second post.
 
Activity 5.6.1 Looking for masks and faces

P 1 Maori carving from the internet	P 2 Tattoo pattern for a male Ta Moko, also from the internet.
P 3: I found this wonderful book in the libary: Geschmückte Haut (Adorned Skin). A treasure chest. The following images are from this book. It contains all sorts of body and face painting, tattooing and scarring, from ancient rock paintings to the fanciful make-up of today’s football fans.
	P 4 Three shaman masks of the Tlingit people on the Northwest coast of North America.
P 5: from East Peru I love the subtle geometric patterns.	P 6: from Papua New Guinea
P 7: A traditional Peking opera mask, king of apes.	P 8: Celestial king of dragons
P 9: A young Nuba man.	P 10: A Hindu woman has tattoed sacred words on her face.

Activity 5.6.2 Drawings
I made drawings from three masks, but continued working with only two of them. Even this provided so many ideas that I feel I barely scratched the surface.

	P 11: Tracing from the Ta Moko carving, A4, pen. It was a first step to get to know the patterns. I would very much like to have a side view and see the patterns on the temples. the jaw and the nose from another angle.
	P 12: Drawing with pencil and pen in my sketchbook (A5), with notes. The patterns are much clearer here.
	P 13: Drawing with pen, Conté crayon and sanguine. I love the way the lines follow the form of the face. There seem to  be two beings in one.- I left out the stick in the photo and completed the face painting by guessing. Originally I had intended to use only masks as a source, as I feel a little shy of using a real human face – it does not seem to be respectful. But I do like this so much.
	P 14: The Tlingit mask from P 4, left, was drawn with a pencil and afterwards coloured with pastels. It is the mask of a shaman, and I wondered for a long time which animal it is supposed to represent. This is such a wild face, it really took my fancy.
	P 15: The right eye of the Tlingit mask, drawn with pastels in my A5 sketchbook. I especially wanted to look closer at the lines from the outer corner of the eye to the cheek.
	P 16: Another study in watercolour, A6.

Aside: Eyes
The variety in the depiction of the eyes in the book was astounding. I made a few notes in my sketchbook.

P 17	P 18
P 19	P 20
P 21	P 22: Sketchbook note from an exhibition: eyes in a painting by Ben Nicholosn

Developing the drawings further
1. Nuba face painting, P 13

	P 23: Initial tracings from the drawing A positive and a negative version. On Paint I tried various versions, reducing details as much as possible.
P 24: Stencil no 1: Initially I was drawn to the negative version, which is reduced in the left part and still quite detailed in the right half of the face.	P 25: Stencil no 2: The positive version. After taking away a lot of the details I put them back again to have a contrast to no 1. Both stencils are size A5
	P 26 a and b: Looking through stencil no 2 out of my  my window and at striped gift paper.

Work with the stencils
I worked mostly on pre-decorated papers from former modules. The theme of traditional face painting seems to cry out for using old material. 

	P 27: Bronze paint was sprayed through stencil 1 on a piece of wallpaper. (It is my desk cover and shows prints, sprinkles, smears and washes, layered over time.)
P 28 Stencil 1: Two layers in siena and blue with watery gouache on pre-decorated paper. (I cannot remember why I punched these holes.) A 5	P 29 P 28 overprinted with stencil 2 with dry gouache sponged on, then white gouache painted in.
P 30 Stencil 1 with watery blue gouache on pre-decorated paper A 5	P 31 P 30 overprinted with stencil 2 for more definition
	P 32  A4 Stencil 1: Acrylics stencilled vice versa on 190 g paper Looks like profiles and en face view at the same time.
P 33 The right one of the above prints, background washed with gouache, combined with cut paper from a pre-decorated piece.	P 34 The negative piece was glued on a light blue background.
	P 35 How about a really strong colour? The left half of the print in P 32, washed with Brusho. The black lines are acrylic ink drawn with a dropper, the white spaces drawn with bleach.
P 36 Stencil 2: Repeat pattern with the stripey half of the face sponged with black gouache on a pre-decorated piece of paper A5	P 37 Stencil 1 used for tracing the outlines on pre-decorated paper A5). Then I painted black gouache on the background, which stll shines through in many places, hinting at the outlines of the face.
	P 38 Two layers of watery gouache in siena and black on woven paper with a colour wash from a former Module. I like the broken lines and the edges of the torn paper. It looks very archaic. A 5

Printing
I love printing with vinyl blocks, and I also wanted to try a smaller version of the face.

	P 39: I  cut a small block (4,5 x 6,5 cm) with a simplified version of stencil no 2. The vinyl can be cut very finely, and I got a lot of detail for such a small size, especially the fine lines of the right half of the face.
	P 40 Print with black acrylics on a gelli printed A4 page, washed with blue gouache. The printed faces look like a lace curtain over the initial print.
	P 41 Changing direction: Black acrylics on A 4 catalogue page
	P 42 A crowd of faces, printed with black acrylics on A 4 cartridge paper
	P 43 Black acrylics again on an A4 Gelli printed page with lace texture. Printed this way the heads look like petals .