Chapter 6: Torn Paper Lines

3.6.1  Tearing papers in different ways

	Newspaper torn with the grain
	Newspaper torn against the grain
	Office paper torn with and against the grain.
	Light watercolour paper (160 g/ square meter) torn against the grain, with nice broad edges.
	Same paper torn with the grain.
	A sheet of recycled wrapping paper, there is hardly any grain at all, as the fibers are short. It is very easy to tear in all kinds of shapes.
	Shapes torn from different papers pasted on two opposing pages in my sketchbook. The right page was covered with gesso first.
	Ink wash (Winsor and Newton Sunshine Yellow) on the right  page.  I like the way the white paper shapes show up as the torn edges soak up the colour.
	I covered another page  with gesso, pasted torn watercolour paper and the lining of an envelope on this layer. Then I painted stripes of gesso over the page and finaly an ink wash of red wine ink (a local product, smells nicely of wine). It was a quick tryout to see if this would work, and  the composition is not exciting. Something to be explored further on.

 

3.6.2

Viewfinders

 

 

I have used the two L-shaped pieces on the left for some time, also in this activity. The square (8,5x8,5 cm) and the rectangle (8,5x12 cm) were made according to the instructions in the module. I am looking forward to going out and using them.

 

Collage landscapes

 

	I first traced the whole photograph to see how the stripes looked like and made enlarged copies of the area I had chosen with the help of the viewfinder.
	Same procedure here. I chose the lower left corner of the tracing. I had fallen in love with the papers (gift paper and self-coloured paper), so it is more about them than about the design. The white edges are well for the foam though.
	Here I worked from a small photograph and enlarged the tracing, which left me with fewer lines than before. I tried to match not the colours, but the tones as closely as possible. Still, the colours are surprisingly alike.

In the foreground the white lines of the  torn edges did not fit in, so I cheated and painted them over carefully with bistre ink.

 

Tryptichon

 

My source and a copy of the traced page – much worked on, as you can see.

I thought for a long time about my choice of papers. In the previous example I had worked with muted, soft colours, which worked well for the photograph taken on a rainy day, but now I wanted to try something different. I chose strongly coloured papers – reproductions of paintings from a calendar, done in deep, intense acrylics, and gold-coloured gift paper. The foreground was cut from an old envelope in ochre, papers coloured with acrylics and cling film, and I made pastels for the sky and the mountains.  So I ended up with strong contrasts: papers with patterns against blank papers, smooth surfaces against shiny ones, dark areas against light ones. I had been worried about neglecting the tones, but I like the result. Looking at the three pieces I remember that sunny day.

 

 

A few weeks ago I picked up a brochure with a painting  that seems to fit in with the work in this chapter (and the next). It was done by the German expressionist painter Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

I like the way he suggests trees and landscape features by creating patterns within the stripes.