Contemporary Drawing Sketchbook Week 3

I've not been blogging  because I've been 'doing'  but as I use it to sort out my thoughts, I'm having a quick catch-up between rehearsal and performance of Faversham Choral Society concert.

Week 3 of Contemporary Drawing Sketchbook  involved extending and evolving drawing experimentation. One of the most useful parts was looking at a variety of fold-out  continuous sketchbook space ( concertina /accordion mainly)  and discussing  how the different formats  related to their content ( eg narrative, surprise, variations on a theme etc)

We also  explored yet more techniques, the example above having everything thrown at it, it has a very rich surface as a result.

The combination of graphite powder and shellac was new to me ( and appropriate for topic as shellac was once used in electrical applications) I like the graphite 'washes'  and the marks you could make with brush ( above) . But the fumes were a bit much, I'm going to have a go with PVA/acrylic medium.

Lifting off acrylic paint with a wet sponge when it's partly dry gave some interesting effects as well ( something I've been doing unintentionally for years!) I liked the combination with white ink.

Most of the time though I was struggling a bit, not really engaging with the subject or exploring content  but   engrossed in making brushmarks ( which look great when you focus on the detail of the marks ) That's the problem with a short class - not really time to try new techniques AND work out what you're doing in subject matter. The suggestion in the lesson plan was to try 6 media and techniques  and examine shifts in meaning /communication ! There's a tendency in myself to revert to default mode which is not the point !  

A brief tutorial  recommended Tania Kovats 'Drawing water' for it's combination of text and imagery. As it happens I bought a copy after seeing her work at Greenwich and having studied it again in greater detail, I have a better idea of what I want to  achieve .