In between classes of Contemporary Drawing Sketchbook, with only 2 classes for project work I realised I had to focus on a single, relatively simple subject to get the most out of it. When I discussed it with the tutor , she was pleased I'd moved away from work based on hand/fingerprints/ x-ray which is going back over familiar territory but looking at something new.
I returned to the sketches I'd done at the Wellcome of the electrical discharge patterns of Martin Van Marum( who sounds rather a ruthless character) in a book from 1787. I loved the format itself with a 4 page fold-out of an etching with wonderful marks and finally managed to track down an image of it online.
I also managed to find some illustrations of the incredible equipment (electrostatic generator) used to create the discharge.
Once I'd played around in Photoshop using 'invert' filter I got very excited with the idea of 'positive/negative' - how different the same image looks and the possibilities for exploring the same image in different media and on different scales.
And then looking through book on handmade books I found the structure I want to work with - and accordion with 2 sewn in pamphlets, giving opportunity for long spreads in combination with changing interactions with neighbouring pages. Making a small model help in clarifying what I wanted to do.
Just as well I had decided on structure and content as we had even more techniques thrown at us ( monotype, colourwash with inks, ballpoint drawing and scraffito techniques with scoring and rubbed in graphite). So after I'd painted the strips of watercolour paper I'd brought from home, I had time to experiment with these. Others were feeling rather more overwhelmed - all these new techniques but no time to explore them properly.
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