Large Scale Sketchbook Week 5 : working with drawings

 Week 5 of Large Scale Sketchbook  and because I'd missed 2 sessions, I was first to have Tony's input into how I might use the 'data' collected in the Cast Courts  to  work with in the sketchbook. Some very interesting ideas  which I  tried to record quickly in my notebook before I forgot it all! Way too much for 1 weeks  work.

1. When I  looked through my photos alongside my drawings, I was struck by how the shapes in the helmet etc echoed  and interacted with those of the architecture. I also liked the details of sculptures in the background, how they play with your sense of scale and space   and the strange juxtaposition

 2. Looking  at tone, the contrast of the rough, dark,  backs with the finer, lighter,  details of the fronts of the busts . Homework:  add  tonal values in ink to the original drawings , to photocopy next time. 

3. I'd taken lots of photos circling around the subject  from different viewpoints ( and different interactions with the background). We talked about how I might combine all these images together to make  a sort of 3 D version. It would probably work better as a separate 'artists book' ( perhaps star shape)  but  if I wanted to work with it in the sketchbook itself, perhaps I could use a concertina structure using a couple of pages?  I had printed out thumbnail  'contact prints'  so cut out the relevant ones and stuck them in my notebook to remind myself of what to print out for next week. Perhaps tracing of the shapes and overlaying them would work..... 

So many possibilities, I started  as most people did   combining  photocopies of drawings and photos,  cutting out shapes, adding  extra drawing to make linkages between different elements.

  Already looking interesting looking at repetition of shapes  and lines 

This started  with cutting out the bust from a photo then extending the lines  with graphite

Then I cut through the pages  and the applied fairly strong  ink wash 

Applying more ink to the back, the layers are beginning to look interesting  and starting to lose sense of what you're looking at 

My favourite double page spread - I like the shapes that are developing around the figures, the contrast between the white space and the complexity. 

The list of things to do before the next class is growing.  Besides  adding  darker tones to my original drawings  and printing off more photos,   I was thinking back to some of the  lessons I learnt from the collage course: making rubbings of layered collage   and combining cutouts and tracings. Must add tracing paper and masking tape to my list. 

Contemporary Collage Week 7 : 'Pop Collage' ( and transfer techniques)

I missed last weeks class on 'Assemblage'  as I was in Rydal but  had sort of incorporated elements of that in my box constructions of the  week before. This week we were told to bring in an  A3 photograph  to cut up and recompose as a suitable under painting  and a song lyric or title. I spent Sunday afternoon on my return looking for suitable images and choosing  a song ( ' The Tide is High ( and I'm holding on' ) by Debbie Harry, one of the 80's soundtrack I pedal to on the excercise bike) ! I toyed with ' Startrekking' ....  In the end I needn't have bothered , what was needed was  any collage suitable for taking further using drawing, paint and transfer techniques . I had my ' Scrap' book with me  so Simon  photocopied pages from this up to A3 size 

 I took tracings of the outlines of this 'Greek God'  collection  then did another tracing of the shapes 

The First technique I tried was using carbon paper under the tracing and then applying inks to the resulting drawing 

Mixed results with monoprinting : we inked up acetate sheets and placed paper and  then tracing or photocopy on top and drew through the layers. Too many variable of paper ( wet , damp or dry) , pressure , how much ink on the acetate , these ( above, below and top ) are the least worst. 

I had better success  with the tracings of faces then monoprint.( carbon paper also worked well for this)  

While I was waiting for my  scrap book and photocopies, I put together a quick   A3 collage of circles and curves to use 

 I used this as a basis for colour monoprinting: placing image under acetate sheet, colouring areas with coloured printing ink and transferring acetate to dampened piece of paper. 

I've had much better results using monoprinting before  both  as a drawing medium and using acrylic/ seletescine inks  on fabric . However I like the idea of using a collage as a starting point for painting  and might explore using different colour  carbon papers 

Meanwhile collage materials are taking over my studio! As a newbie to this technique, how do people store and organise all their bits?