doodles on inks on tissue paper on the last page…
…a book with another happy ending!
beginning of a new adventure
I started the page a day project on 16 March this year. 3 books and 6 months later, what began as a whim rapidly snowballed into an all-out obsession, and I have loved ever minute of it!
This is starting to sound a bit final, a bit endy, and it isn’t that at all. Although I won’t be starting the inevitable book 4 straight away…
Tomorrow I enrol at art school to begin my degree.
I did the same last year, but cos of lack of applicants/the college’s hugely disorganised system, we found out on enrollment day there was no degree course.
My fallback plan was to use this year as training, practice, to develop and explore my creativity alone.
It’s my belief that life throws us curve balls sometimes which don’t make sense til later. It turned out that the last year also saw my home life turned upside down. If I’d been at school most likely I would’ve missed time and been fairly unfocussed as a result. Instead what I needed to balance this chaos was plenty of quiet alone time and to throw my soul into my art. Which I’ve certainly done!
At the time of typing to you, I’m in that space between kid-on-christmas-eve-anticiptation and yeh-like-it’s-gonna-actually-happen-this-time-cynicism. Gotta say, this isn’t a comfy space, but one way or the other, I’ll know by this time tomorrow!
So, watch this space folks – I’ll let you know tomorrow! 😉
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day last-but-one
While I was playing with my new inks last week, I developed some of these experiments on Thursday’s and Friday’s pages
With a thick coating of white gesso on part of the page, scribed with pencil for deep furrows of swirl, the inks had routes to wander around
and new routes made with small watercolor brush, trying the page together as a whole.
The ‘day last-but-one’ thing – well, I’ll explain that bit later…. 😉
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never say never (ever)
If there’s one thing that will motivate me into action, it’s being told that I can’t do something. Even (or especially) when the person doing the telling is me.
In reaction to a phrase in my last post “When space limits me to work on just one project at time…” Uha, really? I went on “… working within the parameters of my living/painting space, I have to exercise a little more self discipline…” I have to what? Says who??
Working on small (8″ x 10″ and smaller … often scraps) scale, there’s really no excuse, there’s no ‘no space’ that can’t be remedied with a small amount of putting stuff away!
Settled with a selection of old doodles on watercolor paper, some bottles of ink and water; and the giddy enthusiasm of new colors, I soon had a small dripping/drying/oozing/dribbling production line set up.
Aided greatly by the way I work – splashy and messy – no harm can come from cross contamination and minor spillages.
In fact, I ended up using the least soggy works to mop up some of the more puddly over waterings
Release from these self imposed boundaries!
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subtlety
The range of colors, the colors themselves, all add up to a mood or visual sensation. By changing the hues, we change much more.
Restricting colors (I find this a BIG challenge!) is a technique I am striving towards.
When space limits me to work on just one project at time, the Inner Kid won’t listen to me. “More Colors!” is the constant command.
If I had a few pieces on the go and space to dip between them this would be much more simple
But for now, working within the parameters of my living/painting space, I have to exercise a little more self discipline to make these more subtle images happen
Initially this page was to be just 2 colors: Olive green and burnt orange.
So the fact that I only allowed in some different shades of orange, I consider a victory!
And the results have (for now at least) left Inner Kid in slightly hushed awe: Maybe less is more!
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The Spirit of Fizzing Zing
I don’t think any of us are surprised to find, that after a monochrome day there was a pent up explosion of color just ready to burst out of my head onto the page!
Dripped ink puddles on the page
But before the top layer of writing /doodles, these puddles need *something*
They need some …. they need to fizz … to explode
There’s a spirit in wet ink that just has to be coaxed out
Enlivening, twisting, meandering. These lines come by dragging threads through the puddles
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Monochrome Monday
I’ve thought about a black and white page for a while.
I’ve even tried.
But resisting any color at all was harder than I cared to admit!
Anyway, prompted by John Clinock of Art Rat Cafe I determined to give it another go. Armed just with black and white gesso, black and white Dr PH Martens’ Bombay Inks, black and white gel pens, this is what happened!
I’d do it again – thanks for the nudge, John!
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Mixed Mish Mash
This weekend I spent playing with ink on gesso and acrylic medium.
Dripping, spraying, dribbling and seeing where the runs take it.
On wet and dry gesso, ink on wet inks, ink mixed in with medium, water on dry inks… all sorts of permutations. The circles in the gesso came from the end of the drinking straw I was blowing some ink about with. Good messy fun!
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ink runs
Two pages in one post,
Playing with ink never tires, never gets samey, never ceases to amuse me.
Alternating between transparent, opaque, and water in drips and runs, watching the pigments flow and merge;
Pulling at the puddle edges with a brush or pen or stick… imprinting in wet ink…
Big love for ink!
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ink dribbles
Remember the watermarked dyed paper ?
This week I’ve been playing with ink (quite a lot!) So it followed that where water does one thing, ink should do similar but with more colorful results!
I used Pebeo Colorex ink (Chartreuse. My fav color de jour!) they have a real glowing transparency and mouth-wateringly rich color! On pre-scrumpled paper they run deliciously through the landscape of the paper’s surface.
The quilt-making (more on that later) is my current obsession, and the urge to stitch is cropping up everywhere!
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