Wednesday’s page started out with the results of playing with dye and rice. I poured rice onto the puddles of dye that’d spilled onto the page
As the rice absorbed the water in the dye, the concentration of the pigment outlined the grains.
I’ll post what happened to this page later…
As the cut out shapes from Sunday echo through the pages, Tuesday bore the same linear curves and disconnected egdes through which a glimpse of Thursday…
Much coloring, inking, paint splatting later, the page evolves through different color groups and combinations. A journey of a day! 🙂
…and photographing it!
As I type to you the final drippings and runnings of this page a doing their thing, which give me the chance to show you some more bits of page.
After scribbly ink and doodles I wanted to knock back some of the busy color and detail, which I did with a mix of acrylic and guache. Sliding and scraping with palette knife.
I wanted to liven up the texture, so used coarse pumice gel and – what’s to hand? – aha! leftover dyed rice! Then a swish of spray ink…
Only drying time will tell if the rice sticks, but even if it doesn’t, it’ll leave some nice rice-scars behind. Happy either way!
I love the way the wet media allow the pigments to travel, gather, collect together in bands. In these colors it reminds me a little of malachite
Embarking on a project like a page a day, without an aim in sight, more a stretch of the journey traveled in a new fashion, has to be done without expectations.
I’ve doodled and made art since before I can remember. Habitually, obsessively, because I love the process, and because (probably like all artists) I have to.
This is a different approach: One book that daily documents my trials and tribulations of the moment in color and shape, tone and imagination. Day in, day out. And then spilling out the results out into the interweb.
Having pondered if the pages might soon look samey, I’m starting to realise the range and variety of imagery that can be created.
By observing small slices of each page on screen, perspective changes. Fresh ideas emerge.
The inspiration from something touched upon days prior can be reignited afresh when a blank page beckons.
And an unexpected bonus is to be blessed by the delightful and encouraging words from folks who join along the way, Big thank you! 😀
When I began this project (a month ago today) I had no idea how long I’d stick with it. Or how easy/difficult, much fun/much of a slog, it would become.
Or for what reason I wanted to do it.
But I did want to.
So I began.
Ingredients:
That’s it, no rules.
Just one page at a time. One day at a time
(With maybe a little to-ing and fro-ing in between, but with the majority of today’s page being created today.)
Day 1: 16 March 2012. A Friday.
Home from work with the whole evening set aside to arty things, with the possibility to spill out over the weekend.
And wow did it spill! Everyday is painted, collaged, drawn on, doodled on, written on; dripped, splished and splatted on.
(I’ve posted previous pages if you’re interested here, here, here. And here n here!)
There are days that I’m more pleased with the result than others, but isn’t that a metaphor! If I find something really wanting on a page I’ll go back and add it. Using my sketchbook as a work surface (no drips of color go to waste in my world!) means some ‘new’ pages will begin with splishes and spills of color. S’okay.
Today ‘s page looks a lot like a page with inky paper towels stuck to it.
That’s cool. Cos I’m not so interested in what the page as a whole looks like.
These are the bits I like.
The miniature landscapes,
The inter-mingling of inks and dyes,
The light and the shade cast by wrinkles and dimples.
it’s been over a week since the last round up of daily sketchbookery, here are some of the last week-and-a-bit’s additions…
Scraps of dyed paper are beginning to crop up
I’d been hunting through old magazines for some silhouettes to use, I’ve a feeling these might make a few appearances in pages to come.
The faces were cut out from some over-printings (more on this later)
If I had to choose a geometric shape, I would choose the circle.
These doodlings are a form of meditation.
the words themselves are unimportant
The pen walks around, and my bitty thoughts are released.
I’ll add some more later 😀 Thanks for looking
The anticipation of unpeeling and revealing the results of the paper dying exploration is magical!
Using a blank page from my sketchbook to work on for the paper dying episodes has a threefold purpose:
Where some people see scrap, I often see ingredients.
Only when it really doesn’t fit with social expectations can I curb my collecting, but I will usually come home with something I didn’t leave the house with earlier in the day.
Leaves, paper scraps, foil and cellophane from sweets, sketches and photos of interesting shapes, patterns and textures; jotted words and phrases from the radio, books, internet or my own head. Findings!
Today I resisted the feathers I saw scattered on the verge as I walked to work. Thinking roadkill, bird-flu, infection, dirt. I saw more feathers, one was 7-8 inches long with a fluffy plumed edge and speckly pattern. Conscious of passing driver’s impression of a grown adult picking up and stashing litter from the roadside. More feathers, smaller but irresistibly velvety. Their owner must have come to an unfortunate end to lose so many clothes. Pheasant? (no corpse), idk.
Thinking aside, when I got to work there was, in my bag, a perfect, elegant, inspirational, new-to-me ingredient.
It wasn’t until I photographed it I discovered it’s a feather and a half!
It might be a subject to draw, a shape to photograph, to inspire. It might act as a brush, then retire to join one of many collages. When the time comes, it will be an ingredient in at least one something I make.
It also looks (to me) like a tiny porcupine with no face.
I’ve shared some little snips and bits of my doodlings with you over the last few days to introduce you to my projects. Today I thought I’d explain a little more of how some pages come about.
I advocate the belief that art materials can be made of pretty most anything. Beyond “making use”, “recycling” or other worthy intents, this is closer to a manic scavenging, edged with disproportionate glee, in discovering a source of free material that is unwanted by the world.
The basis of this page is a case in point. I work in an office, everyday there’s a delivery of interestingly patterned paper. Business envelopes.
Opened up, inside outed to see the squiggly abstract patterning, the best of the bunch get flattened and hoarded up for later.
I’d already dyed some envelopes, by layering them in a plastic tray (yup, scavenged from the kitchen) with dilute Procion dyes and inks in shades of blues and green. Purely experimental. Or just mental? Whatever, in their soggy state the pre-gummed bits re-gummed themselves to their neighbours. This page made use of the scrappy torn bits, picked apart shreds + the borders around the windows, (window frames?) deemed too bitty to save for future who-knows-whattery.
Collaging with Mod Podge, I built up a background for doodling on. Before it dried I added more color with little sprinklings of dry Brusho powder in gamboge, lemon and orange. Swishing with water got the colors to liven up a bit before being left to dry.
Layered up 3-4 deep in places, the overlaps and natural crunkling of the paper caused by heavy dosing with liquid, gave an undulating surface. Less camera-friendly (at least at the time of light I chose), but pleasing to draw on as the contours and furrows guide the lines on which the patterns build.
The doodlings take on a life of their own in a setting like this. Torn edges and inky tide marks sew the seeds from which the lines grow. The padded quality of the surface make biro doodles dimensional as the pressure of the ballpoint makes indented patterns. Marker pen sits on the surface and gives iridescent sheen at the right angle of light. Felt pens glide over the surface and make subtle marks.
Torn words grow new meanings, Private & Confidential became Obstinate & Conscious.
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