Combining Traditional Mediums and Digital Media

Hey guys! So here I am again with a new post! However, this is a new (old) post... Let me explain!

So I was going through my blog posts and noticed I have barely experimented with Digital media, so I decided to take some of my favourite pieces and give them a digital element. My friend had been recommending I use the Photoshop 'Blur' tool, so here I have used the 'Blur' tool and recreated some of my images!

Blurred

Original

Blurred

Original

Blurred

Original

Blurred

Original

Vaseline and Graphite Dust Experiments

 So I was going through my pictures and I found this oldies that I did at the start of my project! I can't believe I forgot about these, I find them really interesting and visually stunning!

These are Graphite Dust and Vaseline finger drawings, the idea is to use both of these mediums to create and image and the possibilities of techniques and ways to manipulate them is endless! You could draw a picture of something in Vaseline then pour/sprinkle Graphite Dust on top of the Vaseline, or you could mix them up and draw with it etc. 

For the piece above I smudged Vaseline over my paper then added Graphite Dust mixed with White Spirit and painted it on. Then used my fingers to draw (a rather crude) looking skull. Then wanted to add texture to the piece by smudging and removing some of the area surrounding the skull, I did this with a dry paint brush.

For my next piece I got a blob of Vaseline and drew a circle, I the poured Graphite Dust on top of the Vaseline. I decided with this piece I was going to work the Vaseline/Graphite Dust into the skull, and the overall look is above!

This was the last Experiment I made. For this piece I dribbled White Spirit on to the tracing paper and let it run while I held it up. Then got Vaseline on my finger and drew a skull shape around the running Graphite. Once it had stabilized I held it up to the window to see the full effect and took this picture. The Graphite had stayed where I had poured it but the Spirits had bled around the page which gives it a contrasting look and the skull shape is barely visible giving the piece a more abstract edge to it!

Going Tribal/Childish!

Hey! So this week I had fun using my thumbs and fingers...

I did finger and thumb painting as a way to make marks and create a picture!

To create this I got an ink pen and covered my thumb with ink, and started to create the nose, from here I worked my way out and slowly started to add other marks by adding ink to different parts of my thumb/fingers like the nails and sides. This gave me a different a variety of marks to work with. I then started varying the different amounts of ink I put on and patterns of ink I created rather than just covering the entire thumb with ink.

Carbon Paper can be fun!

So here is a Carbon Paper study, I only did a series of quick sketches and this was my favorite.

This was one of the few works I have done in Carbon Paper because from prior use I found no being able to see what I was drawing annoying but I gave it a chance and experimented with it and this is my favourite outcome:

Experimental Mark Making

Hey! I'm back! So first session back this half-term we were put straight back to work with some experimental mark making tasks. The tasks are as follows:

1. Stick Drawing -  Attach a pencil (6B) to a Bamboo stick, stand back from your easel, and produce an observational study of an object using the stick (the idea was it gives you less control so you had to use marks to create the image)
2. Arms Length Drawing - Produce an observational study of an object at arms distance of your easel using a pencil (6B), this would give us more control than using a bamboo stick
3. Layered Drawing - First we used a 6B pencil on a bamboo stick, then go to arms length and use a 3B to get more detail, then stand half your arm length to add tone with a HB, then as close as I could to add little details with a 3H.

Here are my Results:

Layered Experiment

This experiment as you can see has the most detail. There is a lot more shade and curvature to the lines. It is quite 3D even on the picture, and you can see the constant build up of layers in the piece. Out of my 3 experiments this one is definitely my favourite just because it looks very real, 3D, the toning is well done and has great deal of control which I prefer in my drawings.

Bamboo Stick Experiment

Arms Length Experiment

This is my Bamboo Stick experiment. As you can see the are no straight lines, they are all jagged and rough with very few dark marks. This is because I could put no pressure down because of the length of the stick (it was about 3 foot long). I found this experiment interesting and fun because I had no control over the pencil and was really fighting to get the right marks.

And finally this is my arm length experiment. Because I was stuck at one distance even though it is neater than the Bamboo stick experiment, it still has less details because I had more control, in a sense I which it had more texture because the piece looks empty.