DRAWING II CLASS EXHIBITION
For my independent project, I decided to delve deeper into the world of contour drawing. During the first half of the semester, I discovered that I enjoyed from-life contour drawing, so I wanted to see if I could focus on it and improve.
This project is centered around practice of drawing everyday scenes. It documents my time at home, and what the moments, spaces, and people are like. The composition and drawing style of most of my drawings are casual, and meant to make the viewer feel like they have a glimpse of that moment and space in time.
I primarily used black micron pens of varying sizes (from .005 – .5). I also used vine charcoal over an ink wash after learning and loving the technique during our life drawing unit. I drew on varying sized paper and also used different amounts of detail and precision.
Over time I have developed a “style” and have tried to stay true to that. I focus on a sturdy, confident line, and if I ‘mess up’ I just keep going. The resulting drawings are not always accurate, but I feel that sometimes they encompass the feeling of the subject or object. The goal is that my line is the translator between my environment, and how I perceive my environment.
For my project I wanted to capture the movement of liquid. Originally inspired by the melting and dripping of snow and ice, my project morphed into an exploration of oil and wax. I used vegetable oil from the supermarket, and applied it to paper in various ways. I flicked it, spun it off a bike wheel, and whacked an oil soaked branch on paper. Immediately after applying the oil, I soaked the paper in India ink and left them outside to dry.
The oil creates interesting effects especially in terms of its interaction with light shining through the paper. However, I wanted the splatters to be cleaner and sharper edged, and tried a similar method using paraffin wax. I melted blocks of wax in the microwave, and used various methods of spraying and dripping it onto paper. Then instead of dipping the paper, I used a sponge soaked with india ink to apply the ink to the paper, revealing a hidden splatter design.
As you can see from the different pieces displayed, this project was very experimental. I explored ink application techniques, splatter techniques, and paper types. These variables affected the final outcome of the pieces and created different impressions on the different sheets.