Sketchbook ideas

Water, Paper, Paint by Heather Smith Jones

More printing materials...

• Kitchen roll & toilet roll
• Thread! For the wood grain
• Styrofoam... Plain and marked.

Try monotype (page 109)

Use contact paper to mask areas (page 83)

Sketchbook ideas...

Ideas from Sketchbook Challenge By Sue Bleiweiss

Adding background colour

• After painting something, offload any extra paint onto blank sketchbook pages...
• ...embellish further with bubblewrap, cling film, tissue papers or indeed printing that paper onto another sheet.
• Look into spray inks and use them with stencils
• Paint papers using a brayer. Squeeze paint onto a surface in squiggles place paper on top and roll over with a brayer. Lift off and let it dry. Repeat with more paper.

Grain

I've taken some rubbings of the platform. And I wanted to explore the lines of the wood grain further.

 

A simple back stitch would be effective here.

 

I also experimented with masking fluid...

 

I think I'd like to explore this further... Maybe take more time to apply the masking fluid more finely.

 

Grass 2

Bubble wrap prints with thick paint...

 

Great texture! Need to take some rubbings of these!

Colour study 1

I have started a colour study in my sketchbook. Firstly using paint and collage, glued onto a large sketch of the platform.

I couldn't resist some photo manipulation as I found the coloured squares very interesting!

 

I love the boldness of this version... I always find black and white very appealing. However by applying some abstract filters I created this version...

 

A very different colour scheme from the original photo! Love the contrasting colours.

This is a very different effect. Perhaps a truer reflection if the original photo... A more muted colour scheme.

I think I would like to explore these colour studies more... Perhaps printing on fabric with stitching on top...

 

Grass

I've started an exploration of the grass beneath the platform...

This includes trying to cut a stamp... This needs extra work!

 

Tried some paper weaving...

 

These papers were cut from a gardening magazine. This provided lots of texture.

 

I love this manipulated photo using grunge filters in my editing software.

 

The colours now look very dramatic and the surface texture very interesting... Holes, crinkles and an almost burnt effect.

I think I'd like to try applying paint to grass and taking a print of that... Need a dry day though!

 

Oops... Lost my way

It has been a while... Not sure why, except other things have been more important and then I got out the habit... Especially documenting what I'm doing...

 

So, to recap. I'm using this surface as my inspiration...

 

So far I have started a colour study and explored the texture of the surface and the grass beneath. I've taken some rubbings and tried out some printing... I've also been playing about with the photographs.

 

Large prints, 8"x 10", cut and reassembled...

 

 

Blog review

Further things to explore after reading through my blog posts...

• Use the wax resist rubbings but paint over with different colours - greys, greens, browns.
  
• Create and cut out some the design elements and use in a collage to recreate the original photos. For example the stamped screw head, the wax resist grain, the wood knot rubbing...
• Explore the grass texture...
• Paint some backgrounds and use the eraser stamp on top
• Explore the contrast between the smoother, regular structure of the platform and the grass beneath it.
• Make a wood knot stamp.

Posted with Blogsy

Printing 1

 

Took some time to make some small stamps of the screw heads and printed some papers using them and black ink...

The one on the left is blu tac pressed into a raised screw head. The one on the right is cut from an eraser.

 

Blu Tac - the holes from screw driver did not print clearly, just the centre point printed. An interesting print but no connection with the original surface despite the stamp being an actual screw head impression.

 

carved eraser - love this one, especially the texture from the combined smooth eraser and the spongy ink pad. A more abstract representation of a screw head.

For both prints I really like the bold graphic pattern and the variation in ink intensity

I'm going to doodle around this...

 

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Rubbings 3 and some ideas to explore

 

Continuing exploration through taking rubbings... Of the knots in the wood grain. Started to think about mark making with stitches.

 

Some ideas to explore... How to make marks, both on paper and fabric and in stitch.

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Rubbings 2

 

I took a rubbing of the screw heads on the wooden platform. This is the other side of the paper.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Rubbings 1

I started my exploration by taking some rubbings of the surface using wax crayon, pencil and charcoal.

 

The grain of wooden surface was quite rough in parts... Knots in the wood and the rusty screw heads added extra interest. I also liked the void created between the planks. This was not immediately obvious in the original photo as the grass beneath it made it seem quite flat and 2 dimensional.

 

 

 

Some patterns emerged within the grain... Some undulating others thick and thin.

 

I like the boldness of the charcoal rubbing. And the wax resist worked quite well too.

 

 

 

 

This background was created using the edge of board dipped in black paint and stamped across the pages. The spots were a happy accident... Like screw heads.

 

 

Repeated rubbings over the screw heads was interesting too...

 

 

And led to this bubble wrap print... A background for further work in my sketchbook.

 

 

Some wax crayon rubbings of the knots.... interesting shapes to stitch.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wooden platform

I have decided to use the wooden platform as my surface...

 

I like the regular shapes, the texture of the wood and screws. I like the vibrancy of the green peaking through the neutral washed out planks of wood.

 

 

 

I couldn't resist some photoshopping of the image.... Black and white and a negative image.

I think these show the graphic quality of the shapes and the texture of the grain very well.

On the negative image the grass looks like its been made by printing with crumpled paper, the screw heads like sparkling stars...


 

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Surface 2

This is part of the garden wall.

I love the foliage growing between the bricks and the contrast between the green and the reddy bricks.

The foliage looks delicate but is obviously persistent and strong to force its way through the mortar of the brick wall

If I had taken a photo of the climbing platform two weeks ago the grass would have been forcing its way through the wooden slats...

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Surface 1

The platform from Elizabeth's climbing frame.

It's quite worn and the wood is untreated.

I like the wood grain, rusty nails and the green grass peeping through.

 

It may be too limited in colour and in shapes. Lots of lines though!

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Testing testing

Setting up Blogsy too...

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testing testing

This is the first blog post on my Distant Stitch blog...