The last research exercise showed me how a medium can be used completely differently between two different artists. For this exercise, I was tasked to investigate different media or processes and see what I could do with them. Rather than pick one medium and do different studies, I decided to pick three media that would push me outside of my comfort zone because I am not used to using them.
Acrylic Paint
I very rarely get my tubes of Acrylic paint out of their box. I used them a lot at GCSE, and was happy with them then, but many years of atrophy has made me really uncomfortable with them. So I decided to try and experiment as a beginner, playing with different brushes and strokes first, then starting to experiment with the interplay between colours.
After I had done two pages, I was interested in the ability to glaze and layer the acrylics, so I decided to play around with more layering. This time, as an extra 'layer' I decided to introduce some resists using washi tape. I removed the tape at different times, meaning I made the layering more complex, and by the time I removed it all, I wasn't anticipating the outcome. I then added more layers on top.
Taking the resists one step further, I then splattered another sheet with masking fluid using a wire brush. After it was dry I decided to see if I could replicate the wet-in-wet techniques used with watercolour. I was pleased with the paint's ability to do this, but the results were interesting and not exactly what I expected.
What I loved was the result once I had removed the masking fluid, it gives this amazing texture, and the larger blobs actually look like they are white paint, not plain paper!
Water-Soluble Pastels
Hands up if you love Crayola? Pastels are another area where I am very uncomfortable. I have no idea how people use them to achieve amazing, details images. Every time I use them it looks like I have been raiding my son's crayon stash.
For the first page, I wanted to play with how I might be able to blend the colours - given that they are water-soluble pastels. I then used a white pastel on top, making loops. It was interesting to see how the white crayon acted more like a blender than a distinct colour. I was struggling with what to try next. I was listening to an audiobook of James Victore's book "Feck Perfuction" (Victore, 2019). And I just heard the statement that the best work comes from your ability to be prolific, not perfect. So I just wrote that as a statement. It allowed me to move forward and I decided to try to make different types of marks with my pastels.
For page three, I was inspired by my capture of text as part of my work. It made me think of the amazing typographic work of Tash Willcocks [1]. I decided to see if I could create a composition completely made of text, so as I listened to the audiobook I wrote down inspiring or useful phrases as I noticed them, changing the scale and layout each time, building up layer on layer of text. I like the way that some of it is easy to read, and some phrases are almost hidden because they are not immediately obvious.
My fourth page was as a result of me doing a bark rubbing while I was doing some tree exploration work. it made me think if I could use the textural aspects of pastels to represent natural flora.
Collage
I decided to add in another chapter after tidying up my hall, which had become full of junk mail, particularly in the run up to the general election. SO I decided to see what I could do with collage, setting my constraint that most of the material had the be from the junk mail we had accumulated.
I am really pleased with the last two images. There was something very freeing in the constraint. I particularly enjoyed and am proud of the second image. For the third image, I had an old clothes catalogue, where they use the same models for the different photographs. I found it suddenly very absurd, and the image of the picture above popped into my head. I think it's very surreal, a little creepy but deeply amusing. I am really pleased with it.
Trying different processes has as times been hard, I feel shackled by a hidden expectation, and it stops me starting, let alone moving forward. The most successful parts of this exercise have been when I have been able to detach my brain somewhat, and just do the first thing that comes to me.
Willcocks, T. (2019). Tash Willcocks (@tashwillcocks) • Instagram photos and videos. [online] Instagram.com. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/tashwillcocks/.
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