This mark making workshop was to build up an understanding and appreciation of the value of mark-making in range of creative disciplines, by experimenting with practical elements in mark-making using traditional and experimental tools, techniques and
methods. We refined our experiments and assessed their meanings.
We began by selecting our materials, methods, tools and medium. We tore up A3 pieces of paper into 16 pieces of A5. I chose an assortment of natural tools such as bits of plants, leaves and bark and some unnatural tools such as plastic tops, lids from paint pots, a plastic straw, cotton thread, polystyrene, and ribbon. The medium used was black ink and acrylic paint, white acrylic and water.
I loved working with the textures of each tool, creating pattern, line and shape. The unpredictability of the black ink on cotton thread and straw was my favourite. The way the cotton thread fell onto the blank space and created swirls and twists. The straw created distorted explosions. I love creating negative space within my art. Negative space creates tension on the subject and this did just that. I tried the cotton firstly along with polystyrene and didn’t like it so hen developed it and did a piece just with cotton thread and it worked a lot better along with the negative space. The expressive elements to it were allusive and infinite.
The straw brought a whole new dynamic to the unpredictability of the marks. As soon as I blew through the straw I didn’t know which way the ink would run. I could direct it at points and after a while I got to know the medium quite well and the way it moved. I’d love to do a bigger piece using both of these techniques and in colour to bring vibrancy and other emotive contexts to it. The finished small piece felt gothic and organic.
Another of the techniques I used which I particularly liked was black ink in a pipette and splatting it onto the page. It looked like blood splatters, which brought a dark expression to the piece. Again there was unpredictability to this too and also having the negative space created tension on the marks made. Adding water to the ink on the page created a different opacity and I felt it didn’t work as well but I was still happy with the end results.
Using black ink on white worked really well, creating contrast and tone.
This was a fantastic experimentation into my creative practice and I learnt a lot about what style of artist I am and would like to be. There is a distinct theme I have when it comes to art that relates to negative space and contrast creating tension on whatever I am forming.
We collected natural materials outside to make our own painting tools, which was fun. I collected some tree ferns, needles and dead leaves and attached them to some thin bits of wood with string. I really loved how these turned out aesthetically, however I wasn’t as keen on the effect they gave when painting. I would prefer to find some more natural materials and try this again and see if I can find something that gives a nicer effect to paint with.
Once I had completed my 16 pieces that included a range of different experiments using various tools I picked 4 that I liked the best and felt worked well. We then had a peer evaluation and looked at adjectives to describe our pieces. We then put the rest into a collage to fix into our spaces.
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