Mixed media: work in progress.
Sometimes when you’re drawing you get into the physical act of it, where you’re not just trying to create an image of something, but you’re also getting into the beauty of the mark. I had one of those moments earlier today when I was working on a large drawing in the studio. This started life as a life drawing in my sketchbook and has been through a couple of incarnations as a direct line monotype and more recently as a large three-colour monotype. I really like the original image so I decided to work it up as a very large drawing which will probably be the basis for a mixed media piece that I’ll work on after Xmas.
I started off with a large piece of Fabriano 350gsm that I’d previously coated with an acrylic ink / medium mixture, applying it randomly with a squeegee. I started to work up the drawing in black and white conté crayons and then went over the black lines with a transparent oil bar. The bar made the conté line semi-liquid and it flowed beautifully. I got right into the physicality of it and when I stood back to look at it, the line wasn’t at all true to nature but nevertheless it’s a gorgeous, sensual, lush line. In my humble opinion. Sometimes that’s enough.
Very beautiful. I see images like this in old buildings– shapes that seem to create themselves. I feel like you captured that same feeling of surprise. I like it very much.
Thanks Amanda – sometimes a beautiful line, tone or colour seems to jump out at you. Perhaps that’s what makes us artists
Fabulous work! I love the spine, it is like tightly wound wire – stresssss
Thank you. It was fun to do – I really loosened up with my drawing 🙂