Experiments

This weekend I've been experimenting with different ways of making marks. I've been following the suggestions from the course book and combining some of the different ways.

I enjoyed it the wax/inks combinations and combined them with the rubbings to create some interesting marks. The fixative transfer method didn't work very well. I tried with magazine images and it didn't work at all, so I had a go with newspaper images, as the ink they use tends to be of slightly inferior quality - but still pretty poor results. I remember doing transfers many years ago (in the early 80s) and they worked a treat. All I could think of was that today's inks have improved considerably - either that or the solvent on my fixing spray is not as strong as it could be. Should I need to achieve that effect I can always use Photoshop on the computer, but I decided not to cheat and ended up with an almost empty page with a very faint image of Mickey Mouse.

I'm still not too clear of how many notebooks/workbooks I should be working on. I must post a question in the forum as some experienced students will be able to put me right.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed making marks on paper and I'm looking forward to 'translating' the essence and feeling of textures from images into artwork, I can't wait to get going with fabric and threads. I haven't got much experience in embroidery but the colours and yarns one can find nowadays are so beautiful...!

Other thing that concerns me is my speed (slow!). When there's a project and the time indication is of 2/3 hours I have spent around 10 hours experimenting, looking and selecting what 8 x 8cm little bits I'm going to include in the sketchbook. The good thing is that I'm enjoying doing this work. The not so good thing is that instead of 12/15 months, at this pace I might take years and years to complete the course... so note to self: SPEED UP!