Certificate Module 5 Chapter 11: Design from Landscape

5.11.1

Flat textures on paper

 The first task ( and a most enjoyable one) was to decorate some papers, first with some flat textures, using ink, bleach, paint, crayons and rubbings.  After using only black and white all through the module so far, we were now free to choose one main colour for this chapter.  I felt that I should choose a colour from my original source material, so brown or green from the trees and bushes that were my main design source.  However, I had worked before with very dilute Quink black ink and was very drawn to the result as the black separates into mostly pale blue with occasional patches of an Amber brown.  

In my personal life, I have used the quiet time at home during lockdown to take charge of my own life and jettison the oughts and shoulds that for some time have dominated my life.  So, I decided to trust my instincts and go with the Quink.

I did lots of rubbings onto thin copy paper using white and pearlised oil bars.  I then washed over with very dilute Quink ink, using a pipette to add splashes of ink or water.  On some, I added some marks with pen, either a dip pen with diluted ink or a white gel pen and with the end of a paintbrush dipped in white acrylic paint.  I cut out small rectangles and glued them onto an A3 piece of cartridge paper to see how they looked together.

One of the most interesting group of results was when I made a stack of some papers that had turned out a bit dull, laid them on a piece of polythene and saturated the whole pile with water and ink.

In the past I've got stuck with my Distant Stitch work, mostly because I haven't had the time or the impetus to continue.  I think I might get stuck for a bit on this chapter because it's so much fun I want to carry on doing it!