Gallery of past work

Tuesday 14 April 2015

Making a mark every day

I've recently begun trying to do some mark making every day, in a square sketch book bought for the purpose. Here are some of the most recent results, using conventional media in a way I've not used before.

First of all, I applied Liquitex ink to cartridge paper and spread it out with a palette knife over candle wax resist. In the second, I used a 2 inch fibre-marker filled with black fountain pen ink and twisted the marker as I made a diagonal sweep across the page.


And last of all, I printed with the 2 inch fibre-marker, now almost run out and producing a very dry mark,


I must do more of this, but sometime soon, I really will have to get some colour going ...


8 comments:

  1. It looks as if you are going to build up quite a treasury like this. What is wonderful about current technology is that now we can also go on to scan such marks to make further work without necessarily having to remember how the mark was made, with what, and still have the tools and materials etc.
    I like the marks you have made. The candle resist always reminds me of the beautiful drawings Henry Moore made with resist.

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    1. Thanks for your comments, Olga. As you say, modern technology is wonderful for this, It maintains the spontaneity of the exercise into the final work. I plan to photograph the ones I've found to be especially successful and then work on them. the first above will be one I think.
      Thank you also for the comment about Henry Moore and his use of resist. I'm just off to research that one!

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  2. Wonderful marks....what a great practice! And a great inspiration for further development....of any size! Thanks for the visual reminder about how rewarding this practice can be!

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    1. It's really stretching my thoughts about the making of marks - the tools, the inks and paints and the way I use them. It started as a project for a month but I've a feeling it may continue beyond that time span.

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  3. As the others said, lovely results from your explorations! I am tempted, especially with the idea of candle resist - do you actually use a wax candle?

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    1. Very many thanks, Marja-leena. I did indeed use a wax candle - a white one in this case. It makes a fine, quite delicate mark. I have also used oil pastels in the past. These seem to work especially well and to make a clearer, cleaner mark than the candle. I've also been trying out other possible resists in the last few days. Perhaps I will post when I've finished experimenting.

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  4. Excellent project - looking forward to seeing what you discover! In fact, I might have to try this too - making "a mark" every day doesn't seem too onerous, it could take mere moments ... or it could lead to who-knows-what...

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    1. Thank you very much for your encouraging comment, Margaret. One mark a day certainly isn't too onerous. The fact that I'm still going after almost a month shows how practical it is. At the start I set myself some 'rules' to prevent me from bumbling around at random. I've limited the media to be investigated and then tried to focus on exploring one kind mark each time I use it. It really makes me focus and I've already found some I want to develop further.

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