Drawing: Using mixed media.

This weeks session was linked to last weeks, in that we were using last weeks drawings to create these ones. I chose a small section of my shoe mountain drawing, and drew it a lot bigger on a piece of black paper. I then used mixed media (wire, paint, charcoal, chalk, masking tape, wood, fine liner, cutting out, string) to pick out details and make it more 3D.

These are some close-ups of the drawing.

I drew with coloured fine liner on the blocks of wood, as a contrast to the very big black and white marks the rest of the drawing is made of.

I enjoyed doing this and experimenting mixing media I haven't used together before, but I did get very messy.

Fashion: 3D modelling

 In fashion, we were looking at shape, rather than trying to make a garment that fits to the body. To create the shapes, I used a pattern piece for a sleeve, and drew around it, then overlapped the same shape over the top, and kept slitting the piece and pulling it out, to create interesting patterns and shapes. I used the photocopier to make some of the shapes bigger, to make them have more visual impact when I pinned them on the mannequin. I think some of the best designs came from when I experimented pinning the shapes in places that weren't obvious, so not to make a garment, but put them in more unexpected places. I found this gave more interesting results.

More paper models.

One of the reasons I chose my object in the first place was because I found it interesting that the middle part (the green bit) spins, so I decided to make a model to try to capture that. I wanted to show the roundness and movement, so I used scoring and folding to make a shape that I thought conveyed this. I started with  a quarter of a circle, and scored curved lines on both sides then folded it. to get it to spin, I wrapped the end around a metal pole, and threaded it through a slit in the other side so it was secure, but could still move around the pole. I made more of the same shape and put them in size order on the pole, with some going opposite ways.

I think the photo looks as if it is a snapshot taken when it was spinning because of the way the pieces curve. I also like how it looks very organic from the top.

  I made another to go with it, using the same method, but with semicircles instead of quarters. This meant there were no straight edges like on the first one. I liked how this captured the shape of the object better, but it didn't seem to me to have as much of a sense of movement as the first one. I think this might be because the pieces are thinner so they don't overlap as much.

   Once I had made these, I thought that they would make good lamps if a small light was placed under each of the paper petals, or they could be sculptures, put at either side of a doorway.

3D paper models

We used the same objects for our paper models that we used for our ink drawings. The aim was not to make a model of the object itself, but one inspired by it. One of my favourite parts of the object was the little screws on each end, so I decided to try to make a model which incorporated that spiral.  I decided the base of it would be a cylinder, and I wanted the screw thread to come out from the cylinder all the way round. To make it one continuous spiral, I drew diagonal lines on my paper, so that the end of one line was level horizontally with the start of the next. I then cut slits and folded the paper so the lines stuck out, Similar to making a paper lantern. When I curled the paper into a cylinder and secured it with masking tape, the spiral looked like one continuous line.

I then started thinking about fastening it without using anything other than the paper itself. I thought the best way to do this would be little tabs one one side and slits on the other. I folded the tabs back on themselves inside the cylinder so they wouldn't slip back through.

  I realise my explanation may not have made sense to everyone, so I have made a colour-coded diagram of where each diagonal line on my flat piece of paper goes when it is made into a cylinder.

The end of the red line meets the start of the yellow line, the end of the yellow line meets the start of the green line, etc. Hope that makes sense!

Indian Ink

 The first drawings are done in graphite stick, to try to be freer and more sketchy. We then moved on to indian ink, using strips of card to draw with, so smaller details were done with the very edge of the card, and shading and larger parts with the flat part. I was quite pleased with my shading by the end. I like the semi-transparent nature of the ink because you can go over it to get darker tones and shadows but it also fades into light so there's a good range of tones from just one type of ink.

Line Drawing

This is my line drawing of a coffee percolator which I did in pencil, without using shading. I found it hard to get the lines straight and make it look 3D. I  also struggled getting the top and the bottom curves equal. I then chose to use a 9B graphite stick to get a more definite line. I drew the ellipses first, to get them lined up, and then drew my next line drawing. I found that this was more successful because the proportions were right and because the lines were darker I think it communicated the shape and form better.

   We also tried drawing objects with as few marks as possible (each time the pencil lifted off the paper counted as a mark). I drew a phone using nine marks. I found this very interesting because it made me really think about which lines were important, and what could be left out without affecting the communication of the object to the viewer. I quite enjoyed the challenge of drawing in such a stripped-back and basic style.