M4 ch4 Sgraffito

4.4.1  A sgraffito drawing.  Had to look up sgraffito in the dictionary, so that's a new word I've learnt.  I found this a lot more difficult than I expected. 
My pohuatkawa fairy has become a rainbow fairy, and I'm afraid she thinks she's Superman as I forgot to turn her round! I used wax crayons and gouche paint with fairy liquid added.  I haven't quite got the proportions right as I didn't leave enough room for legs but once you start on this sort of drawing there's no turning back.  I wouldn't use purple again as it came away with the paint.

 All these next pictures were covered in gouche but I tried different base materials. The base colours were a bit of pot luck as some time elapses between making the boards and scratching them.  Some I remembered, some not. The foxgloves had wax crayon and the colours are really vibrant.  I used Markels for the grass of parnassus.  The actual flowers are white but not only are my markels greens and browns they came away with the paint.  The toadstool has a pastel background and I think these worked well.
These are more experiments.  The seagull has a wax background covered with 123, a paint which covers anything.  It did but it also wanted to peel off in a sheet so was quite tricky to scratch off. 
The toadstools are also covered with 123 with a markel background.  This time the markel didn't come too and I like the gold.  I also indulged the 123 and let it peel off. 
The water reeds (just realised they're upsidedown!) had a pastel background covered with emulsion paint. The emulsion chipped off a bit so I didn't add make the reeds as thick as I would have done if I'd drawn them using a pencil.

So, I've done a lot of experimenting which is always interesting but I don't think I'd choose this way of making pictures.

M4Ch3 Drawing textures

A lovely chapter to do.
4.3.1 Wax rubbings  I was staying with my sister (Vivienne) when I did this chapter so we had great fun going round her house and garden finding things to rub and now have sheets of them.  Some worked better than others and I especially like the grid ones, air bricks and drains.

E.A. I also now have sheets of colour washed rubbings.  I think my efforts only work as backgrounds and need something more exciting adding.

4.3.2  Looking for texture.  I do love getting out with my camera, this time to Sissinghurst Castle, the sun shone and the spring flowers beautiful.  I also looked through old photos for more but restricted myself to 2 holidays. 

4.3.3 Drawing texture.  This exercise really made me look and think.  I liked using the Sharpies but, of course, pencils were easier to control to give light and dark.  Looking back I can see which things I enjoyed drawing and those I hurried or found difficult. eg. tree moss - hurried, coral - difficult.