drawing – Tahlia Paige

Other Drawing Techniques – Animals

To experiment further with my animals and test out some more unusual techniques, I took a variety of poses from my research and started to draw or paint with the mediums that I thought may create some interesting effects.

I started with some fineliner experiments, I do love using patterns to build up detail in line drawings, I have done this before and I think the pattern works well to fill space. I was not really feeling it with the hare, I think the eye throws me off and I think this would look better as a more solid blacked out design and then worked out from there. Maybe using the different sections of the face better in terms of following the way the hare would naturally flow. I also tried some stippling, but I did not like the way this was looking either so I did not really finish it to the standard I usually would because it was very time consuming and I could already see it just was not working for what I wanted. I have used various forms of line drawings throughout too so I knew line is something I do like to use, just working on becoming simpler and looser in my work I think has been very beneficial to my designs. I tried some Indian Ink to build up a hedgehog design too which I think was okay but just using the one harsh black was difficult to show tone as I usually would. Maybe this would have worked better as a collage with some different tone being used in the papers.

The sharpie experiments turned out a little better than I thought, but a range of them in more similar colours could have created a nice effective piece I think. I also tried the soft pastels on black paper, I find this hard to use and usually very messy, I like this design but probably would not want to take it further because it neither has the detail or the simple flat approach I was considering. I managed to capture a lot of detail in the eye of the oil pastel drawing, I like this but the fur around it loses some of that detail. The hedgehog with the sponged back is quite fun, but I do like the colours and how they mixed together with the sponge. Although I think it did get the texture better than I achieve with a brush or anything.

Wax Resist

I previously did a little painting with hot wax directly from a candle, but I thought about actually drawing with the non lit candle on a white surface and then painting over it to reveal the image. There is an element of luck and unpredictability with this because it is quite a quick technique as you have to remember where you have drawn already.

So you draw a motif in the candle, which on the white will not show up at all really so it does need to be quickly to remember where you have drawn. Then paint a watery layer of watercolour over it, I found before doing undiluted Indian ink was too thick and dark to always resist the wax.

This shows some examples of it, the top one you can actually see where I did the first centre line in the middle of the motif, and as I did the leaves going up the sides I lost where the centre line was and you can see it does go off of it a little.

Overall though it was quite fun, I would try taking this a little further in the future I like by using a thinner candle, I think the results are similar to the idea of a bleach pen, which I might also try making to get better effects with the bleach.

Initial Drawings

Using some of my research photos, I created a few initial drawing pages based on the first hand images I put together.

To start I wanted to use one of my favourite media, I thought this would help me work on form and shape and encourage me to produce something really nice first, to get me excited about the project. I think if I just went straight into acrylic paints, or lino, something I am not as practiced in, I may feel discouraged with the results if they do not turn as well as I think these pages did.

I like the use of the patterns in the leaves, I think they work quite well because of the range of patterns used. Some of the lines in the leaves too are placed to show a bend or a sense of depth to the leaf, this works better when the leaf is folded or something as it then has two layers to it.

I decided to experiment on watercolour, as it is quite a soft media that can produce some nice results. Combining this with the fineliner pens too is nice because it then produces this more graphic representation of the subject, which I think works well. I think some things here look better than others. I think working in a realistic watercolour style is difficult and something I need to work on more as I do not think the results of this worked as well as it could have.

I took a couple of my printed research photos here and decided to work directly from these on the double page spread, I worked using the colour scheme I wanted to work in with these bright watercolour paints and fineliner. I think these designs have worked well but I need to expand a little more, I think coloured pencils would be a nice next step to try a sense of realism then moving into more exciting experiments, such as bleach and lino, as I find interesting motifs within my research pictures and carry on trying them out in various techniques.

Drawing Commission

I am always looking for opportunities to continue my interest in 2D art and drawing as well as surface design and constructive textiles, I particularly like doing designs using patterns in a tattoo way almost, just more detailed. I think this is definitely my handwriting and something I plan to continue doing throughout my time in University.

I worked on the design and outline of the shark first, and then fit the background in where I thought it would look best, where the tail was not completely using as much space as the head was. I included a closer view of the shark as I wanted to show the full use of the patterns I use, including lines and shapes that occupy the space. I like how these work but I think in my work I need to experiment more with size and varying the size of the pattern to see if it gives any sense of depth with it which could be something interesting to try.

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