Project 1 Stage 3 Exercise 1

Textiles 1 - A Creative Approach, Mark Making
Stage 3 Ex 1

A detail from A New Song 2005

      Jennie Merriman

Jennie Merriman uses stitched acrylic sheet, linen threads, linen, printed waxed paper wooden sticks and woollen weavings in her work.  The varied materials of this piece offer lots of different textures and for me evoke strength and solidity despite the sometimes transparent fabric.  There is  a softness about the weaving and the colours used.  I think the feelings in the piece are as varied as the materials.

My try at capturing Jennie's textures

I felt really out of my comfort zone with this exercise and found I was putting it off. I still feel that I don't really know what I'm doing with paint.

However, I tried to create a variety of texture

with gouache and a selection of brushes and hoped that the "feelings" would come out of that. 

I didn't manage Jennie's preciseness but maybe it doesn't matter too much as it seems to lend a softness to the piece.  I like the way I managed to get something of the transparency on the left of the work.  I wanted to represent the weaving element on the right and did this with short straight marks which I think work well.  I'm less happy with the way the wool doesn't seem to wind around the sticks.  My marks are too sharp.  The beads look quite tactile and hard.

I'm hoping that my next attempt will feel more comfortable.  I have to get over feeling that it has to be "right".

Another detail from A New Song 2005

                    Jennie Merriman

This is another detail from A New Song. I love this piece of work.  It's inventive and the colours are subtle and work together effectively. My second try was with soft pastels simply because I wanted to see what happened; what are the differences between them and the watercolours I tried earlier.

Using soft pastels

This is what I came up with.  It took just a few minutes but I had to stop myself just copying.  I tried to think of marks that represented what I was viewing.

I think pastels are too soft for the preciseness of the design - paint was better; less smudgy.  The transparency  was pleased with last time doesn't seem to work so well here and it was hard to get just hints of colour.  The background beige was easier to achieve and I quite like it.  I need to learn to mix paint more effectively.  Have I captured the feel of the piece?  I don't think so.

Sue Spivy - birthday card

The next image I tried is a birthday card by Sue Spivey.  It is a digitally produced image and I like the way the rock looks so improbable but still look convincing.  The card just shrieks "mark making".

Water soluble crayons

This was harder than it looked at first.  I couldn't seem to give the strokes the sharp, jerky feel they have on Sue's work.  I think the busyness is captured though.  I used too much colour for the sky and it really brightened when I wet it then I didn't know how to tone it down.  I used what was left on the brush for the sea and I think it worked much better - it seems to actually look wavy and watery.

Felt tip pens

I like the rock here much better than before.  I used quick jerky strokes and it makes the rock  look sharp and jagged and there's plenty of movement to represent the strata. I'm pleased with it.

I couldn't think how to use felts for the sky and the sea so I used pastels.  Not so good and I wish I'd persisted with the felts a bit more and experimented.