Module 5 - Michael Brennand-Wood

Module 6 - Drawing Methods

 I used more or less every picture to try to reproduce the marks seen in the skies and in the water. Especially the marks of the withdrawing sea on the sand made interesting shapes. As it was a windy day in Normandy the water was in movement .

 The sgrafitto series of samples start with nr. 42. The samples with wax crayons as top layer gave the most interesting results. Sometimes those are very subtle as in nr 48, my favourite one.

The rubbing samples go from  nr 52 to 78.

I used various surfaces which were mainly made with a hot glue gun, but I also used puff paint or "found" items to make the rubbing plate. Samples nr 52 to 63 show the "plain" rubbings whereas  sample 61 and 64 to 78 show papers where the rubbing was done on different plates or on the same plate with rubbings done in different directions or using different colours.

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 Marks done with oil paints

In samples 79 to 88, the rubbings were done with oil paints that act like a resist to the watercolours paints.

 Transparent surfaces
This was a fund exercise producing quite unpredictable results. In samples 89, 90, 91, 94, 95 and 96 I used double layers of cellophane.
Sample 89 shows trapped (though hardly visible)pieces of white paper with melted wax crayons whereas in sample 90, the cellophane was simply melted, The surface was then rubbed with a black wax crayon to show the marks.
For sample 91 acrylic paint was "trapped" between the layers. The subsequent ironing produced a different pattern and I wonder if this happened because of the paint. It's something I definitely have to explore.
In sample 94 I tried to trap some cut 3D filament between the cellophane. Unfortunately it didn't melt, but melted holes in the cellophane which I quite liked.
Samples 92 and 93 show painted bubble wrap that was also treated with the iron. The texture is less spectacular although the melted paints show a lovely pattern.
I also used some of the cellophane samples to do rubbings which gave interesting results.

 Samples using bleach, in this case dissolved Discharge De-colourant for fabrics on painted Kooh-I-Noor and spent Procion dyes backgrounds.
The tools used were a bamboo pen, coton bud, credit card, plastic fork and knife. Some backgrounds were also treated with wax crayons before being painted.
I love the effects the bleache produces, especially on the surfaces that have blue in them.

Of course I could have produced more samples using all these methods but at some point I decided to stop and to go on with the Module, keeping in mind that I could produce more if I wanted to.

Module 6 - collecting inspiration

I was lucky to go on a short holiday to Normandy in September and had the opportunity to take pictures of atmospheric skies and water (mainly sea). Unfortunately I don't live near a sea or a river, so this was a welcome opportunity.

Taking pictures of the sea, the waves, the water receding in the sand caused particularly interesting patterns. We also went to a nature reserve and due to the windy wheather the water was in movement

Some of these pictures will have to be turned into black and white and enlarged to reveal their pattern.

Of course with the change of the seasons the sky will also change more pictures will be added to the list.

I also have a fantastic book, which certainly contains more inspiration

Having been in London for the Knitting and Stitching, I also went to the V&A and found some inspiring paintings by Constable and Turner

Having a closer look at the paintings also revealed the brushstrokes and the the clouds in movement.

And of course there are the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh with his special way of painting skies

An of course there's Monet and his use of beautiful colours

Some more Turners