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I’ve now settled into my new art studio and I was also recently given a drawing table as a gift too (thanks Emma), which has made larger drawing so much easier. Getting back to basics with my drawing and painting has been an eye opener. Something had changed while I was completing my Ph.D. I had new interests in what I wanted to create, a different outlook on life, I appreciated the value of art for my own and others’ sense of wellbeing and I had noticed I had a slightly different style to what I was producing before. I was making different marks, appreciating different colours and forms, and producing something, I felt, that had moved my work onto another stage. I am still in the stage of experimentation but I am already pleased (and surprised) with what I am producing. Personally I’m always interested in seeing artwork in stages so I kept a visual diary of this project I completed last week…
I started by using a technique called automatic drawing, drawing quickly, loosely and what felt right without consciously intervening to correct myself in anyway. I then started to look at what I had drawn and worked into the drawing by added in blocks of tone to start to create forms and a composition I was happy with.
I then set about creating a mixed media painting based on this drawing. I started masking off a section on good quality acrylic canvas paper and applying a base layer using a mix of ultramarine and burnt umber (always gives a nice warm grey) acrylics before starting to try and replicate some of the drawing’s main composition. I didn’t need it to be an exact copy, as I still wanted the freedom to change and add to the painting. Happy accidents were welcomed and happened along the way. For example, some of the lines I drew and rubbed out showed up as nice light wispy ghost lines when I started working over them with acrylic washes and graphite…
These ghost lines had almost disappeared as the painting progressed – so it was nice to have images of the painting at it’s earlier stages. After sketching out the basic composition I started working into it with acrylics: titanium white and the base colours (ultramarine and burnt umber), black Indian ink and graphite…
Finally the mixed media painting was finished…
… and the masking tape border was removed…
What was nice about this process was the ability to start off with automatic drawing and not knowing and trying not to think about what the final piece would eventually look like. I often do quite a bit of preparatory work before any painting and without this it felt more free. The hardest part for me was finishing the painting without over working it.
Gillian Hebblewhite 