Module 5 - chapter 10

Degas and Pastels

Luckily all my pastels are in there own boxes and have survived being moved from pillar to post over the last year. My box of Conte soft pastels must be about 20 years old, but they are still going strong. I love the way these blend so very smoothly and come is such beautiful colours. They are a bit delicate and can break easily. My Daler Rowney oil pastels are good to use in a more vigorous way and can to held more firmly. Lastly the Caran D"Ache oil pastels. These seem like cream compared to the Daler Rowney and are lovely to use. I already had a set of torchon but have wondered if you can clean them, perhaps with a craft knife or sandpaper?  They look as though they should be able to to in a big pencil sharpener.

5.10.1
I started off with the Conte soft pastels on drawing paper and can see that the paper being a bit rough or having tooth, shows off the texture well

The next sort I used were Caran D'Ache Neopastels

Then Daler Rowney

Sticking to the oil pastels, both sorts. I used some of my collection of ready made stencils that I collect from food packers with holes in them.

Just the Conte now, gosh they certainly do need fixing with spray but perhaps this sugar paper isn't rough enough to hold it.

I was lucky enough to get a book on Degas out of the library, although the illustrations of  his ballet pictures were limited.  However it was interesting to read about his life and how his work developed.
Back to my sketching paper

A mixture of some of my files, using the different methods of construction. I still don't have a favourite, but lean towards the origami.

This has been a fascinating module to do and I am much happier with the idea of drawing figures and faces after this. I love my home made articulated figures and will definitely been using them again. Also it has been great to use some of the things that have been put away for years, like my pastels.

Hopefully I will be in my new room by the time I get to the next module and will have rescued my stuff from the barn. It will be lovely not to have to go out in the rain, unlock doors, trip over in the gloom and generally be put off doing things.

Module 5 - Chapter 9

Crowds

5.9.1.
I made a large collection of crowds, many of which I decided were not suitable later when I thought about what I was going to do with them.

Stencils and templates
I got off to a bad start by selecting some runners. Having made the stencils and done a couple of pictures with them, I realised that the poses were too similar.

Back to the drawing board. But I still didn't find any figures I liked, so in the end I made up my own by going back to my articulated card figures and (since I did Tai Chi for some time and liked it) decided to use these poses.

This first one is done on a page from a newspaper that seemed appropriate with the background and the second with the  figures cut out of hand painted papers is done on a paper bag that I got when shopping in Hong Kong. I knew it would be useful one day

This green/blue one is done on a lightly collaged background, the next one painted background and the green background is a copy of a quilt back.

Monoprinting
This is the first time I have done monoprinting using many colours together on the same piece of paper by flipping it back and forth. I rather like the effect though I think the fabric paint used was a bit to runny in some of the colours. The blue topped lady looks like a turnip head.

Well fabric paint is not too bad, but then when I went to acrylic things got much worse. I tried some Liquatex medium to thin down the acrylic, but it still started to dry so fast that I ended up with a very quickly done rather fat outline.

Next another mixture, but still no good

The previous week-end which was very hot, I had been trying and got a lot of rubbishy results, when I looked at the temperature in the conservatory it was 24 degrees!  Oh I will be pleased to have a room of my own - soon. However I have made a lot of notes on the various mixtures used so these will be useful in the future.  My folder is absolutely bulging with pages that  are failures, but it isn't a waste if I remember what went wrong.

A while ago I was using someone else's printing inks and although it is not relevant to this module, I thought I would add a couple of dry point pictures that I did then.

I have got some printing ink of my own, but the barn didn't want to give them up when I went searching this time.  I will find them and have another go at this monoprinting. Perhaps by then I might have a "place of my own" and a little of my sanity back.