Weeks 3 and 4

After the first 2 weeks this term, I hit on an idea which I found really inspirational. Introducing lines and more geometry into my drawing inspired me to look more into lines, and the different places they can appear. I developed my work in the third week by cutting out grids as well as using tape to create them. I enjoyed this as one of my favourite things is paper cutting.

One thing I tried which I didn’t think really worked, was drawing a grid shape, cutting out the spaces between the lines, and drawing motifs onto them. I then placed these on a new sheet of paper to explore even more line compositions, like a maze, and widths. I think the main problem with this was the randomness of the motif designs, and the fact that once I’d placed them, the lines between didn’t really flow very well. However, I did scan in the designs individually to blow up and use for layering girds on top of.

cut out and placed shapes with motifs.

I also started exploring curved lines as well as ridged geometric ones, and this sparked an interest in looking at fungi and lichen, as a way of continuing the floral geometry brief. I want to keep a sense of nature and florals, but without necessarily drawing obvious flower motifs. The blooms and colours of lichen really appeal to me so this is something I plan to incorporate into my work a lot more. I’d like to use natural dying as a way of representing this, so taking part in the cellulose dying session was really helpful for this.

After creating a curved grid, I did some drawings of cow parsley, and plants typically found in hedgerows and tried cutting into these to create floral cut out grids, however I didn’t find these had nearly as much impact as the other ones, as they were a bit too flimsy and not very striking at all.

Cow parsley cut out.

I scanned in the grid templates to develop as basic prints on photoshop. I like the way these have come out a lot as I think they are simple but bold, and I plan to keep working on these in different colourways.

One of my grid photoshop designs.

Using maps has also been a big part of my work, especially in the last week. Having got some maps of the lake district from home, I have scanned these in and paper cut in to them to leave just the lines of the road and contour lines, and I’ve liked the way these outlines link with my other girids and create unusual spaces in between.

Cut out map, back to front and scanned in.

As well as the lines themselves, I have taken the in between shapes and enlarged these by drawing them and cutting them out in coloured paper. These were inspired by basketball courts in Paris which have been painted in bright and vibrant colours to create amazing large-scale art installations. I have made some rudimentary compositions with them which have helped me think more about placement of shapes.

Working a lot more digitally this week has made me think more about colour. I intend to take some photographs of lichen and fungi which should provide an earthy, organic colour palette for me to work with. I’m also going to make sure I keep a consistent file of research and inspiration – creating mood boards really helped me focus my ideas, so I aim to continue this over the next few weeks of the project.