Exercise: Creating Mood and Atmosphere

03-09/09/15

Exercise: Creating Mood and Atmosphere

For this exercise you can choose to paint a full figure portrait, a head and shoulders portrait or a self-portrait… should be unusual or expressive in some way. It can be true to life or not, depending on the effects you wish to achieve… Decide what you’re trying to achieve at the outset and make some notes in your learning log. Come back to this when you’ve finished your painting and assess the extent to which you’ve achieved your objectives.

Instead of working this through in my learning log initially, I decided to use my sketchbook and then photograph both notes and scribblings/sketches so that the thought process can be followed in both.

Creating Mood & Atmosphere
Sketchbook notes and sketches 1

Creating Mood & Atmosphere
Own mono print from life model used as reference noted in sketchbook

Creating Mood & Atmosphere
Ink drawings with stick from mono print reference
Sketchbook notes 2

Below are attempts (using another life class drawing) to produce a 70s psychedelia mood and atmosphere drawing on the thumbnails in sketch book notes 1.

Wet in wet acrylic inks, figures and motifs building on previous thumbnails.
Sketchbook notes 3

Rethinking using life figures only are not really portraits, imagined or realistic.

Rethinking composition notes, sketches and thumbnail.
Sketchbook notes 4

Reference material for inspiration that I looked at and notes in sketchbook notes 4 above.

Reference material mentioned in sketchbook notes 4.

Media and colour swatches, objectives and decisions in sketchbook notes 5.

Media and colour swatches, objectives and decisions in sketchbook notes 5

1970s make-up reference photo, colourful, big eyelashes.

1970s make-up reference photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sketchbook notes showing decisions made, draft image, review and amendments.

Sketchbook notes and draft image sketchbook 6

Although, I appear to have gone to nth degree to plan out my painting, I still allowed myself some experimentation with the final image. Positions were lightly marked in with an HB pencil so that the flowers may be outlined with masking fluid.  I usually avoid using this as it is too rigid, however, in this case, the whole idea was to use the flat, opacity of the gouache for the intended pop art feel of the flowers. I then washed in clean water in the area around the petals so that I could drop in the purple acrylic ink. This, in effect, obliterated the pencil marks which caused mild panic, until I realised that I had drawn the figures several times already so knew where I wanted what, so just painted them in with orange ink. This, into the still damp purple, fused and merge nicely, which alleviated the perceived problem of how to treat the figures with less importance. The face was painted with a mixture of acrylic inks (purple and orange) and some gouache for the nose shape and mouth. Tones were built up wet in wet.  The irises of the eyes, which I wanted to be “startling” in colour were painted with the only blue used – Process Cyan acrylic ink and enhanced with gouache using its opacity. The flowers painted last, with care taken over which colours went where.

Results:

Mood and atmosphere planned – flower power/psychedelia/pop art/happiness/mysticism: Achieved? Absolutely not! I had created an interesting but in-cohesive image that didn’t really say anything. It’s not unattractive but looking back, my objectives were not really moods, they were an era.  I had initially been drawn to a darker subject and should have stayed with that, I had tried to force a feeling and mood onto myself that wasn’t really there. I seem to be drawn to sadness in people’s eyes and even the face in the finished painting can’t be called happy, she actually looks afraid.

Feeling deflated, I went to have lunch and ponder my next move.

On  my return, I picked up my black ink and stick again, looking at Marlene Dumas’ portraits that I was looking to for reference before. In fact all the reference material I was trying to use, should have told me what I really wanted to paint!

I started to draw with the stick and black ink, roughly following the head position of my previous self-portrait, then sprayed the ink with clean water. I worked like this for several minutes, drawing and spraying. There was definitely a mood there, even if the drawing was crude. I decided to let the paper dry completely and then work into the face with pastel and charcoal. Working spontaneously I reformed the features and let it happen, the runs on the left eye (as happened with my own self-portrait) gave a haunted look to the face. I decided to leave this and worked around it.

Glancing down at Dumas’ portrait Julie – the Woman, where only the eyes and mouth are naturalised and the rest of the face is blocked in red, I picked up a dark red pastel and rubbed it all over the face. Leaving the left eye, nose and mouth, I started to see fear and distrust in the expression. Enhancing both eyes slightly and darkening around the head, the hair could have been a head scarf. I decided to leave the ambiguity and let the viewer decide.

Creating Mood & Atmosphere
Painting 2
Black & sepia ink, pastel and charcoal on paper.

I now feel I have fulfilled the brief.

Lesson learnt

Just as feelings can not be truly explained in words, mood and atmosphere can not be planned – they have to be felt. It is not just in the imagination, it is in the soul.

 

Exercise: Still Life with Flowers

11/06/15

Still Life with Flowers

Set up  a still life with flowers that can remain in place for a day or two… Notice the outlines around and between things – the negative shapes… working in your sketchbook on simple drawings that help you decide format, composition, tonal values, colours, scale.

With my colour mixing experiments fresh in my mind I selected a few flowers for my arrangement, violet/purple aliums (not so simple on closer inspection!), vibrant orange lilies and smaller delicate daisy type flowers.  They were put directly into a vase, still in their brown paper wrapping while I organised myself. I thought the wrapping gave a nice, neutral back drop to the bright colours and thought I’d include it in a couple of my preparatory sketches.

Still life with flowers:
Preparatory drawing with notes on decisions and working methods.
Drawing 1, pencil and Sharpie pens

Still life with flowers:
Preparatory drawing with notes on decisions and working methods.
Drawing 2, pencil and Sharpie pens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Still life with flowers:
Preparatory drawing with notes on decisions and working methods.
Drawing 3, pencil, pastel and coloured pencils

12/06/15

Still life with flowers:
Preparatory drawing with notes on decisions and working methods.
Drawing 4, pencil and acrylic paint

Still life with flowers:
Preparatory drawing with notes on decisions and working methods.
Drawing 5, pencil, coloured pencils and Sharpie pen

13/06/15

Still life with flowers:
Preparatory drawing with notes on decisions and working methods.
Drawing 6, acrylic inks and some later pigment liners (water-soluble)

I began my painting by stretching some heavy weight hot pressed watercolour paper and using wet in wet acrylic inks laid in the basic shapes, colours and positions of the main flowers. I was happily working away and was pleased with the balance of control and letting the inks do their own thing. The below photograph shows the work in progress up where I finished for the day. I was unable to work on it for a couple of days but kept popping back up to look at it for ideas. See notes in sketchbook in next photograph.

Still life with flowers:
Final painting WIP

16/06/15

Still life with flowers:
Final painting WIP, Sketchbook reflection on work in progress and final experiments and decisions.

17/06/15

Although, I may not have gone as far as I was envisaging from my sketchbook reflection, I did feel I made the final painting more dynamic than where it was originally heading. Unfortunately, the photographs do not show the brightness of the pinks as they are in real life.

Still life with flowers: Final painting Acrylic ink and paint on watercolour paper. 36x32cm

 

Assignment 5 Drawing Outdoors – Media Experimentation and Selection

17 & 18/11/14

Assignment 5 Drawing Outdoors – Media Experimentation and Selection

In my mind I wanted to use water based media to produce washes particularly with wet in wet effects. The following experiments were mainly focussed on the woodland in the middle ground of my composition and which colours to use for what.  I was also keen to try out salt effects both with sea salt and table salt to disperse the ink and watercolour to produce texture. I’ve taken some work in progress photos to show how the layers were built up.

Getting ready using sketches and studies

190 gsm hot pressed w/c paper stretched and sectioned into 4 to experiment with water based media

Water colour only, first washes

Water colour only – placement and mid ground tree effects

Water colour and acrylic ink 1

Watercolour and acrylic ink 2

Acrylic ink only with salt effect

Water colour and acrylic ink

Water colour, acrylic ink and salt effects

Colour media experiments with notes

Sketchbook page showing the colours I intended to use following the colour studies. Also, the adding texture with screwed up tissue and hand-made paper,
A mixture of watercolour, acrylic ink and oil pastels.

 

From the above studies and playing around with colours and media, I made a rough plan in my sketch book of the colours of ink and watercolour I wanted to use.  I had seen some mixed media work using tissue paper as a textured base so thought I’d try this, plus I had some hand-made paper that was very absorbent and frayed freely at a torn edge. Texture is a key part of this drawing so I also wanted to try using salt  sprinkled onto wet media and see how it reacted, I used large grain sea salt and fine grain table salt.  I imagined that the larger grain would be useful to describe the moss on the

Further experimentation with textures using:
Oil pastel as a resist
Salt to diffuse pigment
Hand-made paper to use wet in wet pigment.

concrete and the finer grain would give a diffused effect to show rough texture.  I could, of course,

have used rough watercolour paper to show this, However, I made a conscious decision to use smooth hot pressed paper as I can add roughness but not take it away and be more selective in where this was done.