Ink and Watercolour Lifting

Ink/Watercolour lifting is a technique to create a texture. Using different materials all which you can find in your house. 

What I used: Sketchbook, Watercolour's, Ink, Paint brushes, Plastic bag, Cling film and kitchen roll.

I started off by wetting my page with water, Just with a wide paint brush. I then added watercolour or ink and made sure the consistency was watery yet had lot's of colour to it, I did a quarter of the page at a time as it can dry fast and won't work as well. Once I had applied the watercolour or ink I then chose what material I would put over it, Weather it be plastic bag, cling film or kitchen roll I made sure the material was crumpled up first then when I put it on the wet colour, When it drys it will leave a textured pattern. 

I did this on four pages in my sketchbook and tried to achieve different outcomes however my resources were limited and would love to experiment with more materials such as patterned paper. I would also love to experiment with colour however blue, black and grey was the colours I was asked to work with.

I am really happy with the outcome of experimenting with ink lifting and it is a technique I will take with me into the future. 

Thank you for reading.

Becca!

Yorkshire Sculpture Park - Sketches

In my last blog post I talked about my trip to Yorkshire Sculpture Park and how I produced some quick sketches in my sketchbook during my time to explore the park. Using different techniques and a mixture of dry and wet media I created 6 sheets of sketches including annotations. 

This is the first page I did in my sketchbook. I did this as a line drawing as I wanted it to look sketchy and a little bit messy. I then added watercolour, a soft mixture of browns and greens to bring it to life and look a little more like wood/tree bark. This is one of my favourite pages in my sketchbook so far, its simple but I like the black lines of the pen I used and the messy watercolour over the top. I also added a couple of little twigs that I found to my page.

I did this page in side one of the galleries where there was two big rotating fans on the ceiling, They would go really fast and then slow down a little bit. It made the atmosphere in the room a little bit tense as the fans were so loud and big. I used a mixture of media for this page including graphite pencils, pen, ink and little bit of watercolour. I would say this is my least favourite page in my sketchbook as it doesn't really look like my normal 'messy' working style however I am glad I tried to make this page look more observational as it shows me trying to use a different style of working. I also added a rubbing of a tree bark in the corner which I did with a graphite stick.

This is the third page in my sketchbook and I really like it, It looks very tactile even though it is all flat. I like to use masking tape before and during my work to give my page a little bit of texture and to also make the big white page look less blank. I did a few blind and sketchy drawings in the background and layered it up with a drawing of a sculpture I saw, I used pastel for this. If I was to improve this page I would annotate more and maybe make a note of my surroundings to help me relive that memory when I open that page.

Although leaves are not sculptures, They did inspire me. Autumn is nearly here and it's really showing... There was so many crunchy leaves laying underneath the tree's at the sculpture park, I decided to a few quick watercolour and pastel drawings of them for future inspiration as I think they would look so nice as a print.

If I was to improve this page I would fill it up more and maybe stick a leaf in too.

A few more observational drawings now, These are drawings of my favourite sculptures I saw at the sculpture park. Using only dry media to create this page I decided to make it quick and sketchy then if I was ever to develop it I could always add my own style to it and just use the shapes for inspiration.

If I were to improve this page I would have made the background more colourful, However time was short at the sculpture park by this time and I was concentrating on doing a few good drawings rather than making my background look amazing.

This is the last page I did in my sketchbook at the sculpture park. I saw a piece of work in one of the galleries and it was thread all intermingled and it looks so amazing and delicate I thought it would look amazing as a layered up print in different colours of even to inspire some sort of embellishment. I would not improve on this page I think they simpleness makes it look good.

That is all my sketches from the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

If I were to do another exercise on a trip like this again I would spend more time preparing my backgrounds before hand and I would also like to spend a little more time sat down drawing and try to improve on my observational drawing skills.

Thank you for reading.

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

This long week has been my induction week at university. It sounds so so strange saying 'University' as it seems like 2 seconds ago when I was at primary school. Nevertheless I am a university student now! This week has been filled with lot's of boring inductions for health and safety and what not, So when I was told I was going to yorkshire sculpture park I was really happy to be finally getting some practical work done.

After the 30 min coach ride, We got of the coach and was free to explore the park our self's doing sketches in our sketchbooks as we go, However the long walks, awkward sitting positions and the wind really did not agree with me and I did not get as much done in my sketchbook as I wanted to. 

The park is really beautiful and such a nice walk (if you like that kind of thing) So here are a few pictures from the galleries and the sculptures we found on our way around.

I hope you like the picture's I have taken, I really enjoyed my day out at the sculpture park. In the next blog post I will show you my sketches inspired by the sculptures and thing's I saw at the sculpture park. 

Thank you for reading!