Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Variety, B&W, Day 5

Stopped playing with the second group of Lesson 4 studies. Pushed myself to both expand my mark-making vocabulary and use supplies I've never used before. I've continued to practice making straight-up what-I-see observations, but I've also included a few feelings and a bit of interpreting here.

the ink-applicator black lines in the lower left and the grid-like gray format on the right  provide visual contrast
—one loose, the other structural;

this piece conveys a strong sense of narrative energy to me, with uncontrolled scribbles 'exploding' in the lower right, veiling that reads like smoke, black slashes in the upper right corner, and a black patch of foreboding sky in the upper left;
good variation in values
 

this piece is largely mid-tone in value—it might benefit from more range and contrast;
a diagonal veil of white divides the piece in half and engages with both side edges; its placement might enliven the piece more if placed higher or lower, but it does bring a textural element with raised lines and dots;
the diagonal veil has the abstract appearance of a wide river to me, with 'water' that allows me to see through it to the river bed; the river image is furthered by what appear to be geographical contour lines along its 'banks' and surrounding other shapes above and below

this piece has a wide variety of marks (curved, jagged, straight, loopy, dots, stamps);
the dark heavy jagged black diagonal line contrasts with fine straight vertical lines in the lower left quadrant;
once I stood back and looked at this piece, it reminded me of a landscape, with the jagged black line a river bank, the  black lines in the lower right corner ripples on the river surface, and the shapes on the far lower left tall gangly flowers spreading their seeds at season's end

this piece has a wide variety of marks (curved, jagged, straight, loopy, dots, stamps);
the dark heavy jagged black diagonal line contrasts with fine straight vertical lines in the lower left quadrant;
once I stood back and looked at this piece, it reminded me of a landscape, with the jagged black line a river bank, the  black lines in the lower right corner ripples on the river surface, and the shapes on the far lower left tall gangly flowers spreading their seeds at season's end

the large central element here leads to less difference in each quadrant than is the case in other pieces;
the collage in the upper right corner looks more brown than black and gray as it seemed in a magazine (oops!);
the background is about 4/5 white and 1/5 black, with the large gray and black figure in the center of page seeming to be adrift perhaps in outer space; the veiling behind it creates atmospheric depth

9 comments:

Sheila said...

Love them all Dotty. Love the gangly flowers. Love all the detail in the orb at the bottom. Love the mix of hard and soft, straight and curved. Dark and light. What an awesome learning!!

carol edan said...

Love them all but first one really speaks out to me. Open space vs grid,solid vs scribbles,the delicate details in the grid.
You are certainly on a strong learning curve.
Were these new?

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thanks, Sheila! Love that you were drawn to the gangly flowers—they felt endearing to me, too. The orb at the bottom was one of the shapes that had me feeling attached from the get-go, and you'll notice that I didn't layer over it in any significant way, opting instead to give it variety with other detailing. Yes, an awesome learning altogether, this lesson.

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Love that the first piece speaks out to you. The juxtapositions you see are apt reflections of the juxtapositions within me! This was the first time I'd used a fine-line ink applicator—great fun. These pieces first show up at my blog on 9/25/16, Day 3.

Simone said...

Hi Dotty,

You are really creating variety!
Can you tell me a little bit more about this ink applicator. I have seen Jane working with something like that. How do you like it?

dotty seiter: now playing said...

Thanks for the nod at my variety : )

I purchased a little kit online (at Amazon, I think). It comes with two small plastic bottles and three different needles that screw into the cap. You fill a bottle with ink, screw in the needle you want, and then have a very fine-line way to scribble freely. I hadn't had ink until now, and only used the applicator on one day, but I loved it because I could move so intuitively and make marks in such a loose way. I like that there's a degree of lack of control!

Simone said...

Thanks! I don't think I can order that Amazon-thing here, that will be way too expensive. I am going to look around here. Thanks!

dotty seiter: now playing said...

I'm guessing you could get something of this sort at an art supply store, or a hardware store (they're also used for water-based adhesives, or at a place that sells henna supplies.

Simone said...

Thanks. I'm going to look for it, since your marks look really beautiful!

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