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