Experimentation

After my previous piece I decided to experiment more with inks and ways to apply them to wood and what other media would either absorb or resist it. This was very enjoyable and I discovered a lot, that at first I hadn’t intended to. 

I started by using the same technique as in my previous piece by layering oil pastels onto a background but as I had started playing around with the idea of using stencils in my print work I combined this with the way I layer geometric shapes by using found packaging as stencils but I tried using spray paint instead of screen printing. I found that combing the spray paint with oil pastels, I could achieve an interesting combination, although the found stencils didn’t work as successfully as I had hoped.

As I didn’t like the finished background, I tried to rescue it by working in soft pastels over the top. This had a positive effect and left an interesting combination of finishes as the soft pastels gave quite a soft, matted effect where as the oil pastels and spray paint gave off a very glossy finish. I found this contrast worked really well so decided to expand on it but left the spray paint out.

From the experimentation on the last piece, I decided to expand on the combination of soft and oil pastels. After collecting up a variety of found wooden shapes, I started creating different backgrounds on each one. Then, I continued my experimentation with inks and the way in which different media and materials react with it. I started pouring ink down each bit of wood and both soft pastels and oil pastels resisted the ink in different ways. 


The oil pastels would make the ink just slip down it and where the ink had settled, it looked as though the ink had started to bubble as it was separated by the oil pastels and once the ink had dried it left a very defined, clean edge. In contrast the soft pastels had not been fixed, so the ink found it difficult to attach onto anything. So the ink just trickled down and left no mark. It was only when I angled the wood so it was almost flat that the inks started to settle. When the ink did settle, unlike the oil pastels where the ink just sat on top the inks, the ink had started to become absorbed by the soft pastels and then seeped into the wood grain which left an equally interesting effect and created a contrast which added a new dynamic aspect and provided another contrast to the many others that are already happening in the other conversations that I am creating. 

Once I had finished coating all the wood, I started layering them and working out which is the most effective in terms of composition. At first I combined all the pieces of wood together but I found that the piece became too busy and I was thinking of creating more of a permanent looking piece but with all the pieces combined it started to look too temporary, so I decided to start over with the composition.

 

After my previous composition being too busy I decided to select the more successful pieces of wood and then experiment with different ways of layering them. The more minimalist composition worked a lot better and created a more permanent feel and held enough contrast to look interesting but not too much that it became overwhelming. Moreover, I felt the contrasts were also a lot clearer and I know that was something that previous pieces may not have had.

As a conversation, this piece contains contrast, depth and expressive, seemingly random and improvised mark making that create a subtle undertone behind the obvious running inks.

When assembling this piece I had one main problem and that was actually fastening the pieces of wood together. This was because as I had coated all of the pieces of wood before sticking them together I had to cover over parts I had coloured with oil and soft pastels, which through this process I discovered not only resist inks but also glue. 


So after several attempts and after removing all the failed pieces of glue, I decided to sand down the parts that I was sticking together and by complete accident, it created a compelling contrast. The parts I had sanded down left the wood stained with subtle changes in colour and this was right next to the still and very vivid/bright combination of oil and soft pastels.

At the end I was left with a variety of pieces of stained wood and the original square piece of wood I had experimented on. So I decided to try and make a composition out of them. 


Once I had stuck the pieces of wood on the background I then worked over it with oil pastels and ink. I felt this piece didn't necessarily work particularly well although as a bi product it was worthwhile making it.