Processes explored so far..............................

So far in Art this term, we have been exploring some techniques such as ink manipulation, scratching with twigs and re-working into the pieces with watercolour pencils. We have used materials such as A3 pieces of cartridge paper and different sizes of Mixed Media paper and many different types of inks and utensils.


The techniques used for the ink manipulations include using a spray bottle, streaking, letting the ink drip in different directions, manipulating the flow of the ink and deliberate placement of ink drops and shapes to create different moods and fantasy realms. A few of the ways to position and shape the ink on the paper are: streaks/lines which are long trails of ink, swirly/wavy lines which are very siumilar to long trails of ink, circles/dots which are created by sharp flicks of the ink bottle/ drops of ink on the paper, creating a trail of ink and then letting it drip down the page naturally to make long, thin, organic lines and diluting the inks and reworking them over previous pieces to create texture and tone.

Before any of these techniques can be administered, we firslty had to run our piece of paper under water to help the ink spread in unusual patterns, etc.

To scratch into the ink with our twigs, the piece had to remain fresh and wet. Using different twigs with different shapes, lengths and widths we carved intricate lines, designs, tone and sometimes helped manipulate the ink to flow into different sections or patterns on the page.

Lastly, once most/all of the ink on our pieces had dried we layered and worked over the existing ink to create depth and contrast. We focused on a main focal point and designed careful detail to improve the quality of our "fantasy realm."

WRITTEN AND COMPILED BY CATHERINE STUBBS AND ANNELEISE WOODMAN.