Module 4 Chapter 6

Raising the Surface

While doing this chapter I did return to the previous one,  Firstly I had been to York and to the art shop and bought some more watercolour pencils and returned to the picture of the fence and added some more colour to the woodwork.  I also had a go at drawing the kingfisher I had seen, so here are the results.

There is more brown in the fencing which gives some more detail to it.

I felt I had at least got the shape of the bird right.  I was copying it from a bird book.  The background was from my own imagination combined with what I could remember the river bank looked like that is near my house.  I think I should have left the bird on the white page, he looked much better then.

On to chapter 6.

I got the feel of this chapter by doing the recommended pages in the booklet.

This is just triangles cut into the page and lifted up to create shadows.

Here I cut slots into the paper and threaded through strips of tissue paper.  Some of the strips were quite bulky while others were folded flat.

Here I have stitched into the page with a thick thread.  The red dots are bleeding through from the next page but look quite interesting.  I think the yellow tinge to the pages must be shadow as they are definitely white in the book.

I decided to look through my old stamps and found this letter A from module 2.  I stamped the turquoise letters around the page then cut them out.  I have then placed a coloured page from a magazine underneath the cutouts.  I have then glued the cutouts to the page but just sticking half the shape down, leaving the other half standing out from the paper.  I didn't want to make a regimented design so I put the one on the left at an angle but it might have been better if it had been straight.

This is an accidental piece.  I needed a stencil of  a tree for just a couple of prints so I cut this one out in some thick paper from a magazine.  When I had used it I left it to dry and when I went back, all the cut out edges had curled up.  I painted the reverse of the stitched page in red and then pasted my curled up tree onto it.  It looks very dramatic and I like the bit of print round the outside.

This was one of those ideas that come in the middle of the night.  I drew lines down the page approximately 1/4inch apart and cut away the alternate strips so that they were just attached at the top.  I then curled them with the edge of the scissors and got this lovely effect.  However, it only stays like this while it is free from being squashed in a book.  So I put it back into my book and squashed it down.

I think it still looks interesting and the kingfisher is on the other side showing through quite nicely.  I have wondered how well it would work with newspaper stuck on the back before cutting the strips.  They may not curl as well and I don't think that as much of it would show through as I first thought.

I have been reading through this and I am sure this is putting full stops where I type commas unless it is the print on my screen.