For my temporary drawing exercise I decided to use tea leaves. I ripped the top of the bag and poured them out onto the plate to draw with. I found that depending how I held the teabag I could create a variety of soft looking marks/strokes on the plate. I found the process calming and in turn that could have effected how my marks came out. I liked making nice smooth curves with my material, however as I moved around the plate I found it hard to keep the thickness of the strokes even, so I went back in with a cotton bud to smooth the lines back up.
I started out my first drawing by adding rings, which ended up creating a target shape. I decided to build up on my drawing by adding some dots around the outer ring, to create a much more intricate composition. Since the plate curves on that area of the plate, it created a dusty gradient, which added some unexpected tone, which I feel helped bring the piece together.
I then went further, adding lines to the drawing. I think these went too far and made the drawing appear too busy, I think I preferred it with a much more minimalistic feel. In the first image where I added two straight lines, I think this made the drawing pull away from calmer imagery, as it looked like a gun aim sight. When I added another two lines, it made the drawing look more like a ship wheel. However, with the tea leaves and how the material builds up when it gets layered, it created thicker strokes and made the piece look too busy. This helped me to understand that sometimes less is more with my lines when creating a drawing, and that I should be careful not to overdo things when it comes to my composition. With this technique of temporary drawing, doing too much can be compromising as there isn’t always a way to undo your strokes. For me and my choice of medium, I cant rub out the lines I don’t like, once I add too much to the plate, I’ll have to brush them off and start over, as moving the lines around with a cotton bud can only do so much.
I think out of my first experiment with temporary drawing, this part of the process with my drawing is the piece I’m most happy with. With it’s simplicity it looks like it could be an ancient symbol of sorts and can be quite versatile as there are many ways to interpret what it could be and what it means. I think it hold a lot of looseness in it and warmth, in ways I feel it looks a lot like the sun, but with childish qualities in relation to the execution and simplicity of the design. I think that because of the thickness of the lines, by doing too much, can take away rather than add to the piece. I could go in and create finer lines by taking a cotton bud to the lines, but that takes away from natural aspect of drawing a line. To spend more time to create intricate lines to me takes away from the stroke created and its purpose of making a mark, and the purpose of the exercise.
Temporary Drawing-Experimentation 2
I decided to have another go, but switch it up in terms of how I execute the marks. This time, instead of making marks with the tea leaves, I’d be making the marks in them, with a cotton bud. I kept my drawing style loose and didn’t intend to make a recognisable image, but rather use lines to create patterns.
Making lines in the tea wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, I’d have to go over some lines a few times to get them clean and clear. So as the amount tea increased the harder it became to draw clean lines. I went for loose lines again as it works with the loose quality of the tea. I tried to then create contrast within the composition by adding harsher, straight lines, which I think add interest to the piece. I think, overall, this is a difficult material to draw with
Drawing like this can be useful, as knowing your marks are not going to be permanent can be freeing and allow you to move accordingly. It takes off the pressure of making a mark that will be somewhat permanent, and thus allows you to draw more freely than before. However it does not allow you to easily create fine lines, they often tend to be thick and bold, which may not be useful for drawing realistically, but can be effective for impressionist or abstract marks/ pieces. Furthermore, after a temporary drawing is made, time is of the essence as it wont last, so will it gather an audience and does a photo really capture the emotion behind the markings left behind? In my opinion no. A photograph doesn’t always captures the full depth and intricacy of drawing marks unlike the experience of seeing them in person. Temporary drawing is not a practice I would use for my work, as it does not necessarily give you means to create an intricate, detailed drawing, which is what I like to produce as an artist. It is however a good way of getting to know your marks as an artist and new ways of making your marks, while giving you freedom without the restraints of a permanent mark.
Simona Hopewell : Drawing 1 