Jane Davies Sketchbook Practice Lesson 5

Activity 1 — Collage on Black Wash

I arranged these in the same order as I posted them in Lesson 4 for comparison with before and after.

Top Lft: B/W painted collage paper and oil pastel
Top Rt: B/W painted collage paper circle with acrylic paint/wash
Bottom Lft: Red/Gold collage paper with gold Sharpie lines
Bottom Rt: Blue checkered collage paper and white fabric paint scribble

Top Lft: Torn B/W collage paper strip with blue pastel.
I dropped this piece and it landed face down in some Quinacridone Gold.
At first I was alarmed. Then in the spirit of Jane's experimental
approach, I just smeared the paint and went with it.
Top Rt: Strip of colored collage paper and black felt tip squiggles
Bottom Lft: B/W painted collage paper and color collage paper w/cut out
Bottom Rt: Strip of B/W collage paper and red Prisma color scribble

Top Lft: Painted collage paper and metallic gold bubble wrap circles
Top Rt: Color collage paper doughnut and blue acryllic circles made from sequin waste.
Bottom Lft: I added the painted strip on the right first but then the piece
really needed a large, dark area on the left so I added a piece of B/W painted
paper I cut from previous paintings. The piece needed something more to integrate
it so I added a third element–the aqua watercolor pencil curved lines

Top Lft and Top Rt: B/W collage paper with acrylic paint and  wash
Bottom Lft: B/W painted collage paper with red pastel scribble circle
Bottom Rt: Collage circle of painted paper with white gel pen scribble

Activity 2—Working From Thumbnail Sketches


I learned a lot from this activity. I realized early on that I had chosen a weak composition that didn't offer me a lot of variety; the two shapes were too similar and not that interesting and the three elements didn't interact that well. But I decided to just go with it and see what I could come up with; how much could I vary the pieces in an attempt to make them look different. Because of this, I focused on materials and techniques, trying to create interest through colors and textures, and I really enjoyed this. It also finally made sense to me that these are "sketches," ideas and experiments not finished pieces so in some way the composition didn't matter; I could always fix this if any of these inspired me to do a finished piece. It also helped me to hone in on how to improve on composition in the future. So here they are along with the original thumbnail.

Oil pastels with printed rice paper

Acrylic paint with scribble sgraffito and collage paper

Acrylic paint background with hand made collage papers
and black oil pastel line. I had a layer of B/W collage paper
first that I didn't like and put new paper over these
so some of the B/W edges still show.

This is B/W acrylic paint background with collage paper
from our large scribble paintings and a gray and
white oil pastel line. I like this one because the shapes are
not as recognizable so it looks more like pattern. I painted
all these larger than the canvas size, going outside the
lines (something I NEVER would have done as a child)
and then cropped in for the photo. I included the
entire image below because I particularly like the rough
edge on this one; it gives it a different feel.

Acrylic wash background with oil pastels and some graphite
pencil. I again used some sgraffito in the shape on the left.
There is a smudge from the red pastel
that was not intended but what can you do; it is now
officially part of the piece.

Acrylic paint with white Prisma color pencil and black
oil pastel. I did a light wash of white acrylic, then blotted
some of it up with a paper towel to get the pattern on the
bottom portion of the right-hand shape.

This was a real stretch for me. Not my usual "style." I have
also forgotten how to work with watercolor, it's been such a
long time, so I used  this piece to begin to reacquaint myself
with the process (painful...I'd forgotten how hard it is).
I squiggled an arc for the line with white fabric paint.

Activity 3 — One-Line Blind Self-Portraits

I had so much fun with this I did several and added to some. I definitely got over wanting to look good! Some are more successful than others but I really enjoyed this activity and will continue to do this. I may even add more to some of these. I wish I had done all of these on heavier paper and with waterproof ink because now I am a bit limited on what materials I can use to add to them.

I experimented with starting my drawing in different places. One thing I noticed was when I started drawing the left side of my face, beginning with the eye area, most of the facial features were in better relationship to each other as far as position on the face; when I started with the eye region on the right side, the mouth always ended up higher, in the nose region.

This is one of my favorites, maybe because I added some
hair so I don't look so much like a man!

I added oil pastels to this one

Here are two I did with white and watercolor wash.
I used a white crayon for the one on the left. I used a Prisma Color
pencil for the one on the left. The image isn't as strong
but there was something ghostly about it that I liked.

Here are Jane's comments:

Activities 1 and 3—
EXCELLENT WORK! Arlene, you have done a great job on both of these activities, really digging in. You got fabulous variety in the paint and wash pieces - inventive and interesting approaches. The self-portraits are superb! You let loose and played with these - the additions are just great. LOVE the magenta afro you gave yourself. Fabulously expressive images, indeed.

Activity 2—
Excellent, Arlene! You got a TON of variety in this exercise, and you observed all the right things: how limited the sketch is, how the size and shape of elements is important, but can be offset by other aspects. I like the way you interpreted the curve as a line in some, and a shape in others, and interpreted the shapes as outlines in a couple of them. This is exactly the sort of exploration you can get out of a composition sketch.

Really great job here.