1.2 Making mistakes – working fast and cutting up work

Key words from the brief:

Remember anything goes in this exercise, you are aiming to make mistakes
‘Draw’ what is in front of you – if the implement is unwieldy make an unwieldy ‘drawing’
‘Draw’ what is behind
‘Draw’ what is to the left of you
‘Draw’ what is to the right of you
Spend a maximum of 5 minutes filling the whole page
Make a note in your chosen sketchbook about how you felt whilst doing this exercise
Create 4 small books from these drawings
Record your 4 mini books in your sketchbook in some way as we will be altering them in the final exercise
Show your work in progress

My approach

I selected four mark making tools and 4 x different media and various colours.

Mistakes 01

I decided to work at A2 size which would allow me to be more expressive and expansive. The four drawing approaches were:

Sharpie and Posca marker pens
Sponge and Indian ink
Finger painting using Poster Paint
Roller (used for printmaking), and Poster Paint

I decided to draw each of the four views, front, right, left and behind, with all four drawing methods. I would then have more options to choose from when making the booklets.

My everyday subject was the kitchen; this is the largest room in the house and has a tiled floor which is easy to clean.

I timed each sketch using the stopwatch on my iPhone – all were done in 5-minutes or less, with the sponge and roller prints completing in 3-minutes or less.

Front view

Right view

Behind view

Left view

Booklets

In order to create the booklets I selected sketches that had good overall coverage across the page and the ones that had the most interesting (and often boldest) marks.

I made at least one booklet for each drawing approach.

Individual page scans – contact sheets

Each page of each booklet has been scanned at 200 dpi for future reference and possible use.

Contact sheets including file names below:

Reflections

Can you work in it again with another mark-making implement or colour? Or, do you want to leave it as it is?

I found the cutting up really interesting because it generated a whole load of new material for future reuse by making me see things in a different way – I guess that was the whole point of the exercise.
The bold black and white marks work the best, and of those my favourites are the ones made with a roller and poster paint.
I didn’t want to work back into the booklets with more colour or different media, but I did see potential in working back on top of a couple of the 5-minute sketches using Posca acrylic pens for outlining. I like the results:

Start point – Made using poster paint and print roller and Posta pen

End point – Made using a sponge and Indian ink with Posta pen

Are other ideas sparked from looking at each page? Are you reminded of something else?

Some of the black and white pages remind of abstract expressionist paintings and have the potential to be reused as the basis for future illustrations.

Which format do you prefer?

I was working at A2 size for the original rapid sketches and even then the pages of the booklets were all relatively small. I preferred the larger format booklets in either landscape or portrait. The double pages seemed to work the best.
I don’t really understand the purpose of the pocket booklet although I know this is the subject of the next exercise.

What can I take from this exercise?

I like the quick and carefree approach to generating surprising ideas quickly.
I’m interested in exploring how I might use the technique to create story/comic frames quickly. One the challenges for me to date when illustrating narrative sequences is that my drawing style is very time consuming. This technique might be a way to shorten that process whilst giving the illustration a distinctive feel. This is something I’ll probably explore further in Assignment 1.