Contemporary Drawing Practices: Week 3: Non-Traditional Drawing Techniques, Contours & Surface Variation

Part 1: For this week, I decided to focus my content on the outlines of everything around me, the separation of shadow and light, or of one color, from color. I like to observe everything around me at all times, whatever it is; I oftentimes begin to imagine things in their drawn, or sketched form, reducing what I see down to lines or shadows, created by a pencil. I took this thought and chose to apply it visually, allowing one to think of the world in such a way, other than in a passive manner, seeing things only as one scene to the next. I chose red yarn, for visibility purposes and used tape to assist in guiding the string in the correct contours.

Part 2: I also chose to use water, for the experimentation of surfaces; by brushing water across wood, cardboard, a mirror and plastic, I was able to see how it reacted with each material surface. I was considering this, in relation to the way mediums, such as paint, or charcoal, will react differently with various surfaces and provide numerous results. The water was absorbed faster by the cardboard and wood, than the mirror, or plastic; the wood absorbing the water the fastest, of the two. The mirror and plastic allowed the water to maintain a 3-D effect, as it would not dissolve into the surface and would only disappear through drying up.

Material: String

Process: Reflection/Movement

Primary Element: Reflection