Intimacy. Part 2. Rework of Exercise 3; Mixed Media Still Life, Shells.

This is another rework of Exercise 3, mixed media Still Life. This time I wanted to explore just the one shell and decided enlarge the drawing. I drew a shell in my 50 Drawings in Four Hours exercise. Shell number 26.

Shell

Materials

Cardboard base

Paper ground on cardboard base

So I gathered up my materials, I chose to work on a square shaped cardboard support, I added pieces of scrap papers, newspaper and some tissue. I liked the spotty paper as it gave the background some texture. Using acrylic paints, inks, white pen, charcoal, graphite sticks and pencils. I drew out the shell shape so it filled the square shape.

Start of the shell

More lines of the shell

Adding inks to the surface

Making the edges darker

More Texture on the top

Finished painting

Reflection

I really enjoyed this exercise, as it involved tearing and cutting papers, making marks using inks and a Rigger brush for the lines. Working larger has it’s challenges, such as making marks bigger and effective enough so they look like the textures on the shell, but keeping it expressive too. Underneath the painting is a lot of scribbling and dripping of inks, which can be seen at the bottom of the picture.

I don’t think it’s a perfect painting, but in terms of a change in composition and size is good. It made me think about scale and volume too. Plus I left some of the spotty paper showing through the background, which I hope has added interest to the work.