Project Tag: #worksonpaper

Sometimes, you gotta go back to your roots.

(final update 10/16/19)

Ever since creating what was really the first artwork I had done in 12+ years (first image below), which was created from a different drawing using carbon paper, tracing paper, a scanner, computer software, and a final layer of acetate, I’ve been wanting to replicate the aesthetic of the piece (with the dark grid that should create “snap” offset from the edges of the cubes) in a series in which each piece will have unique mark-making.

I still haven’t mentally unpacked the content of tracing and repeating/layering but in an analog fashion. At least, any more deeply than accepting this work as a fascination with certain materials I encountered in design school as well as a romanticized notion of analog creativity. I also don’t think tracing has to be anything more complicated than a proxy for printing.

I hope it doesn’t denigrate to call this fun… but what else should you call this sort of bourgeoise escapism?

I have taken to starting most drawings (all on bristol “board” recently) with a red drafter’s pencil. This one actually started with a red prisma color. I keep scraps of paper and acetate to use for smaller studies for different applications, and I will sometimes lift up one layer and work “backwards”. There are two layers of acetate on this piece, with felt-tip pen, sharpie, and artist crayon on those layers.

There are lots of reasons to work on paper- it’s a quick way to keep chops up, but it can also generate quality work that also won’t be as spendy for patrons as a large painting. Planning to work mostly on paper until the studio is up and running, so look for more!

A heavy snow day (for NC) recently afforded me the opportunity to take a drawing from start to finish. Getting through the last template for my silk screening project freed up both time and space for this drawing I’ve been wanting to make since I loaded up on bristol board and acetate recently (the latter shipped with layers of tracing paper that I found to highly translucent).

First, I taped down and gesso’ed the illustration paper to get a slight texture. After drawing the grid, I taped down two layers of tracing paper and proceeded to work back and forth between the sheets to arrive at the order in which to apply colors to arrive at a painterly quality when these layers were combined. I finished this piece with a layer of acetate onto which I traced the grid structure in felt-tipped Sharpie, and then slightly offset.

This piece was a fun hybrid- not really print-making but as much akin to it as drawing. The net result is a single piece that is four variations of the same grid.

The initial drawing was done on graph paper (which I let show through, and became the drawing in the upper right), using a red pencil, an illustration or drafting strategy. This grid was then traced in pencil with sufficient pressure to leave an indentation of the grid into a heavy, water color paper. During this tracing step, I also inserted a sheet of tracing paper below the graph paper, and a sheet of carbon paper over that. The end result was three layers of the same grid; once I painted the water color paper, I off-set the tracing paper, then added a third layer of acetate which I also drew on (this became the top left drawing). I then added a layer of acetate to the original drawing, and drew on that with marker, scanned these layers as a whole, then finished the drawing with some crayon.

Next, I manipulated the scan and printed it, also on graph paper. This time, I traced over the grid in the print onto tracing paper, with a sheet of carbon paper under the print and a sheet of the water color paper under that. I then did some additional coloring of the print, which also transferred to the heavy paper. This became the bottom left drawing. I then manipulated the scan a final time, printed that layer onto ink jet transparency paper, laid this over the water color paper onto which I had transferred the grid using carbon paper, then layered on more acetate and drawing, finally reversing these last two layers to arrive at the drawing in the lower right.

I’ve really enjoyed working with some of the effects I can get by layering tracing paper and acetate layers. Similar to other work I’ve done, in this piece I used the process of tracing an initial composition to create additional layers. What I did differently with this one was create layers of matte board to separate them physically.