Texture Experiment 1
Tuesday, February 8th, 2011
Texture Experiment 1 by Amy Crook
A while ago I was working on some watercolors, and I played around making some shapes to use as a base for future drawings. I have a lot of small pieces of this thick, soft buff-coloured paper torn out from my printmaking days, and so I used one of those for this. You can see below a few in-progress shots that give you a better idea of what’s hiding under all that texture.
I was inspired by three things for this, first by Kirsty M. Hall’s tendency to draw abstract shapes and textures over already-done drawings and photographs, especially evident looking at some of the great pieces in her 365 Jars project. The second thing was a Jack Skellington drawing I saw earlier this week on Tumblr of all places, and while I love the image out of pure fangirl joy, I was fascinated by the rich textures in the background. On top of that, of course, I had found the process of doing my crosshatched hatbox quite meditative, so I tried to incorporate elements of all three things.
I’ve just bought a set of Micron pens, so I used the second-largest of those to do the black swirl, and then I used a turquoise Pilot fountain pen from Japan, whose ink bled gorgeously into the pale turquoise of the watercolor, adding an extra dimension of contrast between the two sections. Expect to see more of the Micron pens, which I’m a little bit in love with, though I don’t plan to give up my favorite brush pen — I can have pens on the side, it’s an open relationship.
Texture Experiment 1, 5″x5″ pen and ink and watercolor on Arches cover white paper.
Below are some progress shots I took with my iPhone. Sorry about the quality, I was txting a friend for encouragement, and I decided to share!
Texture Experiment 1, progress shot 1, by Amy Crook
Texture Experiment 1, progress shot 2, by Amy Crook
Texture Experiment 1, progress shot 3, by Amy Crook
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Categories: Abstract and Just Plain Weird, Daily Art
Tags: crosshatching, for sale, pen and ink, spiral, watercolor
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6 Responses to “Texture Experiment 1”
Woohoo, glad to have inspired this lovely piece.
The Micron pens are delicious, aren’t they. Unfortunately the very fine tipped ones are fairly delicate: I always seem to kill them by using them over media they don’t like.
Thank you, dear!
In general I find very fine-tipped anything delicate, so I’m used to it, I guess. My favourite brush pens have to be retired from detail use after a while because the tips get blunt, especially if I write with them.
I really think this is beautiful. I found it while searching for background textures for an art project I’m working on. I’m going to crosspost it to my art blog.
Thanks! I’ve used similar crosshatching patterns in various combinations quite a lot since this first piece.