Week 2: Experimenting

Mark Making Tools

So, I went hunting around my house and found a few random but potentially interesting mark making tools to use.

 

 

 

Bone

Chicken is delicious, and nothing should go to waste. Therefore, the chicken bone. Started off by dotting with the tips, swiping on an axis, and just pressing it flat against the paper. The marks look rather scratchy and panicked, in a sense; quite fitting for a tool derived from a slaughtered chicken.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crochet

There’s usually a touch of love when something is handmade, but can the love be transferred onto paper? I used a circular crochet scrap to create various marks by dabbing, swiping, rolling, and brushing it on paper. Some of the marks are thick, conveying a bit of that love, but the few frayed lines may show some sort of struggle or disconnection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chocker

A string with beads that snapped off the actual chocker, because why not. I tried zigzagging and lashing, as well as tangling it into a ball of sorts, varying the compactness to create different density in the marks. To me, the marks gave off a mixture of frightened, anxious, and lost feeling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peg

An everyday object that I found. It has different carvings on each side, so I thought it made for an interesting mark making tool. I also tool it apart to make marks with the inner side of the peg, as well as the wire that holds it together. There’s a systematic look to it, perhaps due to the parallel markings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fern

Picked this up on the way to class. A common fern, but it has a nice structure, so why not discover what marks it can make. Other than pressing it, I also tried scratching the paper with the side of the fern, brushing with its base, and drawing fanned out lines with the tip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3: Emotions to Markings

Emotional Lines

Last week’s experimentation showcased different tools and what kind of marks can be made with them. This week, attempts will be made to create lines that convey certain emotions. So abstract, so new, so lets get right into it 😉

 

Love

Smooth, soft, and shallow curves tend to give us the feeling of comfort, relaxation, and love. However, instead of drawing those curves with one stroke, I used dots of different sizes to form them. Dots are round and have a positive look and feel to them; bubbly in both sense of the word.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy

Happy-pappy emotions. Happiness, enthusiasm, positivity; lots of round edges but also diagonals to show that energy that comes with that happy little dance we do despite trying to contain our excitement. I drew thick swirly shapes that seem to be ascending, the elements eager to go forth and do something with all that energy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Surprise

Another emotion that leans more towards more positivity for me, just with a little more energy to it. I used sharp, zig-zag lines to convey the high energy, but too many sharp lines made it look a little harsh and tense. So, I added some dots and curves to highlight the general happy mood that I feel comes with a good surprise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anger

Here comes the emotion with lots of harsh, sharp lines. Marks that show anger tend to be made with quick, forceful strokes, some even tearing through the paper. But what about anger that is kept bottled up? I tried showing this hidden anger by keeping the exterior relatively soft, with a bit of scratchy lines surrounding the shape, while leaving space in the middle to create spikes on the inside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sadness

When I think of sadness, blurry, dull marks come to mind first. But I noticed that in the list of words under sadness, there was hurt, and pain isn’t something I’d picture as entire fuzzy. So, I created a background with a mixture of faded and sharp vertical lines, almost like scratch marks, and made barbwire to further emphasise the element of pain in the feeling of hurt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fear

When we’re scared, we get jumpy at the slightest sound or movement. Fear can cause us to behave differently; our actions erratic, desperate to do anything and everything to escape the horror. I thought of ways to record this unpredictability on paper, and found that dropping water into paper and then blowing it at an angle captures just that. The lines are sharp and split up at random, conveying fast, panicked movement.