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Drawing challenge: Rhythm

Hi everybody,
I’m so glad you could all come join, (or just pop in to see), this first drawing challenge of 2016
We’re all trying to find our rhythm.

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For me personally, it’s not altogether that easy, and, spoiler alert, I haven’t finished my piece of art as of right now, (Friday lunch time), so technically this will be part one! Although I will just come back here and edit later…but then I did set my heart on a totally new to me art form: making and printing a collagraph.

Lats year in Art in Action I saw an artist do a small demonstration, and have wanted to try since then. Her name is Sue Brown and she prints the most amazing birds with her collagraph plates. So I set about to try to learn a little bit more, (I should have paid more attention at Art in Action!), and it seems that I needed a piece of art hard board to carve into.

Armed with my hard board, a pencil and my sketch book, I got to spend 3 hours with C on Thursday evening, in the art school she works in, with no one around.

What I envisioned for rhythm, is a small wild creature just picking itself up from the winter, ready to find its rhythm back in the world. This small creature turned out to be a wild hare, and the place it is picking itself up from turned out to be winter grasses.

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So I played with some grasses and weeds which I sketched on transparent sheets and moved around the composition, and when I was happy with it, I transferred the images and began to cut out the top layer of paper from the hard board.

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Guys, please remember that it’s a bit of the blind leading the blind here with very little idea of what I’m doing. 😀

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So I worked quite late into the evening, and this morning…

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I had most of the rough cutting done and the plate was basically ready for fine work.

So, as usual, I will tell you the great and not so great things I found out about doing this. The paper lifts off in layers, but the lifts aren’t clean and leave fluffy, pilly, rags behind…and you’re all probably shaking your head saying, “duh!”…but my thoughts are, will these pilly bits make a weird texture on the print? So we will take a deep breath and say what Robbie says, “Time will tell.” 😀

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Well here we are. In the strong morning sunshine, you can see the marked difference on my plate between the cut away part and the smooth original surface of the paper.

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One last thing to do before I’m off to my yoga class, is coat this plate with gloss medium. In my research I found out that it’s imperative to use gloss medium to seal the paper and keep the ink on the surface.

OK, I’m off to let this dry and work on it some more later this aft. Wish me luck. 😀

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In the meantime, please link in and let us see your rhythm. I’m so looking forward to new and fresh inspiration.

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Comments: 13

  • January 15, 2016
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    Good luck! I love anything with rabbits so I’m interested in seeing how this experiment turns out!

  • January 15, 2016
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    Nice to see the steps you’ve made. I do like your experiments and looking forward to the final result. Thanks for hosting this wonderful theme. – eric

  • January 15, 2016
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    such a handsome rabbit!
    i love it at this stage, i am guessing the mat medium will seal down some of the background texture bits you were curious about.
    such a wonderful idea.
    thank you for hosting and inspiring us to consider rhythm.

  • January 15, 2016
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    I can’t wait to see how this turns out. What a test of patience the process appears to be. Thank you for hosting the challenge. I enjoyed your process and my process to find rhythm.

  • January 16, 2016
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    hi!
    i am in!! ;^)))

    boy, do i love that drawing….
    and it’s not even finished!
    i haven’t made something
    but so wanted to join
    and
    i did ;^))

    xxx

  • January 16, 2016
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    Love the sketches of the grasses. I think I could do that too one day soon. Thanks for the challenge.

  • January 16, 2016
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    Oh my goodness, I can hardly wait to see how this prints out for you! Do you just need one layer of gel medium? Exciting.
    Thanks for hosting again, Veronica. Great theme. xo

  • January 17, 2016
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    oh, goodie, goodie, veronica, this is fun already. i’m sure you’re making all the right moves, oh, i’m so excited in your place, as we say here. i wish i could just see the evolution there with you. waw. thxs for hosting too! i didn’t do anything ‘new’, but i quite enjoy my present rhythm anyhoo. so. finally up and now we’ll be relaxing some. n?

  • January 17, 2016
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    Oh, I love this even now! Can’t wait to see the results of printing now and how excited would you be? Lovely rabbit! Thank you so much for inviting and giving me a push. I hope i’ll be back in rhythm now… 😉
    Happy weekend!

  • January 17, 2016
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    I am glad, too, dear Veronica!
    Thank you!
    Your rabbit is amazing, great!!
    x Stefanie

  • January 18, 2016
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    i am sure it will turn out quite well .. you are as always amazingly clever

  • January 19, 2016
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    dear Veronica, thank you for this theme and your post! Helps me find my 2016 rhythm, too 🙂

  • January 25, 2016
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    Hey V .. I’m having probs leaving comments! Love your rabbit, such a handsome dude!

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