Guess Who's Back?!

Hello Everyone!!

 

I'm sure you've guessed from the title and the fact that I've posted this that BLANK KANVAS IS BACK!

 

I took this on my Canon DSLR 1200D at Sky Gardens in London. This was a great photography day out! I'll blog about it to show more photos and I am definitely going back!!

I had to put the blog on hold while I sorted my life out, haha! But all is going well! I worked hard and passed my A levels with an A in Art (Wahoo!). I also had to apply to art college. After working on my portfolio and going to many interviews, I was accepted into University of the Arts London and I am now studying an Art and Design Foundation Diploma at Camberwell College of Arts. (Wow all of that sounds so official - in a nutshell I now go to art college).

 

So, there is a lot to catch up on and its all very exciting!

 

I thought for todays post I'd like to reintroduce myself  because it has been so long and I feel like it will be nice to start again. So here goes......

 

Hello everyone, My name is Katherine and I am the writer and creator of the blog Blank Kanvas. I am an art college student and I have recently specialised in 3D Design: Theatre, Screen and Performance. Art is my life and I know it sounds cheesy but it is very true! Look around you, everything has been designed, everything is art. Isn't that exciting?!

 

Here is an outdoor installation I created in A level. With everything going on I never got a chance to blog about it. Better late that never right?!

Don't worry I'm not going to change the existing format of the blog too much but I have got so many new ideas!

 

Here's a little taster of what's to come!.. 

• My First week at art college

This is my favourite photo I took of a sculpture we created in the first week of art college. Can't wait to blog about this!

• Explaining the different pathways in art

As brilliant as Painting and drawing are there is a huge world of art out there. This is a section of a 3D piece I worked on a few weeks ago.

• DIY room decoration
• Gallery visits (because you can never have enough!) and I'm hoping to collaborate with other bloggers! 

I have been going to so many galleries so I have a lot to tell you about! In this photo is the lovely Isabel (aka Izzie the illustrator) She is absolutely brilliant and we have so many plans for collaborations, so watch this space! (I'll put a link to her blog at the end)

• Photography days out
• Experimenting with new and different materials in art

Here is a little experiment using textures.

 

One of my favourite weeks at college. We made the wall in to our sketchbook, anything we made went on the wall. I loved this project and will definitely blog about it soon!

• Experimenting with baking and cooking (I'm not a pro but this way, I can make the mistakes so you can keep your kitchen clean when you have a go! haha!)
• Drawing in public
• Life drawing

Sorry about the nudity (you can scroll past if you want haha) this is a few 10 minute paintings I did in a life drawing course.  Life drawing is a brilliant way to improve your observational drawing skill, once you get past the naked people fact... 

• Explaining my specialism

This is the first ever maquette I made in my specialism of design for stage and screen. I am hoping to one day go into model making. This project was all about developing characters. I learnt so much and will definitely pass on my knowledge to you in a blog post!

• Looking back at old A Level work (advice)

Here one of the pages from my old A level sketchbook. Oooo it will be wired looking back and seeing how far I've come!

• AND SO MUCH MORE!!!!

So there you go! I'm back in action!

 

If you are reading this now then thank you so much for sticking with me! The future is very exciting and I can't wait to share all this creativity with you!

 

As always Blank Kanvas has been about inspiring creativity between all of us. I'm still only learning and so we can go on this creative adventure together!!

 

Here's a link to the wonderful Isabel's blog https://izzietheillustrator.wordpress.com/

 

Thanks again!

I hope you have an absolutely brilliant day!

 

 

Doodle in Progress

Hello everyone!

 

Recently I've noticed a lot of people doing these really cool doodles in really detailed circles! I think they are amazing and I've see so many on Instagram that it inspired me to try for myself.

 

I haven't got the specialist tools and skills but I have got a thin and thick pen and the love of doodling so I thought... why not!?!

 

This is just a quick little post (mainly photos) I hope you enjoy and possibly be inspired to grab a pen and doodle! It doesn't have to be perfect (mine sure isn't) but as long as you enjoy it, that's all that matters.

 



I used a fine 0,4 pen for the smaller, detailed parts.







I've seen a lot of people use special tools, like a compass, to make a perfect circle (which looks amazing!) but I wanted to practise my precision, so I tried out free hand circles. I know it's not perfect but if I keep practising then hopefully I'll get better!

 



 

 



I also used a thicker felt tip pen for any parts with block colour.





I also tried to be fancy with my camera angles! Haha!



 



I tried to overlap circles to make the doodle look more 3D.





This is a section of it.



I'm hoping to fill the whole A3 page with this doodle! Once I've filled the page I was going to scan it and try out washing different colours over it.

I hope you enjoyed this post, when I've finished the whole page I'll do another post to show the finished product!

I also hope that this has inspired you to get creative, pick up a pen and doodle! I doodle all the time in the margins of my books but this was my first time drawing the circle doodles.

 

If you have a go then please feel free to send them to me on Google + https://plus.google.com/u/0/+KatherinePittsBlankKanvas/posts or my Instagram https://instagram.com/_.kxtherine._/ 

I would absolutely love to see your versions!

Feel free to check out the rest of the blog, get inspired and share your creative thoughts!

Thanks for reading, I hope you have a great day and enjoy getting creative!

Experimenting with Mark Making

Hello Everyone!

 

Before we get started I would like to thank all of you for your amazing comments and support for my first blog post! I did not expect such a wonderful response and you guys really made my day! (If you haven't seen my first blog post then feel free to check it out, its called 'Hello Blog World').

I'll be honest, I thought this ended up looking really arty so I had to put it in!

(Also sorry for taking so long for this second post, I didn't realise how busy I was going to be! I have so many ideas and the posts are going to be a lot more regular now. Haha!)

 

 

 Right! So lets get to it...

Here are some ideas of some basic mediums you could used to create you mark making. (At first I tried to keep my work area neat and tidy, but lets be honest, it got very messy very quickly).

 As you can see from the title, this post is about 'experimenting with mark making', so what is mark making?

Mark Making Definition

Mark making is a term used to describe the different lines, patterns, and textures we create in an artwork. It applies to any art material(s) we use on any surface(s), not only paint on canvas or pencil on paper. A dot made with a pencil, a line created with a pen, a swirl painted with a brush, these are all types of mark making.

http://painting.about.com/od/artglossarym/g/definition-mark-making.htm 

Personally, I believe mark making is created in pretty much anything we do. Creating these textures, lines, shapes and patterns not only adds to the composition, but also adds to the individuality of your art work; to know that the marks you have created are unique to you.

 

Mark making is also a fun way to become more experimental and maybe discover and practise new techniques that you could then develop into a final outcome.

 

I love using palette knives and rulers, it makes a change from the paint brush and can create very interesting marks and textures.

A few ideas

Here are some ideas of techniques and mediums you could use to help practise with mark making and see what works for you:

• granite pencils on primed paper (gesso, Emulsion, etc.)
• ink and nib
• biro and water
• ink and bleach
• oil/acrylic paint and palette knives
• chalk and charcoal
• biro (used to created bold marks)
• wax
• printing with ink
• ink in water
• brush strokes
• continuous line drawing

These are just a few ideas, there are so many ways to make your mark. If you have any further ideas I would love to hear them and try them out! All creative inspiration is welcome here!

The rest of this post is showing some of my attempts at the mark making experiments listed above. Feel free to dip in and out and see what you like.

Salt and ink/watercolour

Here I washed water over paper and added splats of ink. As the ink dispersed in the water I sprinkled salt on top. This created a reaction as it dried. I then used my fingers to rub off the excess salt.



Once the excess salt had been brushed off, a dramatic pattern was created. This could then be drawn on top of creating very interesting marks.

I also used water colours with the same technique.

Ink and Bleach

 

Above is one of my favourite techniques with mark making. It uses water based ink, pencil, bleach, and biro.

 

First, wash some water over your paper (you can experiment with different types of paper to give you slightly different outcomes). Then wash over ink on the wet page to ensure a better coverage. Make sure your ink is water based, other wise the bleach will not work.

 

You can buy water based ink; however, if your like me and you don't think you have any, then you can use ordinary felt-tip pens and then wash the water over the page. Leave this to dry.

 

Water added to ordinary felt-tip pens also works just as well if you don't have water based ink.

 

 

You can try out different ways of applying the ink, dripping, brushing, etc.

 

 

Once the ink is dried, you can then draw anything you like onto the page, I recommend using a 2B or 3B pencil.

 

Now its time for the magic! This step involves bleach so please be careful! Put a small amount of normal household bleach into a jar and with a paint brush you can apply the bleach to any areas of your work that is light. Remember you only need a little bit of bleach at a time as little bleach goes a long way. Wash your hands after you finish using the bleach.

 

You can then finish up the drawing with a biro pen. I used black but you can use any colour you want.

 

I love this technique as I find it really helps improve your skills of noticing the light and dark in observational drawing.

 

I could then work into this further with a fine liner pen, maybe add different colours or add some texture with paint. This would create more depth. In doing this mark making experiment it helps you to further develop ideas for a final outcome. (It's also really fun!)

Abstract Brush Strokes

 

Here I experimented with different shades and tones of the same colour of acrylic paint. The patterns I created were quite abstract but this helped me to loosen up my art work and to try to be more confident in my brush strokes.

 



Chalk and Charcoal



 

Here I created abstract marks with the light and shade of the chalk and charcoal.
 

 

 

 

Ink in water

This is super fun, quick and easy! All you need is a tray of water, different colour inks, a stick or comb to mix and swirl the ink, and cartridge paper (this is quite absorbent and will keep it's structure when dipped into the water).

I love doing this so much! Just fill a tray with water, drop in some inks, swirl the ink in the water with a stick or a comb. Then place your paper on top of the water for a few seconds. (Don't submerge the paper, let it lightly float on top of the water). When you take the paper away it will have a beautiful, intricate pattern on it. The ink will magically dry in less than a minute too!

I left mine as they were (and stuck them on my wall!) as I thought they were so beautiful, but you could further experiment and work into them with different techniques and mediums.

Biro and water

I added some red biro ink here to further experiment, and depth and texture to the mark making.

 

I ripped into the paper here. Experimenting and taking risks like this really helps to loosen up your art work. Even if it goes wrong or doesn't end up how you wanted, this helps us to learn for the future!

Palette Knives


Here I experimented by mixing the acrylic paint with the palette knife and applying it straight to the paper. This helps all the colours show as they are not fully mixed. Again this was a very abstract quick experiment that helps to then develop more ideas for a final outcome.

Paper Dipped into Wax

I ripped random pages out of books, melted wax and dipped the pages into the wax. Please be careful when doing this, the wax will get incredibly hot. (I burnt myself when doing this so please be careful).

Once you have taken the page out of the Wax it will dry almost immediately. I then crumpled the page to add interesting marks.

I drew some of my abstract, mark making, experimental drawings from these wax pages.

So there you go! I know this post was long, so you're the best for getting to the end! Feel free to dip in and out and read what you want.

If you have any other ideas or questions, please let me know in the comments. I will be delighted to hear from you.

Hope you enjoyed this and it has inspired you to get creative!

Thanks for reading have a great day!