Materials, Tones & Techniques

Here I have experimented with a variety of materials such as acrylic, emulsion and watercolour in preparation for painting the spine sculpture as well as the possible use of tone within my final major illustration piece. I feel that the emulsion experiments were the most successful as the coverage of this paint was quite thick which would limit the amount of coats of paint that I would need to apply to the spine sculpture which would significantly reduce the time I would need to spend on this part of my final major which would allow me to focus my time on areas such as creating the texture of the spine sculpture as well as the illustration piece. I also experimented with glitter paint, although I did not expect much from this material I decided to experiment with it anyway as the brown/bronze tones of the paint were quite interesting. However, as I had expected this paint was not successful in any way as the paint was lacking in coverage and a solid tone, I also did not feel that the properties of the glitter paint were not suitable for the sense of realism I intend to create.

(Emulsion + Glitter paint Experiments)

Here I have experimented with watercolour as I feel I may like to incorporate this material within my final major illustration piece. I feel that the variety of tones that can be achieved with this material are very successful as they remind me of the subtle tone colouration of bones that I have studied from life. The ability to alter the intensity of the tones is very interesting as this could create a variety of gradients and shading techniques that may create a unique effect. The properties of watercolour particularly inspire me as I feel that I may be able to create a wash of tone that would settle underneath an ink drawing to create a sense of contrast between these two materials, however I would like to experiment more with this material before making a decision.

(Watercolour Experiments)

For this experiment I have explored the properties of mod-roc as a sculptural material. At first I was unable to gain any results as the mod-roc that I was using was quite old and the water did not activate the plaster so I was not able to create a workable material. Because of this, more problems were created for me as I had to order more mod-roc and I was unsure of the delivery times of the material as from experience, the timing had varied, despite this though I was able to acquire more mod-roc. Another problem I had faced was that I was unable to obtain any clay which I had wanted to experiment with because of the lockdown but I feel that creating a large scale spine sculpture would have been to expensive to create and too heavy to present how I had planned. Although I do feel that the malleable surface of the clay could have created some interesting textures along with the layer of paint.

(Mod-Roc Experiments)

Here I have experimented with acrylic paint. After experimenting with emulsion from sample pots, I had realised that emulsion would be quite costly and I would not be able to create a variety of tones without buying a few different colours which would be quite wasteful also because of the size of each (I was also not able to find any online that would deliver so this was another factor.) I decided that acrylic paint was more of a cost effective material and created around the same results as the emulsion except the application was not as thick as the emulsion so I may need to layer a few coats of acrylic on the spine sculpture.

(Acrylic Paint Experiments)