When reading the first exercise of the entire course, I was pleasantly surprised that the first project was all to do with creating textures and different surfaces. With this in mind, I wanted to choose bold colours that would create a strong finish and dramatic effects. This being so I chose mars black, rose, ultramarine and scarlet which would show good concentrated areas of paint against watered or fading pigment. I then went on to experiment with brush techniques that I already knew and find other applications that would give an interesting finish. Examples of these techniques were swirls, dry brush, dabbing, stifling and cross hatch.
After a good amount of time experimenting, I chose a pineapple as the piece of fruit to recreate using the found brush strokes. Using splurges of acrylic, dabbing, sweeping lines and even a cotton bud for the highlights I am content with the study I made of the subject, creating a depth by the use of shadow but also the layers of dabbed acrylic for the leaves of the pineapple.
Next, was the simple landscape made with large brush strokes and for this I chose my favourite local spot of Towneley Hall, Burnley. Towneley has some lovely views but the best of nature is a willow tree just beside the lake and so having seen the view many times, it was extremely easy to reimagine on paper. Beginning with the tree, I used swirls of burnt orange to create the main bulk of the tree as this was my favourite effect that I found with the experimentation, and then continued onto fashioning the rest of the landscape. The study may not be the most adventurous, but I do believe that it conveys a variety of marks made with brushes, and that the chosen techniques compliment each other well.
SOPHIE FAWCETT'S OCA LEARNING LOG 