Pallet Knife Practice

Alongside my paintings I have been practising creating shapes and textures with pallet knives, exploring the different ways I can create interesting effects with paint.

Brushtrokes and Pallet Knives

Continuing with my experimental abstract-style painting, I decided that for my next few paintings I should focus on the different ways I can apply paint to canvas. In my next two paintings I experimented with rough, "choppy" brush strokes and pallet knives, which proved to be rather entertaining. 

Working in this way allowed me to have fun with the paint, applying it spontaneously to the canvas without fear of going too far, like trying to draw inside the lines of a colouring book as a child. Experimenting with different language within art has always been something I have enjoyed, however, I feel that working in an abstract style has changed my approach to painting and released any fears I had about the media previously.

22 x 18" acrylic on canvas.

This painting - shown above - I found harder to work with even though I felt I applied the same brush strokes and techniques involving the pallet knife. However, I managed to get around what I felt was a creative block by turning the canvas 90 degrees every time I began to find it difficult. In some respect, it also created a challenge as it cause me to look at the compositions I was creating from a different a angle, which ultimately enabled me to create lots of different dimensions within the piece.

Close up image.

Though I haven't deployed this tactic with my other recent paintings, on reflection it seems to be something I would like to explore further.

Finger Painting

After collecting lots of ideas over the summer for my upcoming projects, I thought a lot about the ways in which I'd like to execute them, but mostly considering the media I would use. In previous projects I have worked on a small scale; throughout my foundation degree I confined myself to working with collage and drawing in pencil, only allowing myself to incorporate other two-dimensional media occasionally. However, with the start of my BA fine art studies fast approaching, I decided it would be a good idea to break my previous habits and allow myself to create art more freely, without the need to think too much about what it is I am creating.

That was when I considered working in an abstract style - a risky move as I have never particularly practised working in such a way. (I'm assuming that a brief project at A-Level does not quite count.) But to my surprise I was able to completely throw myself into the piece. Without thinking too much about what I was painting, I was able to free my previously tightly controlled ways of working to play with the paint. I say play as I painted the entire piece with my fingers.

It was a complete experiment - I had no intention of liking what I had painted once it was finished, yet I did. But most of all I actually enjoyed the process, which hasn't always been the case when I've previously worked in acrylics. Furthermore, after I had finished this piece I had an urge to carry on, to experiment with different ways of applying paint (which ended up involving pallet knives and experimental brush strokes).

Above: the final outcome. Roughly A3 sized.

Odd Collages

If you have seen my previous posts then you may be aware that I have been experimenting with collage involving my own photographs and images from magazines. I've also been toying with composition, textures, line and materials as a way to incorporate something different to them.

Though simple, I thought that this collage using two of my own photographs (from inside my bedroom window and my front door, both taken accidentally and a very long time ago) was effective in man different ways. I liked the colour combination the photos created together for one element, but I particularly liked the way I positioned the image of the door over the windows and in the centre. The torn effect almost looks like the door is being revealed through the image of the windows, yet this cannot be possible as in the photograph, there is nothing directly outside the window. I like how this plays with the dimensions in images and asks the mind to consider ways that this can or cannot be possible.

This was a spontaneous collage I created to experiment with a lack of colour and what would happen if I added a section of bold colour, in this case, the holographic gold card. I then tried to reflect the angles created in the images I had taken from magazines by outlining them spontaneously in graphite crayon and black marker pen.

Experimenting with Collage

As part of my Skills, Process and Technologies workshops I've been experimenting with collage involving images of my own and general ones from magazines that take my fancy. These three practises were taken from a collage I created of images from Elle magazine - the background in the original is plain white, but silly me has forgotten to take photographs of it.

I made many photo copies of my original collage in both colour and black and white and experimented with extra layers, textures, colours and changes to the background. In the first image I cut the entire collage away from paper and applied it to holographic green card. The lighting on the card changes when you view the collage from different angles, making it look as if it has been places on a moving screen. In the second image above, I experimented mainly with drawing and overlay of other collages. This one with in black and white.

In this third image, I cut out simple shapes from a magazine displaying pastel colours and then placed them over shapes previously created in the colour to manipulate its colour. I then highlighted these areas with gold pen.