Sunday, July 21, 2013

Experiments with old paper and new drawings

So today I started on a project that I've been meaning to do for ages. Because (as I have mentioned about five times already) I am moving into a new flat soon, I decided a while ago I would buy some new things, recycle some old things, and make a few things for the new house. I've spent the last three years in the same student house and while it was great (and had a balcony with amazing views of a marina) I get bored of looking at the same furniture and same pictures on the walls everyday.

A few months ago, I found three of these small frames in Sainsburys, reduced to around £3 I think, so I bought them without being quite sure what to do with them.


Around the same time, I was browsing through Etsy and I came across a few shops selling vintage early 20th century paper, so I bought some thinking that it would come in handy for a project at some point. They don't seem to be selling the exact bundle I bought anymore, but I got mine from here.


As you can see from the picture, and more closely in the following one, the pages are from all sorts of things. Some are in Greek (I tried to teach myself Ancient Greek for a bit, so I should be able to decipher at least a tiny bit of it, but nope, all that knowledge has emptied itself out of my head it seems), some are from plays and one is from some kind of textbook with a chapter on 'Inorganic Chemistry.'


So anyway, it wasn't until recently that the thought occurred to me that I could combine these two purchases and make some new pictures to hang in the next place I lived. I've also wanted to get back into drawing for a while, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to start. Here's what I came up with this afternoon:


It's an armadillo! Kinda pleased with the way he turned out actually. I love drawing in black biro, it's really good for working in texture and shading. I usually sketch an outline in pencil first though. He's the first of three I'm hoping to do, so I'll have a little triptych on my wall. I thought maybe drawing over a page of text might be too much, but actually I like the layers it creates, it feels somehow like an old encyclopaedia drawing, like this.

Here he is again in close-up:





Song of the day: 'Tessellate' - Alt-J

P.S. Has anyone been watching a new drama on BBC2 called Top of the Lake? It's on Saturday nights around 9.15 and it's really good! Basically a twelve-year-old girl is pregnant and the six episodes follow what happens to her and the police that are investigating her case. Everyone seems to have an ulterior motive though, and you're not sure which characters you can trust, which I love.

2 comments:

  1. He is lovely!
    You should spy on the Illustrator Megan Eckman - she does lots of things with old papers (for example https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151419146118107&set=pb.58369338106.-2207520000.1374496547.&type=3&theater)
    xx

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    1. Ooh, she's given me lots of ideas! I hadn't really thought about cutting the papers up etc. Hmmm... xx

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