Painting
with blades is my kind of art.
When looking for illustrations for One Sixth of a Gill, I
rediscovered the scraperboards (also known as scratchboards) that I created
years ago. I liked them but I didn’t
expect that anyone else would. My Editor, an avid art collector, thought
differently, so I let her be the judge. I also revisited the important things
in life, as I once saw them when I envisaged
The Human
Condition
Romantic
Love
and my teddy
bear, Angela.
(I still have no idea why I called a male teddy-bear Angela when I was 7. I do remember that I knew he was a boy and that Angela was his name. These truths were self-evident. Of course I still have him.)
Making the
book and receiving comments from readers who found the etchings ‘intriguing’
and ‘thought-provoking’ made me want to pick up a blade again. After all these
years, I wanted a practice board (and the conventional scratch tool) so I put some
pre-designed boards on my wish-list and this was my birthday present – a kit
scratch-board ‘suitable for 8+ year olds’. Perfect.
Then I
remembered Michaelangelo. One of my favourite stories is how he acquired a
block of marble that was cheaper because some other sculptor had started work
on it and screwed up. Michaelangelo took someone else’s failure and created
David. That’s how I feel about some of the children I taught, about adopted
dogs, about so many things – see the potential and try to bring it out.
So, what
would you have turned this into?
I’m no
Michaelangelo but I wanted to personalize my practice-board for my own pleasure
so I took a photo of the design, turned it upside down, looked at it and saw it
differently. I used layers in Photoshop to cover up the bits of design I didn’t
want and keep those I did. Incidentally, Picasso used layers to create Guernica
– the physical sheets he placed one over the other can still be seen in Madrid’s
Museo Reina Sofia.
Then I
painted over the unwanted design elements with Indian ink (encre de Chine in
French, an interesting switch in country of origin, and which makes perfect
sense as it’s used for calligraphy). I scratched away like a nesting mouse,
moving from painted design to my variations. Unfortunately, once exposed, the
rainbow background looked nothing whatsoever like the beautiful graduated
shades on the packet front. My design did not work in stark rainbow stripes.
Back to
Photoshop, a monochrome conversion, some tinkering with brightness and here it
is. I’m not saying it’s art but I like it and it was fun to make. Now I’m
foraging round the house for scratch tools – I’ve already stolen the wire wool
from the kitchen.
Selfie in Couple
Portrait
You’ll see
the teddy-bear again in the book trailer for One Sixth of a Gill
 |
| available from amazon |
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