Little Drawings
Katherine asked to see some of the little drawings that I talked about in my last post. Here are a few of my favourites…
Kirsty Hall: Drawing, Nov 08
Kirsty Hall: Drawing, Nov 08
Kirsty Hall: Drawing, Nov 08
Kirsty Hall: Drawing, Nov 08
Kirsty Hall: Drawing, Nov 08
Kirsty Hall: Drawing, Nov 08
The torn edges are an important part of these drawings and I’m considering framing some onto larger sheets of watercolour paper so that the edges are retained. These are drawn on A6 cartridge paper (105 × 148mm) with a deliberately restricted palette: I’m ONLY allowing myself to use two pencils (a 2B and a 9B) and acrylic gesso. The greys are formed when the gesso mixes with the very soft 9B pencil. Working on this small scale and with such a limited choice of materials really frees me up to work quickly in an uninhibited fashion, which is absolutely what I need right now.
If you want to see more of these, check out my flickr pages.
When I was scanning these, I was thinking about the way that pencil is often regarded as a ‘neutral’ art material because it’s so ubiquitous and considered fundamental to art. Yet actually, graphite is a very particular material with its own distinct properties. The scans don’t capture the incredible, shiny, dense, silvery greyness of the 9B pencil but when I’m applying it so thickly, its status as a mineral becomes quite apparent. I’ve also been playing around in the studio with graphite powder on gessoed panels but it makes a much softer and more fragile mark than pencils, which contain clay and binder for strength and ease of use. I’ve been wondering what it would be like to densely coat an object with pencil marks or layered graphite? The idea of making sculptures that leave ‘drawings’ on their surroundings is very appealing to me.
Oh, and if you want to know how those ‘simple’ and ubiquitous pencils are made, then check out this series of videos from Derwent. It’s a surprisingly complex process but certainly a lot quicker and easier than the way it used to be done!
These are beautiful!
[Reply]
Posted by missmilki on November 28th, 2008 @ 12:43 pm
These are beautiful!
[Reply]
Posted by missmilki on November 28th, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
Thank you, missmilki.
[Reply]
Posted by Kirsty Hall on November 28th, 2008 @ 3:18 pm
Thank you, missmilki.
[Reply]
Posted by Kirsty on November 28th, 2008 @ 4:18 pm
These are beautiful and make me want to drop the knitting I’m working on (my first sock!) and run to my sketchbook.
Two things come to mind.
Graphite powder ink. Just mix graphite with water.
Surfaces that are interesting to work on, the inside of an egg, just peel the membrane off before it dries.
[Reply]
Posted by erin on November 29th, 2008 @ 1:00 am
These are beautiful and make me want to drop the knitting I’m working on (my first sock!) and run to my sketchbook.
Two things come to mind.
Graphite powder ink. Just mix graphite with water.
Surfaces that are interesting to work on, the inside of an egg, just peel the membrane off before it dries.
[Reply]
Posted by erin on November 29th, 2008 @ 2:00 am
um assuming you aren’t vegan
[Reply]
Posted by erin on November 29th, 2008 @ 1:05 am
um assuming you aren’t vegan
[Reply]
Posted by erin on November 29th, 2008 @ 2:05 am
these are lovely – such beautiful, suggestive textures.
I was at the Derwent pencil museum over the summer and really enjoyed it. But I wouldn’t have fancied extracting graphite from those Cumberland fells in the 1800s . . .
[Reply]
Posted by Kate on November 29th, 2008 @ 9:25 am
these are lovely – such beautiful, suggestive textures.
I was at the Derwent pencil museum over the summer and really enjoyed it. But I wouldn’t have fancied extracting graphite from those Cumberland fells in the 1800s . . .
[Reply]
Posted by Kate on November 29th, 2008 @ 10:25 am
These are great, very inspiring, thanks for sharing.
[Reply]
Posted by Jumbly on November 29th, 2008 @ 4:07 pm
These are great, very inspiring, thanks for sharing.
[Reply]
Posted by Jumbly on November 29th, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
I like your combination of graphite on gessoed surfaces. Your pieces area wonderful. I’ve painted on wet gesso before (sometimes mixed with glass bead or naptheline gels) , and this gives me an idea–why not use graphite on wet gesso. Maybe I can paint an entire start of a piece with just sprinkling the graphie powder on the wet surface. I’ll post results in my blog in a couple days.
Thanks for a great blog.
Merle
merleplaggeart.com/blog
[Reply]
Posted by Merle on December 1st, 2008 @ 2:25 am
I like your combination of graphite on gessoed surfaces. Your pieces area wonderful. I’ve painted on wet gesso before (sometimes mixed with glass bead or naptheline gels) , and this gives me an idea–why not use graphite on wet gesso. Maybe I can paint an entire start of a piece with just sprinkling the graphie powder on the wet surface. I’ll post results in my blog in a couple days.
Thanks for a great blog.
Merle
merleplaggeart.com/blog
[Reply]
Posted by Merle on December 1st, 2008 @ 3:25 am
Nice to see a sequence of your drawings, Kirsty – I really like the object quality of them, emphasizing the importance of the torn edges of the paper to the whole.
Coincidentally, & also on the subject of the physicality of drawings, I recently commented, in relation to one of my own blog-posted drawings, on the failure of the scanning process to capture anything of the rich surface sheen resulting from the application of intense mark-making with a soft graphite pencil (& the formal dialogue this creates with less-worked, partially-erased or ‘blank’ areas).
[Reply]
Posted by James on December 1st, 2008 @ 10:16 pm
Nice to see a sequence of your drawings, Kirsty – I really like the object quality of them, emphasizing the importance of the torn edges of the paper to the whole.
Coincidentally, & also on the subject of the physicality of drawings, I recently commented, in relation to one of my own blog-posted drawings, on the failure of the scanning process to capture anything of the rich surface sheen resulting from the application of intense mark-making with a soft graphite pencil (& the formal dialogue this creates with less-worked, partially-erased or ‘blank’ areas).
[Reply]
Posted by James on December 1st, 2008 @ 11:16 pm
These belong more to a Canadian winter.
[Reply]
Posted by red-handed on December 3rd, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
These belong more to a Canadian winter.
[Reply]
Posted by red-handed on December 3rd, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
[...] Images, the Online Image Library of US Bureau of Land Management, a blog by artist Kirsty Hall – Up all night again. Kirsty features a page on her blog about Why Artists Should Blog. Here are her [...]
Posted by G’day Mate! « Arty Schmarty - A Future Librarian on December 5th, 2008 @ 5:16 am
@Erin. Thanks Erin, I’m sticking to paper just now because I seem to need the restriction but it would be interesting to try graphite on different surfaces, it’s such a fascinating material.
[Reply]
Posted by Kirsty Hall on December 9th, 2008 @ 9:27 pm
@Erin. Thanks Erin, I’m sticking to paper just now because I seem to need the restriction but it would be interesting to try graphite on different surfaces, it’s such a fascinating material.
[Reply]
Posted by Kirsty on December 9th, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
@ Kate
Thanks Kate, I’m very into textures at the moment – I think it partly comes from my interest in textiles. I’ve not visited the Derwent Museum but I did my Foundation up in Carlisle, so I’m well aware of how cold and forbidding the Cumberland Fells can be, even now.
[Reply]
Posted by Kirsty Hall on December 9th, 2008 @ 9:30 pm
@ Kate
Thanks Kate, I’m very into textures at the moment – I think it partly comes from my interest in textiles. I’ve not visited the Derwent Museum but I did my Foundation up in Carlisle, so I’m well aware of how cold and forbidding the Cumberland Fells can be, even now.
[Reply]
Posted by Kirsty on December 9th, 2008 @ 10:30 pm