Wednesday 24 August 2011

Extraordinary Graphite

I have been experimenting with graphite mark making for a new, large scale piece of work. It has been a joy to play freely with graphite sticks and stumps and various erasers, including putty rubbers. The marks that can be achieved are extraordinary and extremely seductive. The soft changes of tone have captivated me at the moment, and the tonal change from black back to white have inspired new approaches.







The last slide shows how I have begun to explore the possibilities of over drawing with scaled up marks that I found in my sketchbook.
All these images come from one piece of work, the making of which is a fascinating journey and I have not yet reached the end. Next post hopefully will reveal the finished piece.

3 comments:

Sara Bowen said...

Hi Wendy, I'm intrigued by your lovely mark-making! Do you use a fixative between layers or wait until the end? Just curious...

Wendy Rhodes said...

Hi Sara,
Thank you for your interest. No, there was no fixing in between, but there was some masking. I sometimes used a rough piece of paper held over areas I wanted to protect so that the marks could work across the area, fully to the edge.

LAC EMP 2020 said...

There are some beautiful marks here Wendy. I love the softness of the graphite stick and the density of tone you can achieve with it. Looking forward to 'the reveal' I am intrigued and can't wait to see more. Lesley