A day of experiments

Has a whole day of experimenting with different media, and went large for a change.  Great fun!

Ink

Spray paint and fineliner

Large brush

Sponge brush

Overlaying

Paint on mesh

Ink

Rubbings

New drawing

Tried a new drawing using watercolour and fineliner in the hope of creating a final image.

Start of new drawing

Not liking this much either, so I decided to take parts of it and edit it in Photoshop so see what effects I can get.  I was quite pleased with some of the effects.

Edits of my drawing using photoshop.

Failed attempts at collage.

Tried to use my 3D caravan as a centre piece for a 3D collage but didn’t like the result at all.  Looks far too unprofessional. Back to the drawing board I guess!

Fabric Lenny!!!

Had a fab artist workshop by Fabric Lenny (http://www.fabriclenny.com/).  Again, check out his website it’s great, so much going on and I love the layout and design of the website, great inspiration for when I make one myself.  I love the way his work is so diverse.

Another student and myself doing mirror drawing and takingit in turns to ‘drive’.

Had to do various imaginary drawings and then combine them into a 3D fantasy animal.

My groups effort.

Some of the outcomes of the workshop.

The wings were a bit too big to stay on!

Used watercolour with wax to recolour and then ran it through photoshop – this was the result.

Creating Backgrounds

I notice that Romani caravans are full of colour and have many different surfaces, but in particular many patterned materials and ribbons etc.  I therefore decided to experiment with making my own backgrounds using textiles.  I could then use these as a ground to draw on or as part of a collage.

Scanned images using textiles.

EPSON scanner image

EPSON scanner image

EPSON scanner image

EPSON scanner image

Road Trip – Avoncroft

Had a trip to Avoncroft Museum (http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/) as I know they have some caravans there.  This might help me get a feel for the Romani lifestyle and help me draw.

Love the ornate patterning on this.

3D

Decided to try some 3D work as I was inspired by Helen Musselwhites website (http://www.helenmusselwhite.co.uk/). She does a lot of 3D work and I hoped this was something I might be able to use.

By Helen Musselwhite (http://www.helenmusselwhite.co.uk/projects/shop-hanover-edition/)

My first experiments were to draw the parts of a caravan and the Romani lady/baby and then scan and print them onto coloured paper and assemble them.

Editing in photoshop

Prints onto coloured paper

Initial line drawings

Assembled caravan

Ink!

A lot of the Romani text I cam across was ornate and decorative so I though I would explore ink drawing and calligraphy as I don’t have much experience in this.  I purchase some ink pens/nibs and some Berol Calligraphy Pens to see what I could achieve but with not much success.

I then spoke to my tutor who recommended a reed pen which I found much easier and nicer to use AND got some much better results.

Experimented with text on my ipad.

First attempts at calligraphy using Berol pens.

Made my own reed pens

Purchases dome ink pens/nibs

Calligraphy pens

Ink drawing with my hand made reed pens

Ink text with reed pens

Further research

I researched Gypsies and Romani people, their differences, history and traditions.  I then looked online for some illustrations and photographs that might inspire me.

Pictures for inspiration found online.

Found this one on http://romany-soup-art.blogspot.co.uk/2013_05_01_archive.html (interesting site)

I’m a Ramano Rai

Finally made my mind up on the text I am going to use.  Just think there is more scope with this one and this is a short module so I have to make the most of it.

I’m a Romano Ria, a poor Didikai

born to a blind Rawni le the awning of the vardo, marime mas nursed among the grast, daia could keck see mira muj with fingers shirillo, a jek star rarte, shero on sheranda, her gadjo took zen, he left for love on the lung drom, pooker in the poov, in the wavver, a tarno mush cried “prikaza!” over the nicker, shame the koro luvni with the narky lolo thighs.

under kish simurti, Baba Rabena carried loon, her glas blessed the rat zuhro, miro amria, bol and baxt, petalo and drab, the drabarni cursed him ‘dat’, her dijilia calmed the martiya, chased the strazhno, the chivani lit the yog, left daia to sov, she named me Ferka.

Written by Joanna Delyse Packwood

At first look I could not decipher this at all, so spent some time researching Romani terms and basically I believe this poem to be about a mixed blood child (a poor Didikai, half Romani and half non Romani). This child was born to a blind romani lady and fathered by a non Romani man that then left her to earn money.  The other Romani travellers believed this to be a bad omen and called her a whore.  Then a fortune teller came to bless the baby with Romani songs and spells and left the mother to sleep.  The baby was named Freedom.

I felt that this poem would probably be best illustrated in mono line drawings so my first task was to research some illustrators that work in this way and my favourite was by far Zoe Keller who’s work is stunning.

http://zoekeller.com/

Check out her website – it’s amazing!