1 Exercise 1 PART 5 IMPASTO and SGRAFITTO

a) Using a brush - a simple still life.  Oils, colours: burnt sienna, raw sienna, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ultramarine, titanium white on oil sketching paper. I was a bit confused about the instructions regarding mixing of colours - not sure if the idea was to use unmixed tube colours only or not, but I suspect it was. I know this wasn't exactly what the exercise was about either, but in the end the temptation to mix colours on the palette got the better of me as I wasn't comfortable with the thought of them turning out looking totally unrealistic. For the first attempt I set up an apple, a pear and a banana. The first pear attempt was a disaster as I placed one colour over another so they merged together. They were certainly thick smears as requested in the manual, but they mixed together too early on. The second pear was a little easier and the banana, no problem. By the time I reached the fourth attempt at a piece of fruit: an apple there was a slight improvement in technique as I managed to keep the colours slightly more separate, though the shadow at the base went a little haywire. The paint seemed to have quite a lively appearance, despite colours merging here and there. Although I set up the composition carefully this care soon went into oblivion as I struggled to handle the paint.

b) Acrylics: avocado, mango and onion on canvas paper. The paint was unmixed tube colours this time. I did however mix in heavy body medium to thicken the colours. The process was going okay, apart from when I left it alone for half an hour after applying the darks, so they were virtually dry on my return. I added the mid and light tones and blended the edges a little in the darks. I added a few more darks over the darks so I could blend the edges with other colours. Of course I found it impossible to obtain to obtain accurate matching of the actual colours and tones on my arrangement. I felt more confident this time than I did  with the oils. It could have been due to the different medium - acrylics. I was more certain of where to put the appropriate colours and keep them confined to intended areas.
c) Oils. fruit: apple, pear, lime, banana. Cols: cad red, cad yell, mixed green, white. banana, cols: cad yell, yell ochre, white, touch ultramarine,  pear: raw sienna, cad yell, touch u/mne. and lime, cad yell, touch u/marine and touch viridian - this was ideal to lift the dullness of the green mix I had. on canvas paper. Burnt umber and u/mne for some darks. The colours were mixed this occasion rather using straight from tube.
The paint didn't sink into the surface as the acrylics did, but I was guilty of fiddling about for too long with the paint in attempt to obtain a convincing representation - what it was not for a good part of the process.
The brush sizes ranged between no.s 4 - 8 - a mix of flats, rounds and a filbert.
d) Acrylics. Banana, apple, lime and avocado. Used mostly tube colours, mixing occasionally for dark red and green shades. I couldn't help going over the lime and parts of the apple on the dried paint as the previous colours and tones didn't look at all convincing. Though I employed very rough brushwork and, as with the other three thick paint the acrylic did sink into the surface a bit, unlike oils. Acrylic is deceptive in the sense that also shrinks on drying.

2. Using a painting knife. Oils were used for all of these experiments. I basically just messed around with various styles of painting knife.
They are great for defined ridged or smooth contours and edges. Also fantastic for quicly obtaining texture with two or more colours wet on wet yet the colours don't blend as they would with a brush. Each colour seems to keep its own integrity.

Paint was pulled along  to make parallel lines with a flat straight blade. This produced thick straight linear marks. A rather three dimensional effect resulted.I twisted it from side to side in different ways - one of which produced interesing wiggly lines rather like a gnarled tree trunk and  branches.Another was hit and miss smooth and ighly textured surface in parallel lines reminiscent of aged posts or columns perhaps. When I pulled the paint and knife across these at 45 degrees.  When the paint was double loaded (two colours on the knife blade) they went on adjacent to one another. When I pulled and pushed the flat of the blade from side to side the colours intermixed gave off a beautiful effect.


In a simple woodland landscape I used a knife and scratching with end of a brush handle/crochet hook or fishing hook. Used various knives - including thin rectangular bladed one for the tree branches. Dark thick paint over light base of acrylic. Easily able to sculpt and scrape the paint producing very raised and textural surface. And for extended time due using oils. Acrylics would have needed retarder to do this and would shrink when dry. However the oil paint used in this took several weeks before it was even touch dry in the thickest parts. Having said that I think this method and medium would have improved a previous woodland painting I did in Part 4 I think would have been tactile and more expressive with both brush and/or knives. I used cards to apply the paint on some rocks in another landscape painting in Part4 (Ex2 hard/soft landscape), though I think the whole painting looking at it now, was completely overdone. Also some previous still life exercises in Part 2, but I got the impression the emphasis in the course manual was on using just brushes. The particular painting was of an onion and garlic, using oil paints . I did obtain some raised texture but I did use a knife to increase the raised effect. I tried scratching the paint in the garlic but wasn't enough contrast with the colour of the underlayer and the paint could have been thicker without fighting with the onion for attention. I had some trouble with both acrylic and oil on canvas. Though surface was well prepared the paint sunk in. Think could have enhanced some light areas with a painting knife. Knowing what I know now I would have used a surface like primed paper or card, not canvas, and a much darker underlayer. Again in this section, with another experiment on thick paper, I tried out a quick study of a vase useng fairly thick light toned oil paint on a smooth textured surface. I scratched away some of the paint around the contours and patterned areas to reveal the dark base layer. Using this method proved easy to obtain an effect I was happy with. I would certainly like to use oils again in this way.
The simple landscapes from imagination, I did at the start of this course, I think could have been made a bit more expressive if I had used other ways of applying paint apart from brushes, as indeed could many other exercises.
Partly because it  was on my mind, at the end of this exercise I did an experimental painting of imaginary still life - bottles and 'other' objects in acrylics. I used a card and rough loose brushmarks of white, pink, red and green paint on a dried green painted ground. Plus scratched into semi-dry paint on the left bottle and tonked wet red paint - using pressure to remove paint with a piece of paper. The process of chance and discovery was quite fun, some accidental effects emanated. The end result leaves a bit to the imagination,  which I was pleased about, leaving me with a keenness to try and approach more of my work in the same way - not so easy when I know something's going to be critiqued though.
Another part of my motive was that I had been looking at some of Cy Twombley, Willem de Kooning and Howard Hodgkin's work and was in admiration of the loose gestural brushmarks. I was also intrigued by the way de Kooning and Hodgkin used the effect of a frame or opening into a room or entrance or view on something. There was also some influence there, I think of Mel McCuddin (described as a figurative expressionist) in the way he paints his quirky figures from the imagination, akin to carving positive shapes out of negative space.
http://www.spokanehowsbusiness.com/news/archiveStory.asp?theArticle=1054


SGRAFFITO is a technique of ornamentation in which the surface layer of paint is scratched into to reveal areas (usually contrasting) of the surface underneath. Historically it has been used in several areas, such as in wall design and ceramics and glass manufacture for many centuries, where it has been used to scratch back an area of glazing or plaster.
Cy Twombley is a notable 20th century artist who made use of this technique in his multi layered paintings, using many different media and materials. 
http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/twombly-and-poussin-arcadian-painters-dulwich-picture-gallery

As a contemporary artist using scraffito, part of Robert Joyner's technique is often to scratch back into the paint as part of his loose and painterly style.http://napavalleyartcamp.blogspot.ie/2011/07/making-lines-with-robert-joyner.html

I scratched back through the wet oil paint
into the dried dark backgroundof acrylic in this quick study
of a vase.

Scraffito could be described as scratching into a layer of usually wet thick paint with a tool such as the end of a brush handle, a piece of card or even a fingernail to reveal a layer or layers of an underlying surface. The colour or tone of this surface usually contrasts with the paint being scraped off. It can be used for a whole range of effects, from complex pattern to a single thin line. This technique can even work with dry paint using very sharp tools and as long as the support is sufficiently resilient and thick to withstand the pressure. Wet impasto oil paint is a typical example of where it would be easy to use. Dried acrylic would take a bit more working out.