Finding my way

My focus now is on a Dawn Redwood tree that I drew in ink way back in Part 3 when it had no leaves.

The Dawn Redwood

The plants surrounding the Redwood are mainly trees and shrubs and in my minimalist plan many will disappear.

As well as the Dawn Redwood there is a Kentucky Coffee tree in the foreground.

Using this image owes a lot to my finding Fascinating Cypress by Max Ernst.

Although the tree is huge the leaves are small and delicate:

They are soft and didn't lend themselves to rubbing.  The single leaf is strangely like the shape of the whole tree.

Plan 1.

I began with a quick sketch....

then asked myself some serious questions.

What exactly do I want?

• to use frottage and printing
• create something with impact
• to be adventurous
• to be surprising
• to complete a competent piece of work

What do I need to do?

• make a plan
• consider and then source materials
• think about colour versus monochrome
• consider the background
• realist or abstract?
• experiment

What I have decided.

• use graphite for the frottage so I can get good definition
• spray the background - the only colour I'll use
• semi abstract
• look at Japanese papers because they are more robust than tissue paper

Plan 2

I selected leaves for the frottage - it was important to get the scale right. I used my A3 sketchbook and sprayed with fabric dye.  Then I tried my leaves:

I did the rubbing on cream tissue and repeated the process:

I think the coffee tree could do with two geranium leaves.

I lightly sketched in a few lines to guide me and put in the fence.  I did this with a piece of string coated in charcoal then pinged on the page.  this was very successful as it gave a rather smudgy impression of the fence

I added tree trunks and the shrub in the foreground was printed with acrylic paint using the same geranium leaf I used for the Coffee tree.

The finishing touches involved a few extra plants in front of the fence and climbing up it.  I put a light grey wash on the "grass".

Plan 2

Have I got what I want?

• I'm not entirely happy with the insignificance of the Dawn Redwood
• I have colour that shows through the tissue paper which is what I wanted
• the trees are suitable but not dark enough.  I think slightly heavier paper will allow a bit more pressure and therefore more definition.
• this will add to the impact which at the moment is not great
• I'm not sure about "surprising" but it is unusual.
• the image has depth with the fence receding

What I need to do now:

• make a decision about background colour.  I used orange and blue in Plan 2 and got a fair amount of green as the colours mixed.
• consider intensifying the colour towards the bottom of the page.
• consider my Japanese paper.  I have a sample pack with several weights of paper.  I am wondering if I could rub my leaves directly on to the paper.  It's too expensive to mess up.

At last I feel I'm making some headway.

Plan 3

I have made some changes to both my method and my materials for Plan 3.  To beef up my trees I'm going to try baking parchment (I'm not prepared to use my Japanese paper yet).  I'm going to under print the trees with grey paint using the same leaves as before and use fingerprints for the foreground shrub to try to get more tones.

My background will remain the same colours but I'll wait for the first one to dry before I spray the second one.  I will intensify in colour towards the bottom of the paper.

My sprayed page

I followed pretty much the same procedures as in Plan 2 except for the under printing of the Kentucky Coffee tree.  I had planned to under print the Dawn Redwood as well but the print was so successful and gave the impact I wanted that I decided to leave it be.

Unfortunately I got son engrossed in my work I forgot to take pictures.

Plan 3

This time I used some small pieces of paper with wood inclusions for the planting at the front of the fence and this gives added texture.

I'm not sure about the fingerprint shrub but I didn't want to repeat the print used on the Coffee tree.

After a day I returned I my work>  I find a bit of time distance works wonders.  What I saw was

• the fence looks too regular
• the fingerprints aren't as anywhere near as effective as the shrub made from geranium leaves in Plan 2
• the Coffee Tree needs some context for the base of the trunk
• the trunk for the Dawn Redwood needs to be lighter than the Coffee Tree trunk

I acted on these observations and got a better image:

This is generally more successful that Plan 2 and is the plan I will run with.  I want to retain some spontaneity in this final piece of work and I feel ready to go.