This is a post about my recent painting – To Market – A collage using ink and limited palette of sugar paper and gouache.
The inspiration for this piece came from a visit to Beaulieu. In amongst the cars from the screen exhibitions was an old French three wheeled truck, used in the Absolutely Fabulous film. The orange of it reminded me of Pumpkins and from there I knew what I wanted to draw.
My designs start with a rough sketch. I like to work quickly to get the idea down, the initial sketch this work will always need refining. I may work on several literation’s of the design. I’m looking for big, interesting shapes and thinking about the line. The cut out version was my final sketch but I was still thinking about the positioning of the dog.
Working with Sugar paper and other paper, I transfer the individual elements by tracing round the cut-out shape. Depending on the complexity of the shape I may cut the sketch down further. To achieve a rough edge on the sugar paper I paint with water around the outline and then gently pull the paper apart.
I use newspaper to break the shapes up. I then position the shapes on a support, in this case a white piece of mount board. They are then glued into place with acrylic matt medium – which is waterproof and able to withstand the next process of applying ink and gouache.
The lorry logo came from a leaflet for a tuk tuk ride in Saundersfoot. I had to adapt the design as the dog cut out didn’t fit the image after I added the ink. I’m always making decisions and standing back to see the effect.
I use an old, trusted stick with a sharpened point and Indian ink to roughly add details to the image. The line work is irregular, and I don’t worry about jagged edges of paper poking beyond the line.
Tips – when using ink, right-handed people, start from top left and work across and down …If you are left-handed start at the top right and work down…so you don’t smudge the ink
The dog being a central part of the design took several literation’s to get right. I was aiming to get the feel of a dog enjoying the wind and hanging out of the window. I experimented with different line weights and paper. The final dog uses a paper that allowed the line to bleed into the image.
Finally, gouache paint is applied to add accents. This process starts with a photo of the image that I open in Procreate on my ipad. I am able to add and remove highlights to find the right balance. I wanted the main focus to be around the dog and the pumpkins so I added detail to the pumpkins closet to the dog and left more flatter paper colour towards the back of the van.
I also wanted to add some highlights to the edges of the lights and make the wooden panelling on the lorry look aged.
The final Image – To Market – Collage, ink and gouache
