Assignment 3 - Exploring coloured media

Exploring Coloured Media

Here are some of my experiments with coloured media

Check and Log

1. Which of the media you have experimented with did you find most expressive? Make notes in your learning log on the pros and cons of each medium.

The most expressive media tend to be the less fine ones like pastels or oil pastels. With these you are able to do broad loose strokes that are less about portraying the exact detail of the subject and more about depicting your own feelings about it. I find this expressive drawing quite hard because you have to forget about trying to copy the subject exactly onto paper and think more about general shapes and colours.
The cons with these media is the same feature however. Their broad strokes Make it difficult to do any detail so it's a different style of drawing that requires you to look at the subject in a more general way.
I tried using turps to thin the oil pastels but it didn't work as I expected. The oil pastels didn't dissolve as much as the water soluble pencils did and didn't blend much but the turps seemed to spread the pigment over the paper better.
The colour pencils are better for detail and they can also be used with water. I found adding water increased the intensity of the colour so some practice is required to get the right amount.
I found the felt pens a bit restrictive because of their intensity and permenance. Using these to create a drawing will require some practice I think.

2.Which medium do you think lends itself to very detailed work

Anything with a fine point should work better for very detailed work, like pens or harder pencils. You have the freedom to either made fine marks or you can hatch or use them on their side etc to create darker areas. My searches have shown that a soft medium such as charcoal can also be used to create wonderfully detailed pieces but this would be much harder to do I think and require a lot of patience.

3. Which techniques, tools and effects do you particularly enjoy? Make notes about your experiments.

Funnily enough I enjoyed the felt pens even though I wasn't sure how I would do a drawing with them. Some of the pens have a flexible brush like nib that could be used to create fine lines or thicker depending on the pressure you use.
The oil pastels also were interesting especially the way you could score into them to create the detail that is difficult to do with them alone.
I think the water soluble pencils should be quite flexible because you have the watercolour effect but can overlay detail once the area has dried.