Metamorphosis – when a rock outcrop becomes a tree

Make a design from observational drawings

You may, or may not, remember this sketch from my holiday in South Wales last year. (If you are interested you can read the blog post.)

1. A sketch of a rock outcrop at Marlowes Beach, Pembrokeshire, Wales

My tutor, David Winning, has been encouraging me to develop some ideas from my observational drawings, and I wondered if this one might be worth spending time on.  I really wasn’t sure how to go about making a print from the ideas presented in this particular sketch as it seemed to be all pattern and lacked a well defined subject.

I started to push around some ideas and thought about an outcrop in an arid place with a sandy colour scheme.

2. A distorted Marlowes outcrop with a desert colour scheme.

It wasn’t working. I felt that  the outcrop needed to be placed in a landscape…

3. Pastel drawing of the rock outcrop - now placed in a landscape.

I was beginning to like the idea.  However, the rock outcrop was now beginning to resemble a dead, old tree.  The rock formations were taking on more of an organic form.

Develop three colour schemes for the design.

Also, consideration had to be given to the brief for my assignment, which was to develop three colour schemes for my subject.  What about:

• a sunny landscape in a temperate climate
• a sunny landscape in a hotter climate
• the same scene by moonlight?

But strange things started happening to the outcrop…

4. Watercolour sketch of hot landscape. My outcrop is now a weird, cavorting creature!

I enjoy the colour scheme – I’ve always loved hot oranges and reds.  But why does my outcrop look like a dead tree about to boogie-on-down?

5. Dancing in the moonlight... (Aquatone pencil and acrylic paint.)

Silvery-lemon, blue and purples hues put me in mind of moonlit scenes.

OK.  The final decision was to go for a dead tree effect .  It seemed to fit with the landscape idea and also with the patterns that had developed from my sketches.

Make the final design for the lino cut.

Now I had to decide on the tree structure and shape.  The tree was to be rendered in a lino block, so I had to firm up  ideas about textures and shape.

6. My final dead tree design. (Graphite on tracing paper.)

So, here is the final tree shape.  I was pleased with the effect, I thought the twisting, gnarled effect might add a bit of drama.  Also,  if you look carefully, you will still see many of the original patterns reproduced from the first outcrop sketch in image 1. above.

How to render the lino print?

Once the lino block was cut, the next question was how to render the lino print.

• One plain colour?
• One plain colour with back-drawing to emphasise certain features?
• Two colours, one offset against the other?

I set about experimenting…

7. An experimental lino print. The print has been made twice, one offset slightly in a lighter colour. Details have been added using a back-drawing technique. (Probably best viewed large.)

This mishmash of ideas in image 7. looks quite good when the subject appears in isolation on a page, but it looks odd when reproduced in a landscape setting.  The details are too indistinct (see image 8. below).

8. The tree looks fussy and indistinct. Too much back-drawing is a mess. (Probably best not view this large - it's very bad.)

9. Here the tree is rendered in a solid brown. To me, this looks cleaner and more dynamic.

By comparing images 8. and 9. I could see that I preferred the tree produced in one solid, strong colour – this way it has visual ‘punch’.  The back-drawing in image 8. is too scrappy – the whole image looks a mess.

Decide on a landscape design in which to place the tree.

The background landscape was produced by using monoprint and masking techniques.  The suggestion of fields was achieved by bands of colours which sometimes had furrows scraped or wiped into the ink.   It took a while to complete a background landscape as the different coloured sections were printed one at a time and each needed to dry before printing the next.  Here’s what the background looks like without the tree lino print.

10. What a difference a tree makes! The background sections of my design were produced using monoprint and masking techniques.

Flaunt your final prints…

11. My final prints - presented as a panel of three. One print per colour scheme. Best viewed large.

The only print that makes much use of back-drawing is the moonlit colour scheme. I thought the slithers of lemon added a ghostly feel which seemed to fit with the night-time atmosphere.  The illusion of pale light was enhanced by drawing a halo of white pastel chalk around the moon as well as back-drawing with white ink.

Thoughts about the process – what have I learned?

It took me  a long time to arrive at a final design. The process of using elements from the original sketch turned up some surprising effects as one shape seemed to morph into another.

I actually agonised over the use of back-drawing – I think it’s a really tricky technique.  Too much is simply a disorganised mess but just enough can be very effective.  Also, how much to use depended upon which colour scheme I was producing at the time.  I made lots of trials and errors which was time consuming, but worth it.

Getting a balanced landscape design took some effort.  I did a few experiments with two coloured paper panels (see images 8. and 9.) but, to my eye, printing on plain white paper with white space between the coloured elements provided the best balance.   I think strong colours seem to work better if there is a lot of black or white to hold it all together.