Revisiting Older Thoughts: Drawing Iceland

Last year I described a drawing project I had begun in which I layered lines I saw in photographs of Iceland: the edge of a glacier, the curves of moss-covered rocks, the peak of a mountain. I worked steadily on the project for awhile and made a few pieces I really liked. Some drawings are made with several pieces of paper layered on top of one another, each with a single line drawn on it, while others combined several lines onto one sheet. I also liked experimenting with my photocopier or with effects in iPhoto to vary and degrade the line quality. However, the project was put on hold because I got caught up with other work and obligations. I would like to revisit the project now because drawing is something I can do without a studio and because something really nice is happening with these marks. And if anything, drawing these lines again is a way for me to stay connected with my home away from home and the memories tied to every photo I took. 

Sólheimajökull glacier tongue in south Iceland, taken in May, 2014

You can see more images on Flickr including some process pictures.

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Turning a Mountain into a Line

A few weeks ago I told you about my new drawing project and Sunday plan. After my first Sunday, when I drew single lines, I started layering the lines on top of each other, sometimes combining two, sometimes using more. I find it helpful to focus on one form of manipulation, like layering, which keeps me on task and keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by choices. I'm not sure what I'll do this Sunday, but I'm thinking about working more with layering lines on separate pieces of paper. There is something really beautiful in the translucency of the material and the varying intensity of the pencil marks.

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enameling part 2

on tuesday we went for another walk and collected more objects and pictures. this time around, i definitely collected more visuals than objects. these walks have given me a chance to take pictures of many of the things i love seeing every day at penland. when we got back to the studio we laid all of our collected bits on a table including what we had found the day before. helen asked us to make 10-20 mark making tools in the two hours before lunch. then she made a beautiful arrangement of all the tools on a big sheet of butcher paper. next we shared the tools and made marks with them on another giant sheet of butcher paper using black paint. the remainder of the afternoon was ours to experiment with the tools in our sketchbooks. the top image is a detail of some marks i made in my sketchbook using bamboo.

i really enjoyed the first two days of class. i got to do some things i normally wouldn't take the time to do like taking long walks, taking pictures, and experimental drawing. it was good to be out of my element--drawing and mark making can be awkward for me. i felt pretty relaxed in class, though, so it was more fun than anything else.

more on flickr.

thanks for reading.