Aim

‘Through the use of format, document a variety of sketchbook techniques that show drawing, mark making and observation. Where appropriate apply to project development.’

When I first read the task, I thought back to this video I had stumbled across on YouTube about creating patterns with pendulums.

I decided to try and recreate something similar for my drawing machine. I wasn’t too fussed about being exact and scientific with this since the aim was only to produce marks and I was working with limited room.

The set-up I used was a meter stick laid across two chairs with an empty biro barrel dangling off it.

To begin with, I tried using a pipette to pour ink into the pen…

The ink didn’t drip out of the pen slowly like I’d hoped… It got all over my hands too 😦

To try and fix this, I added water to the ink and made the hole at the end of the pen more narrow by taping it up.

This at least resulted in more drips than before.

Next I decided to try the same method but with acrylic paint

The acrylic was way too thick! It just stuck to the inside of the pen and only released one drop.

I added water to the paint and found I got more consistent drips.

Then an intruder came along to get in the way of my experiments..

After that, I changed my set-up to include a plastic bag filled with watered down acrylic paint in place of the empty biro.

I cut a tiny hole in the corner that faced the paper in the hope it would work like a piping bag for icing.

Yet again I got drips but this time there were enough drips to join together to create different shapes and areas where the paint was thicker or more watered down.

My last attempt at the drawing machine followed the exact same process but I had cut a bigger hole to try to allow for more of a flow of paint instead of drips.

Instead of drips, this time the paint did flow out into swirling patterns.

I’m so glad I captured the effect on video before the page (as well as myself, the floor, my mum’s whole kitchen) was covered in blue acrylic.

The drops from the water and ink ended up having some nice depth to them. I really like effect of the dark ring around the edge of each drop. It’s interesting that some drops have jagged edges while others are much rounder. The jagged edged drips seem to convey a harsher impact than the smooth ones. The most jagged edged drops also remind me of the soot sprites from Spirited Away.

These drops were much further dispersed and much more uniform in shape than the ink drops. I like the way the paint has dried thicker on one side of each individual drop. It gives each drop a 3D effect as if it is spherical.

I love the range of shades this attempt produced. There is a nice gradient caused where a higher concentration of the paint has run down. The edges have bled in a paler shade of blue which gives a glowing effect.