Module 1 Part 1 MAGGIE’S MULTICOLOURED WOW COURSE1 MAES WOW course MAGGIE’S MULTICOLOURED WOW COURSE Module 1 Part 1 Fun with Colour I want this course to be about ‘doing’

MAGGIE’S WOWcourse1

MAGGIE’S MULTICOLOURED WOW COURSE

Module 1Part 1

Fun with ColourI want this course to be about ‘doing’ and not too much about theory. However, it’s hard to avoid covering the basics of colour so I’m going to try to make it as much fun as possible. I’m sure most of you will already have the basics so it won’t be too detailed and, by combining the colour stuff with fun techniques, we’ll also look at ideas for using our experiments in sketchbooks or as small stitched pieces.

Design has become unfashionable, regarded by some as boring and a bar to creativity. The colour wheel, positives and negatives, shape and form – most of us have done the theory bit at some time. Many of us use it instinctively when we work but I bet we rarely sit down and consider it in depth before we start. It can be a help, though, to have a mental check-list as you work, especially if it starts to go wrong.

It also helps to develop an analytical eye; lose yourself in Pinterest for a while and make up a board of no more than ten pieces. You’ll probably start with a lot more and whittle them down. As you discard, ask yourself why – why do I prefer x to y? This is where personal preferences come in, of course, but developing a critical eye helps enormously and can be applied to your own work. Print out your grid on a single page and write beside each of the ten items what drew you to it. Was it colour, texture, subject, technique? Add to your board as we go through the course.

Now make another board, concentrating on colour. If that gives you the colour charts of paint manufacturers, try colour + art or colour + textiles. Do it quickly and select 10 – 15 images to save to your colour board. I was interested to find that my ‘instant’ grab was almost equally divided into very colourful, turquoise and oranges or the pale blue-grey colours I often use in my gesso and ink pieces.

MAGGIE’S WOWcourse 2

Primaries and SecondariesI’m taking a wild guess that you know the primaries are red, yellow and blue and that they mix to make the secondaries: red + yellow = orange, blue + yellow = etc. etc.

I’d suggest you make your own colour wheel using watercolour paints – or any ‘runny’ paints that give a strong colour. Make it quite a good size because we are going to take a section out of it to play with. Work on a good solid watercolour paper, draw a circle in pencil and then make the paper slightly wet with clear water, so the paint spreads. Space the red, yellow and blue equal distances apart and let the paint spread and mingle. You won’t get a perfect wheel (we don’t want to get too technical about perfect reds and so on – we’re just having fun). Still, it should look rather good.

Exercise 1Here’s a fun exercise which, I hope, will become part of a piece of work based on this lesson.1. Cut out a rectangle from paper, any colour, then

remove the centre to give an outline. Lay it over the colour wheel and move it around to catch some lovely colours. Make sure you have some yellow somewhere. See right.

2. Take a photo of it, print it out and cut out your slice. Stick it down on a piece of A4 card or firm paper.

3. Now arm yourself with a new piece of paper and a pile of colour supplements or old magazines and tear out rectangles, about an inch (2.5 cm) deep, in the correct colour to build up a strip that corresponds to the slice of colour that you selected. Stick them onto a piece of A4 paper. See pic on next page.

My friend Jane Wild showed me the colour supplement trick and I am exceedingly grateful as it’s fun and it really makes you look at colour relationships.


Exercise 2Work another strip in the torn papers, this time with a repeat. Just make a slightly smaller version with narrow strips.

So, we’ve looked at colour from the colour wheel and applied one other fundamental piece of colour theory. By including some of the brighter yellows, we have almost certainly achieved a contrast which lifts the other colours in our ‘slice’. There are, of course, many other ways to achieve contrast and we’ll be looking at that later in the course.

Jane also looked at colour change using this method. She chose two colours at opposite ends of the strip and worked the torn paper method to get from one to the other. Choosing a neutral colour in the middle and working up and down from it can help here.

> Torn magazine papers. Left. The papers from the original slice of colour wheel. Centre. Jane Wild’s colour strip showing change from one colour to another. Right. The original colours as a repeat.

I got quite hooked on this idea and picked some colours from my Pinterest colour board for the start, finish and middle pieces of coloured paper.

Revisiting the contrast element I mentioned earlier, I’ll offer the idea of colour values as contrast: let’s call the lighter one ‘tint’ and the darker ‘shade’. There are other definitions but this is one I find easiest to remember.

TINT ANY HUE WITH WHITE ADDED

SHADE ANY HUE WITH GREY OR BLACK ADDED

Working with tint and shade

Tint

When working with tone, a basic rule is that pale areas come forward and dark ones recede. A good way to experiment with these two options is by using gesso and paint to give lighter tones while ink and bleach will suggest the darker ones. I’m hoping that you will produce a design based on each and I’ll suggest a way to translate them into stitch or mixed media.

Gesso

For my experiment with tints, I’m going to cut a piece of firm paper and use a small stencil. The square is small (about 4 in or 10 cm) and I’m spreading the gesso through the stencil with a palette knife. Vary the amount from a thin scrape to quite a thick layer and work from the centre outwards so you don’t smudge the stencil.

If you prefer not to work with a stencil, that’s OK – just make random shapes and draw into areas of gesso with a kebab stick (here, we are covering mark-making too). I’ve worked both here. Remember to wash the stencil as soon as you have finished.

Sprinkle a little salt and leave to dry. Now, using one of the colour schemes from the strips you made, paint with runny paints. I’m using spray paints but letting the gesso dry and painting with Brusho or a strong mix of Koh-i-Noor would be fine.

Leave to dry and brush off the salt. You should have pale areas where the gesso was, mid tones where there was no gesso and darker areas where the salt drew extra paint and made darker marks.


Stitch, using hand or machine. I’m really into hand stitching at the moment, so I used running stitch in toning colours either to match or to contrast the background colour.

I think it would be really interesting to take this piece further by running a border along one long edge, based on the colour strip from the magazine tearings. I’ll have a think about this and maybe come back on Facebook – see what you can come up with.

Translate to stitch

Work like this:1. Find your strip of cut paper pieces – the one with

the repeats. Dig out some paints in the same colours.

2. Cut a piece of Vilene or firm cotton – don’t go bigger than 12 inches (30 cm) in any direction – shape is up to you, mine is a rectangle.

3. Stencil with gesso – I used two motifs, one below the other. Dry.

4. Paint – following the colours in the strip and letting them mingle.


> ‘ Old gods and little green apples’. This small panel took its colours from the colour strip. The faces were made from a commercial stencil using gesso and Adirondack colours. The apples were made from Pebeo Prisme paints.


Shade

Working with shade lends itself to dark, sometimes dramatic, designs. For me, this works best interspersed with bright, jewel colours – it’s that contrast thing again. I love the idea of concealing bright colours (that don’t react to bleach) under a layer of black ink and then using bleach to reveal the bright colours below.

Here we are going to look at another design, based on heraldic tiles, with the shapes cut from mountboard. I’ve combined these shapes with colourful wax crayons, ink and bleach to produce a ‘working design’ that demonstrates the dramatic possibilities of working with the ’dark side’.

The theme here is medieval tiles – lots of source material in Google images. I’ve built my tiles from mountboard as it is possible to peel areas from the board to mock crumbly surfaces. Cutting mountboard is not easy but the rough quality of the cutting adds an edge that suits this theme. You are welcome to copy mine or to decide on a design source of your own.

Bear in mind that small fiddly shapes will be a pain, leaves or linear designs would be fine. I cut shield shapes with further chevron shapes to stick on top. A lion cut from the mountboard was rough cut with a knife and then ‘refined’ with a pair of old scissors to make him look distressed.

Make an extra tile while you are at it – we will be using this with Fosshape later.


Here is the method for my tiles:1. From the mountboard cut seven squares for tiles

and a backing board to put them on.

2. Cut five shields, plus suitable pieces to go on top of each tile. Glue with PVA onto shields.

3. Cut two motifs like my flower and dragon. I cut these with a knife and old scissors having drawn/traced the shapes onto mountboard. Fiddly shapes are not easy but they don’t need to be perfect. Glue to tile with PVA.

4. Peel some areas to indicate erosion and then stick six tiles to base. Retain the seventh tile without painting it.

> From left, paper shapes, card cut-out, cut-outs glued to shield.

5. When the glue is dry, colour lightly with wax crayons, Markal oilbars or Irisé crayons. Then paint with black Quink ink and dry.

6. Now dab with a sponge dipped in bleach. It may need to be diluted. Paint some ink onto a spare piece of mountboard and test first. It should be a golden colour – darker around the shapes rather than bleached right out.

7. Finally, give a light rubbing of metallic wax or use an almost dry brush of gold acrylic.

8. Use this as a design source – not necessarily to reproduce exactly but to generate ideas.


1. Make a background from Decovil by colouring with strong paint colours – I used Adirondack sprays, but experiment a bit. Add a little metallic crayon (Markal or Irisé) when dry.

2. Paint with ink and, when dry, bleach to bring back the colours while leaving some darker inked areas.

3. Stitch a little into the background – perhaps work straight lines of stitch in a metallic thread.

I cut shield shapes from the Decovil to go on the background. It takes colour really well – I just coloured a piece with strong liquid colours. When dry they were inked and a little Irisé was added on top. Finally they were bleached and shapes were cut out.

Translate to stitch

I got a bit carried away here as I experimented with both Decovil and Fosshape. I’ve described both as I was pleased with the effects but bear in mind that the Fosshape is a bit experimental and I can’t wait to see what you come up with.

Decovil is a lovely material to work with, having the firmness of Vilene S80 but with a soft, almost leathery feel to it. It is tough for machining but soft enough to hand stitch. The following technique would work very well made into a book, especially as Lynda Monk’s video gives us a great way to make one.

I’m still working on the heraldic theme – adapt this for your design source.


Further shapes were then cut from the off-cuts to make chevrons to apply on top of the shields – just as I did with the card shapes. These were ironed on to the shapes (Decovil has a sticky backing) and stitched with a variety of hand stitches to accentuate the raised areas.

I am going to apply mine to the background to make a Lynda book. I shall be interested to see what you do.

WOWbook December 201711

Rubber Stamp

1. Cut a strip from the material slightly bigger than your stamp. You will be ironing the mat or stamp so don’t use your best one or one that is very thick. Molding mats are ideal for this technique.

2. Lightly dab the Fosshape with a weak tea solution and leave to dry until slightly damp. Then place on a firm surface with a piece of non-stick baking paper underneath the damp material. Lay the mat/stamp on top.

3. Iron with firm pressure and a hot iron. You may need baking paper under the iron – I didn’t but I can’t guarantee it won’t stick. Timing is tricky and may be different with different irons. You can lift a corner and peek to see if the stamp impression has transferred but don’t reposition the stamp.

4. You should have a firm piece of Fosshape with a slightly fuzzy, stamp-impressed top surface. The next step is to let it dry and then mix up a solution of one part Quink ink and one part water.

5. Apply this lightly to the back of the stamped piece of Fosshape, using a piece of foam or a foam brush that is hardly moistened – don’t panic if it floods – you can always bleach it out.

Fosshape is a weird, felt-like material with some interesting qualities. Much used for masks and three-dimensional work, I prefer to explore the strange mix of hard and soft surfaces that can be achieved when ironing it. We will explore this first with rubber stamps or molding mats and then move on to ironing over a more defined custom shape such as the spare tile we made from mountboard. So find your mountboard tile and give it a couple of coats of PVA (or similar) glue. Put to one side to dry thoroughly for further Fosshape experiments later.


6. Continue adding the ink, sparingly, until as much of the background as you wish is covered. It should run along the back of the stamp leaving the top, slightly fuzzy surface, free from colour but with marks from the stamp clearly defined.

7. Cut into shield shapes, incorporating the unstamped top edge as the top of the shield. You could bleach into the ink or rub with a little metallic wax if desired.

8. Use a similar method for a base such as we made for the Decovil and attach the shields or motifs.

This may take a couple of trials to get right as it does depend on the iron temperature. It is a bit like working with Tyvek, once you have mastered it, you’ll be fine.

> The three shields were edged with metallic braid. Automatic patterns stitched in metallic thread on water soluble film were dissolved and added to the background.

WOWbook December 201713

Here you can see the result when only part of the area is inked – this time with turquoise ink. It was made from two stamps which left a large plain (voided) area in the centre.

Even if you don’t always get it right it can throw up some interesting results – see left

Raised shapes

Remember the extra shield shape we made from mountboard on page 8? This will now be useful for experiments which make a deeper impression.1. Prepare the mould by covering it with two coats

of PVA glue, allowing the first coat to dry before applying the second.

2. Prepare as before by cutting the Fosshape slightly larger than the mould, damping and dabbing with tea.

3. Lay your mountboard shape on the firm surface.

4. Squash the Fosshape into the contours of the mountboard shape. Make sure you push it fully down in the dips – use your fingers or the end of a paintbrush

5. Then iron as before, trying to persuade the iron into the dips.

> You should get a more defined shape with a deeper imprint and a more fabric-like surface.


I need more Fosshape to push this idea – I think it could make some very interesting vessels or masks. I love the soft outside with the hard inner surface. More experiments needed.

I think we have covered quite a lot in this first module – I want to give you ideas for your own work, so I have mostly offered techniques and samples. Remember we are working with colour theory – even the tea, ink and bleach offer interesting contrasts here.

Do keep in touch on the Facebook group page. I think we will discover many more possibilities when we share. Experiment with ink on the back of the fabric and then try a little bleach. I got good results from this – and it was also good on the back. Add crayon when shaping is done. See left.

> Experiment with ink on the back of the fabric and then try a little bleach. I got good results from this – and it was also good on the back. Add crayon when shaping is done.

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Module 1 Part 1 MAGGIE’S MULTICOLOURED WOW COURSE1 MAES WOW course MAGGIE’S MULTICOLOURED WOW COURSE Module 1 Part 1 Fun with Colour I want this course to be about ‘doing’