Frames

I decided that the composition of my 3 trees piece was not working. It lacked impact. But I'd put in too many hours to scrap it, so I decided to play around with masking the drawing with paper frames until I got a shape I liked. I decided that I liked a square frame best, and once I decided on that, I tried moving the paper frame around the drawing and photographing the different effects I got. Subtle changes, which I then reviewed on screen to decide what composition to go with. I printed off a contact sheet of a few of these in order to make my final selection.

 

With the paper frame still around my drawing I added  few finishing touches, working on the fast flowing water behind the trees mainly to increase the feeling of movement in the drawing.

 

Here is one of the colour pieces I did late last year of the same place in Scotland, the Ariundle Oakwoods.  Despite the fact that this piece was rejected for an open exhibition, and I recognise that my colour work lacks the definition and dynamism of my pen and ink work, there are still areas of it I quite like.

I tried the paper frame technique with this other piece which I began a couple of years ago.  The original drawing was more of a square, but I've decided to crop it to a panoramic rectangle, which I think improves what was a limp composition.  It was a troublesome piece this one, but again, I liked aspects of it and for that reason, it has escaped the shredder.