The August Creative Challenge Gallery – Week Three
See the images and comments for the third week of the August Creative Challenge below.
Please feel able to comment on the images. You can also Like the idea on our Group Facebook page, or follow the AccessArt Visual Diary board on Pinterest.
We hope you will join us for this fun challenge! The main page for the August Creative Challenge
Andrea Butler
August 15, 2016 @ 8:14 pm
Day 15: Colour rolled onto the printing plate and paper pressed down to pick up the ink, then I made a monoprint using a drawing from my museum visit last Friday. I took a ghost print from the plate afterwards to pick up the image left on the surface.
Andrea Butler
August 15, 2016 @ 8:14 pm
Ghost print:
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 16, 2016 @ 10:57 am
Day 15 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
Today was our wonderful family trip to Lauriston Castle in glorious sunshine. Beautiful building and grounds, tranquil and peaceful. I’ve tried to capture that in my image for today. Unusually for me, I have not included any people or animals. Instead, I chose to focus on the rhythm of weaving and pattern-making, using the green colours of nature. The accordion page was strengthened with a bit of cardboard stuck to the back of the page, then I cut out and glued magazine photos of gardens to the paper /cardboard. I also cut out two small rectangular shapes near the bottom and pierced a number of holes in various places to enable random weaving. I used found wool and scraps of t-shirt fabric.
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 16, 2016 @ 10:58 am
Detail showing cut out sections and pierced holes for weaving with wool and fabric
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 16, 2016 @ 10:59 am
Detail of weaving
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 16, 2016 @ 11:01 am
Accordion with Day 15
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 16, 2016 @ 11:02 am
Accordion detail with Day 15
Andrea Butler
August 16, 2016 @ 6:16 pm
Day 16: Inspired by Ruth Purdy, /printing-processes-that-use-ev…/ I made a collection of little printing blocks from plasticine.
Andrea Butler
August 16, 2016 @ 6:17 pm
Printing blocks:
Andrea Butler
August 16, 2016 @ 6:18 pm
Printing blocks 2:
Andrea Butler
August 16, 2016 @ 6:18 pm
Printing blocks 3:
Andrea Butler
August 16, 2016 @ 6:19 pm
Printing blocks 4:
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 8:08 am
Day 16 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
All day today it was very hectic (so little time to work on my image!), and it was hot. I wanted to reflect the heat of the day, hence my use of the deep pink for the face and the intense oranges. I played around with lots of collage pieces (including using up bits of discarded prints), and I did a lot of pasting and tearing. I’ve left one piece partly torn as I liked the idea of it alluding to peeling paint in the heat. My face is another one of my eraser print heads, and I also added detail with oil pastels.
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 8:09 am
Detail of eraser print face
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 8:10 am
Detail showing ‘peeling paint’
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 8:11 am
Accordion with Day 16
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 8:11 am
Accordion detail with Day 16
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 11:30 pm
Day 17 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
Another hot day today! While I do like the sunshine, I can’t handle heat very well, and I think that has come across in today’s image! The watermelon and the collage piece with the upside down legs (made from two different pairs of legs!) were the triggers for this sprawled figure :). I used collage pieces using the pasting/tearing technique, along with oil pastels for colour blocking, detail and alteration (such as the model’s once beautiful face, now transformed into an idiotic, happy watermelon daze :)).
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 11:31 pm
detail of altered face using oil pastels over collage
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 11:32 pm
detail
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 11:32 pm
Accordion with Day 17
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 17, 2016 @ 11:33 pm
Accordion detail with Day 17
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:06 pm
Day 17: I asked artist (and friend) Mandy Bray to post me some some scraps of fabric, paper, or anything that she had left a mark on. Generously, she sent a selelction of small goodies that included painted papers, an old shopping list, one of her test prints, a parking ticket, a piece of orange felt, a cardboard box, part of a drawing by her daughter and a small piece of blue lino. I didn’t use a postcard or a small fragment of pottery but managed to make collages from everything else and turned it into a tiny mark making sketchbook.
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:07 pm
The sketchbook:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:07 pm
Pages:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:08 pm
Inside the sketchbook:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:09 pm
Mark making sketchbook:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:10 pm
Back of sketchbook:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:20 pm
Day 18: printing with the plasticine blocks from day 16:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:20 pm
Pale blue:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:21 pm
Yellow on pre-stitched fabric:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:21 pm
Green on pre-stitched fabric:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:22 pm
Orange on a pre-painted background:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:23 pm
Pink on a pre-painted background:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:24 pm
Red on a pre-painted background:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:25 pm
White on a pre-painted background:
Andrea Butler
August 18, 2016 @ 5:25 pm
Black:
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:32 am
Day 18 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
Back at the Edinburgh International Book Festival today (Thursday), to hear a very inspiring discussion entitled “Drawing on Your Imagination”. My ticket for this event inspired me to create my ‘library’, using cut up sections of the ticket, and highlighting these with stitched drawing. I do enjoy stitched drawing on paper, though I did break my needle today, and jammed my machine several times 🙂 . As you can see from the photos, I left the end threads long and loose, inspired by Andrea Butler’s beautiful post /paperback-figures-collaged-rel…/. I’ve also just noticed, looking at my photos, that there’s a lovely narrative suggested by the bird on the shelf staring at the watermelon in the previous image :). Do birds eat watermelons? Just had to google, and yes, they do!
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:33 am
Detail at top of image
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:38 am
Detail of middle section
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:39 am
Detail of foot of image
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:40 am
Detail of bird looking at watermelon
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:40 am
Accordion with Day 18
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 19, 2016 @ 10:41 am
detail of accordion with Day 18
Sheila, AccessArt
August 20, 2016 @ 9:12 am
Gosh Morag! I’ve not tuned in for a few days and absolutely stunned by the work and evolution of your book – What an incredible inspiration and amazing to see. Love seeing you and Andrea’s support for each other’s creativity too – an absolute privilege to watch this process unfold. Thanks you!
Andrea Butler
August 19, 2016 @ 5:04 pm
Day 19: Drawing at the museum and playing with colour. Using crayon to find the form of the little bronze animals and then working into the drawings with graphite to sculpt them into shape.
Doe figurine, bronze c1000 BC, Northern Iran:
Andrea Butler
August 19, 2016 @ 5:05 pm
A little bronze guard dog 1800-1200 BC, Iran:
Andrea Butler
August 19, 2016 @ 5:06 pm
Ibex handle 900-700 BC, Iran
Andrea Butler
August 19, 2016 @ 5:09 pm
Little bronze goat, 600-500 BC, Greece:
Andrea Butler
August 19, 2016 @ 5:10 pm
Little bronze dog 600-500 BC, Greece
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 11:57 am
Day 19 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
Was back at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (yet again!) with my mum and children at a wonderful workshop run by the illustrator and writer Alice Melvin https://www.facebook.com/AliceMelvinIllustration/. The workshop was based on Alice’s new picture book Grandma’s House, inspired by her childhood memories of her grandmother’s home. Alice showed the children (and adults!) how to make houses out of folded paper (including an accordion format), and how to cut/manipulate these into different shapes and designs. This inspired me to create a new accordion, this time, in a basic tree shape, to attach to my main accordion sketchbook, thereby creating a new dimension. As you can see from the photos, I worked mainly with collage pieces, stitched drawing and one of my eraser print heads, but I also incorporated my owl lino print that I had reduced in size on my PC (the original lino print is too large for the accordion) and printed onto some found brown paper. While I was taking the photos, I was pleased to discover that the cut out shapes in the tree had captured little snapshots of other sections of the main accordion, thereby creating a sense of space and light. There are far too many photos to include here, am thinking of creating a Pinterest board to pin these on!
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 11:59 am
detail of front of accordion tree
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 11:59 am
Upper detail of front of accordion tree
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:00 pm
Accordion tree emerging
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:02 pm
Accordion tree pulled out (attached to main accordion)
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:03 pm
View of expanding accordion with Day 19 (accordion tree)
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:04 pm
My owl lino print reduced in size on my PC and printed on found brown paper, pasted onto accordion tree
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:05 pm
Detail of back of accordion tree
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:06 pm
detail of accordion tree
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:07 pm
Little snapshot of bird from previous day’s image
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:09 pm
Section of accordion tree showing cut out shapes (one covered by golden yellow acetate paper)
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 20, 2016 @ 12:11 pm
Another little vista created by accordion tree
Andrea Butler
August 20, 2016 @ 3:32 pm
Day 20: At the museum yesterday I made a drawing of a strange looking flower from an 18th Century pottery dish. I’d like to make a coloured lino print from the drawing, so today, I cut a small key block and took a rubbing from the lino to see how a print might turn out
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:27 am
Day 20 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
Had meant to post this yesterday but ran out of daylight hours to take photos, and in any case Facebook wasn’t working (it kept freezing). Took my photos early this morning but then my children decided to get up early. I then had technical problems with uploading my photos. However, all is well now 🙂
A large found piece of collage, snowy white with a textured appearance (the flour on top of freshly baked bread featured in a magazine) triggered this image. I was excited by the photo of the chair I had found in another magazine and thought the richness of the blue would work well with the snowy white. I had a lot of fun with stitched drawing, collage and oil pastels, and as you can see from the photos, the bird’s head and beak have extended across to the next page. That doesn’t matter to me, as it’ll be a trigger for my Day 21 image which will appear on that page. Will be interesting to see what!
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:28 am
Detail of bird
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:28 am
Detail of head and beak
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:29 am
Bird tail
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:30 am
Accordion with Day 20
Andrea Butler
August 21, 2016 @ 4:53 pm
Day 21: Today I experimented with making a multiple coloured lino print – the first time I’d tried this process. I used my lino block from Day 20 and then for speed, cut some stencils for the other shapes in the design as I didn’t have time to make more lino blocks. I made several prints and loved building up the image one stencil and colour at a time but you can see that the registration is slightly adrift in the final image – so, apart from really enjoying the whole thing, the most important fact I learnt was that you need a good registration system so all the sections of the image will line up when you use the final key block to bring it all together.
Sketchbook pages: working out what I needed for the final print
Andrea Butler
August 21, 2016 @ 4:53 pm
Sketchbook pages: stencils, lino print and ghost print
Andrea Butler
August 21, 2016 @ 4:54 pm
The final print
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:03 pm
Day 21 of the August Creative Challenge /join-us-for-an-august-creative…/
Today I decided to have fun with light, space and subject matter, something simple I could do quickly as Sundays are always full of family chaos :). The bird from yesterday (Day 20) was the trigger for a search for baby chicks which I found in one of my magazines (back issues of Country Living, covering a wide range of subject matter, very handy!). I was thinking back to the Alice Melvin workshop on Day 19, and the sense of light and space I had created that day with cut out sections. I decided to highlight the baby chicks in a large cut out shape spanning two pages, with a smaller circle above. The chicks were pasted to yellow acetate paper and then inserted behind the large cut out circle. Yellow acetate paper was also pasted to the smaller circle. I filled the background with blue oil pastel to mirror the blue of Day 20, and to provide a strong contrast to the yellows of the chicks and the acetate paper. I also made the decision to strengthen the background of Day 20 with ochre oil pastel to create a more harmonious whole with Day 21, and to highlight the snowy white of the bird’s body.
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:04 pm
Day 21 with the Day 20 bird
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:06 pm
Opening up the accordion – detail
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:07 pm
Dramatic light and sense of space through cut out shapes
Morag Thomson Merriman
August 21, 2016 @ 11:08 pm
Accordion with Day 21