Back to chapter 3 module 5 - some amendments!

I hadn't felt satisfied with the paper workings for ivy roots sample 7. so decided to have another go.

I wanted to find a way of representing the hairy texture of the ivy roots so I tore and ripped strips of cartridge paper and then distressed the surfaces with with the point of my old and blunt embroidery scissors before pushing and manipulating the strips onto a glued surface.

I used a white background to exploit the shadows created by sunlight coming from the right. The ivy leaves have a different texture and a waxy / shiny surface. I used scrunched up tracing and grease proof paper papers for this. The creases leave white marks which could represent the veins on the leaves.

Also Sian suggested some more work to explore further my paper workings for sample 5 - ivy clad ditch.
She asked if using smaller scale leaves would have inspired a different response.
I realised I needed a denser patterning with repeated shapes and negative spaces. I'd been too hung up on trying to achieve a too realistic image and need to kick start the right side of my brain into seeing the diverse shapes rather than leaves.

I tried them out on black and white backgrounds to play with the effects of daylight and the shadows created on the latter.
For the two samples below I used tissue paper folded into a concertina, cut into and then spread  out unevenly removing and scattering some of the leaf shapes from their folds. Much happier with these!

I haven't used my sketchbook pages too much in this post as the focus is poor but added this one below to show the concertina workings in top right hand corner and the waxy ivy leaves worked on black and white backgrounds at the bottom of the page.