Experimenting with Expressive lines and marks - Calm

Calm

When I set up to do the exercise I found it very difficult to acquire the feeling of calm - until I played peaceful background music and then definitely I got the feeling of calm.

I started in the top left with dark blue soft pastel and it was a pleasure just to make marks on the paper without thinking ‘is it in the right place?’, and with soft pastel I could make thick marks, letting my hands make the marks freely.

In the bottom right I made the mistake of starting with brown soft pastel without changing medium, but I kept going, to see how the marks might change as a result of the colour change, and I think switching to brown did make a difference. With the blue pastel I felt more calm and comfortable than when I used brown pastel, and I think the marks show this. I can only presume that this is because brown isn’t one of my favourites colours.

In the bottom left I used oil pastel for the first time in my life, and was thrilled with the marks I was making and will definitely explore oil pastel more in future.

In the bottom right I used a marker pen, and felt uncomfortable making random thin marks with a pen - the mark-making was not fluid enough and I think the marks lack beauty.