I did some research on the Bauhaus movement for previous exercises and decided to look again at the work of artists like Johannes Itten, László Moholy-Nagy or Wassily Kandinsky. I really like how they play with colours and how they deconstruct and reassemble shapes to create vivid artwork.
Following the brief, I made random dots on an A2 sheet of paper. I started joining the dots to create geometric shapes and assembled the shapes in different ways until I could see something emerging. I first worked with a pencil (images on the left). I then used a brush pen, a fine liner and some watercolour to explore the parts of the page where I could see potential. I played with mark making, shading and watercolour to emphasise the 3-dimensional aspect of the various shapes.
What I learned from this exercise
I saw mainly characters and sometimes flowers in the shapes. It could be that once our thoughts follow one direction, we are more likely to carry on in the same way.
Trying to join the dots meant that I was not worrying about perspective, reality or any other parameters. In a sense, this gave me the freedom to create without worrying that the lines I drew might not be right.
What I liked about this exercise
I can see 3 characters in the bottom left corner of the page with a potential for a story. There is one that seems to be sitting rubbing their eyes, while the other two seem to be in a conversation. in fact, I did not fully see this scene until I started adding colours.
I enjoyed playing with mark making and watercolour. I felt free to try mixing colours and adding lines without worrying about spoiling the end result.
This was a fun exercise that can really be a source of inspiration and a way to practice freely different techniques.
Catherine Roux Degree in Illustration 