Kathryn Kerr

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Reflection

The most exciting possibility offered up by skewers is the ability to apply paint and then work back into it, scraping away paint to expose the white paper beneath. Secondary marks.

The toothpicks and skewers have little ability to hold the media, so the marks are necessarily limited. This can be seen in all the purely linear marks.

Soft
After the initial blob of paint is transferred to the page, a faint,scratchy, multi-part line is possible. Very subtle.

Sharp
Sharp marks give either a blob to begin, or a square edge, depending on the amount of pain on the wood. This trails off quickly into a ‘comet tail’ which picks up the texture of the page and the wood. Circular marks,m made by pouncing the stick up and down give a transect of the wood grain once sufficient paint is removed.

A second experiment, crossing fast lines over each other resulted in lines picking up the colour of previous ones, making indistinct lines suddenly distinct again. The cross-hatching was filled the space with scratchy texture.

Heavy and/or Bold
Heavy pressure inevitably led to more paint! Like my experiments with the paddle pop sticks before, the paint is moved aside by the pressure, giving a two-toned mark, thicker at the edges. I love the possibility offered up by this type of mark when it comes to shading, and working back into the paint to create detail.

Flowing
The flowing movements were unsatisfying because the paint trailed off so quickly. The movement barely starts before it is undermined.

Delicate
The very find tip of the skewer allowed for very fine, detailed marks. With several attempts I was able to produce marks only 1 mm wide.

Fast
A blob to start, then lines within lines are present, as the paint trails off.

Slow and Steady
These lines end up resembling the fast lines! After all, there is only a finite amount of paint.

Agitated
A calamity of blobs, jet black and trailing scratches, some with the two-toned mark effect.

Sideways
Using the long side of a toothpick gave a solid sweep of colour! Wonderful circular marks were possible by twisting the long edge in the middle, giving light and dark patches.