The brief

Rather than relying on materials whose properties are familiar to you, this exercise asks that you gather alternative drawing materials and conduct some simple studies to test how these materials can be used and determine what types of marks they can produce.

Firstly, produce some test marks for each material using a single-page or double-page spread in your sketchbook.  Try dabbing, dragging, flicking, and swirling your materials on the page.  Once you have identified a particular material that you feel has potential, choose a relatively simple object or scene, and use your material to draw it. 

This exercise aims to test your chosen material’s properties to see if it can be manipulated or if your process can be modified to produce a range of tones.

Approaching the project

I had a quick look on the internet to see what natural materials can be used for drawing.  I was cautious to research this too much because I wanted to explore this myself instead of copying what others discovered.

I walked through my house and garden and brainstormed what I thought had enough ‘pigment’ for mark-making.  Leaves can be pressed to extract the green chlorophyll, and I quickly discovered that softer leaves work the best.  Leaves with a waxy feel are harder to press.  Baby spinach leaves and rose petals could work well too.  Still, leaves are just not juicy enough to get enough pigment, and I am also not too fond of the brownness that comes with the green leaves.  This is just a personal preference, but I would imagine if a brief asks, for example, a distressed earthy feel and tone, this is worth exploring further. 

This brings me to another question.  How could I extract the pigment?  My kitchen has a small spice grinder to grind ginger, cumin, coriander seeds and rosemary.  This could work well.  Another option is to use a Pestle and Mortar and strain the juice with a muslin cloth. 

In my pantry are Marmite, Bovril, coffee, and tea, which can be used for mark-making.  Turmeric immediately caught my eye as a spice with a rich yellow pigment.  Curry powder can also work, but because it has Turmeric in it.  It makes sense to use Turmeric in its raw form for more punch.  The other exciting colours in my kitchen were beetroot and blueberries.  Both seem to have loads of pigment, and I am curious to see what I can do with it.  The selection I will try out is beetroot, turmeric and blueberries.

Beetroot

Beetroot is fabulous!  I chopped it up with my food processor and then used a pestle-and-mortar to push the juice out of the flesh.  I used the wedges to draw and ‘print’ on the paper and placed the chopped beetroot on top of the paper to soak into the paper and see what effect I could get.

The effect was a bold swoosh of pigment (Figure 3).   I tested slate blue, olive green and pink watercolour ink on top of the ‘shoosh’, and I quite like how the beetroot underneath gives the ink dimension and interest.  On the right-hand side, you can see slate-blue ink bleeding through the page, which I really like.  I think it works well with the beetroot blodges.

The dots and solid squares in figure 3 were painted with a paintbrush to see how it act as ‘paint’, but I used unique mark-making tools for the rest of the double-page spread.

(Click on the picture below to view a short YouTube video of my beetroot mark-making.)

The dipping pen worked well with the beetroot ‘ink’; the colour was vibrant and pigmented enough to make thin and thick lines. 

I used my glove to make prints with my finger, giving me a lovely, dotted pattern.  I could cut up an old glove and use the rubber as a print. See figure 3, bottom left corner and top right corner.

I used the pestle to grind and paint the beetroot on the paper and ended up with unique broad strokes.  The strokes soaked into the paper in some spots and pulled up the ink from the other side of the page.  I like the effect, which I can explore further.  I then used a reed pen I made myself, which makes beautiful medium strokes. 

Lastly, I painted a flat block of colour over an entire sheet of paper.  This is my favourite mark-making effect for beetroot. The colour and impact on the paper come to its full right when painted in a big piece like this.  The beetroot soaks into the paper, and when you spray it with water, you get a delightful texture!  I can also use this coloured beetroot paper to make cut-outs to create an illustration or use it as a background for an illustration or hand lettering.

In figure 4, you can see the pure colour of the beetroot background on the right side.  On the left side, I experimented with adding slate-blue watercolour ink, sepia watercolour ink and bits of blueberries on top of the beetroot layer. 

The surprises kept coming, and once it dried, I was left with a spread of lovely tones and colours, bleeding into each other.  (See figure 5, top left).  I then created a simple illustration with watercolours, blueberries and beetroot on a loose piece of paper, cut it out, and pasted it on top of the backgrounds.  I added some details with acrylic paint. (See figure 4 for the finished illustration.) I am happy with the outcome and will use beetroot as part of my illustration practice in the future.

Turmeric

The golden-yellow colour of turmeric is just delightful!  There is something immensely satisfying about working with these organic colours fresh from the earth.  The earthy smell and bright colours awaken my senses and inspire me.  I am using raw turmeric.

Turmeric is surprisingly sticky when drying and soaks less into the paper than beetroot.  I painted the turmeric onto a full page in figure 6 on the left, and once dry, I added a translucent layer of watercolour ink.  I noticed how the turmeric easily ‘prints’ on the opposite page and decided to try an old lino print to see how it holds up.

(Click on the picture below to view a short YouTube video of my turmeric mark-making.)

I used mark-making tools similar to beetroot to compare the different materials’ applications.  Turmeric released far less juice than beetroot, so I used a muslin cloth to strain the pigment from the fibre, as shown in the video above. 

Once I had a decent amount of juice, I mixed it with glazing liquid to see if it would make it less sticky and easier to apply to the paper, and it did.  I painted an entire page to see the colour and material in its entirety.

I then used the turmeric extract without the glazing liquid to continue my mark-making.  I used the reed pen, natural straw bristles, a pig-hair brush, a sponge, a Milton cap, a wine cork and an old lino print.  All the marks came out bright, pigmented with slightly raised strokes.    

In figure 7, there was a bit of beetroot bleeding through from the previous page, so I painted the page with turmeric.  I worked into the yellow of the turmeric and beetroot bleed speckles and drew a pear with permanent ink, watercolour ink and water.

On the opposite page in figure 7, I painted over the lino print with diluted watercolour ink.  The ink blended well with the dry turmeric, acting as a glaze.

The lino printing with turmeric fascinated me, and I tried a few effects and colours in figure 8.  Top right: I first printed the teacup with the turmeric and then added a diluted pink layer of watercolour ink and then green.  Each layer had to dry before adding another.  Lastly, I made a print with dark blue watercolour ink to bring it all together.  This resulted in a teacup with interesting colours, and the texture of the turmeric gives it more dimension.  It will also be nice to try this with a beetroot and ink layer.

The second cup is turmeric with blueberry bleeding through from the previous page.  This made me realise I have three primary colours: blue from the blueberries, red from the beetroot and yellow from the turmeric, and I could mix a complete colour wheel.  I will explore this further in the future.

I tried the same effect but with a different colour on the bottom-right in figure 8, but added shavings of white gelato crayon to highlight the roundness of the teacup.

Blueberries

Blueberries are purple when wet, and they change to blue when dry.  I used frozen blueberries; when they defrost, they release pigmented juice, which is the best.  The inside of the blueberries is less pigmented, and once you crush everything together, the colour is less potent than the juice it releases when defrosted.

The diluted (skin and pulp together) seems to dry blue, and the bleed from the blueberries dries more purple.  The blueberry pigment is sticky and syrupy, with a residue that sits on top of the paper but also soaks into the paper, giving a lovely effect.

When you look at the round shapes I have painted on the left page of figure 9, you can see the lovely colours, textures, and tones.  The syrup consistency gives syrupy-looking lines that bleed into each other when you look at the crosshatch block on the top left page.  I like the small blueberry skin pieces that give a gritty effect.

In the top-right corner, I tried a layer of diluted sepia watercolour ink over the sponge prints to see what effect I would get. The blueberries hold their colour well and blend with the watercolour ink, making an interesting effect.

(Click on the picture below to view a short YouTube video of my blueberry mark-making.)

As seen in the above video, I used the back of my pencil to draw lines with the blueberry juice across the page and a thinner line from top to bottom.  I also used a shoe brush to draw horizontal and energetic diagonal lines across the page.

The blueberry colour gives a very different mood and feel compared to the beetroot.  The beetroot background is more energetic and integrates with the foreground, while the blueberry background falls back and contrasts with the foreground.

In figure 11, I used the shoe brush for the background and the blueberry pigment on the figs, which I’ve done on a separate piece of paper, cut out and arranged on the blueberry background.

In figure 12, I used blueberries as part of my colour palette and mixed media using watercolour ink, graphite, and coloured pencils.  The blueberries lost its effect in figure 12 when using a wide variety of materials.  It is important to retain the properties of the blueberry material and use materials to complement its subtle effect, seen in figure 9’s round shapes, rather than drowning it.

I made many discoveries in this exercise, but more importantly, it opened the door to so many possibilities that I would like to explore.

Reflecting on this exercise

• Beetroot layers well with watercolour ink and creates a lovely effect when sprayed with water and when you leave pieces of material on a wet-painted beetroot surface.
• Explore next time with ink bleeding through the other side of the page into the beetroot.
• Try flat and bigger pieces of a rubber glove to print the beetroot ink.
• Mixing turmeric with a glazing liquid works well.  Turmeric is lovely to make ‘coloured paper’ and then to draw on top of it.
• Next time, try to make more colours by mixing blueberry, beetroot and turmeric.
• Turmeric can be used as a texture medium when creating illustrations.  It is a lovely vibrant yellow and will bring illumination and texture to an illustration.
• Blueberries are purple when wet and blue to blue-purple when dry.
• The pulp of the blueberries gives the blueberry medium a lovely gritty texture.
• Blueberries create a syrupy stroke.
• Consider the natural properties when using these subtle materials together with other mediums.  Mixed media should instead complement and not drown it.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there are many possibilities when exploring alternative materials.  These effects can also be captured digitally and applied in layers to your art.  The possibilities are endless and keeping an open mind to explore different mark-making materials is essential to boost a designer’s creativity, style and to become a better designer/illustrator.