Mark Making: Beyond the Brush

1. Introduction: [MUSIC] Hi, I'm Elizabeth, and welcome to Mark-Making Beyond The Brush. I'm an artist and a high school art teacher. I've been teaching art since 2005. In 2020 I began teaching for Skillshare. I love working with students of all ages, celebrating those exciting moments when something new clicks, and helping artists explore new ways of creating. I love experimenting with different art media and really pushing art media and tools beyond the conventional uses, and processes, and techniques. One way that I do that is by shaking up the tools that I use. I love a great paintbrush and just laying down that beautiful color or value. But sometimes you want to shake things up a bit or you're trying to work in your sketchbook and you're just not sure what to create or you've got time to create, but you don't know what to create or you're stuck in a creative rut. This class provides a great way to shake up your creative process, add some more resources and options to your artistic tool kit and get you outside of a conventional when it comes to what tools you create to make art. I use these techniques to warm up when I get down into the studio or if I have a really great project and I'm excited to start, but I don't really know where to begin and I think you're really going to enjoy it. We're going to explore mark-making beyond the paintbrush. We are going to set the brushes aside. We're going to get out our watercolors, acrylics, inks, as you go hunting around your home for unconventional mark-making tools. We're going to able to incorporate all of these techniques into your art-making practice. This class is great for artists no matter where you are in your creative journey and I am so excited that you are here to join me in mark-making beyond the brush [MUSIC] 2. Materials: [MUSIC] There aren't there many supplies that we made for this class, but there's a few art supplies and a few unconventional art supplies. First, you're going to need a couple of sheets of 8 by 10, nine by 12 mixed media or watercolor paper. I have some Canson mixed media paper. I tear the sheets down to quarter size from my 18 by 24 inch pad. Something to write with, I'm going to use an ink pen so it shows up nice and dark. I'm going to use a liquid watercolor but you could also work with tube watercolor or pan watercolor and just make up some nice big juicy puddles. I'm also going to get out some ink. I've got some India ink and then I've also got a couple other jars of colored ink that I might get into. Then I also want to play around with acrylic. I've got some Blick acrylic paints and then I've also got a couple just Craft Smart brand that I've picked up from different art supply stores so that I have a variety of viscosities for my paint. We also want some paper towel or some old rags to wipe off your tools and a larger cup of water so that you can wash off the tools we'll be working with as you move through different media or as you finish working with that tool. We're going to be looking for different supplies around our art studio, our toolbox, our kitchen, and our office desk. For the kitchen, I've got a spatula and a whisk, I've got an apple core, and I've also got a slotted spoon. From my art supply and tool area, I have some scissors and I've got a couple of different screws, I've got a paperclip from my desk, I've got a screwdriver, and that's some wire cutters, and the paint can opener, as well as a binder clip, and this metal disc that is actually from one of my camera filming stance that just fell off. I think they'll make some really cool marks. Think about what tools you're going to want to use from these different areas. We are not just going to be stamping. Although they might make an interesting stamp mark, we are going to really play around with drawing with them as well and using them as we would a paintbrush and seeing what happens there. You can choose what medium you want to use as far as liquid watercolor, big juicy puddles of watercolor, ink, acrylic, a combination of all three. I'm really curious what happens when I try a variety of tools in a variety of media. I'm really going to play with each tool in each media to see what happens. Gather up your supplies, think about different tools you might not use them all, but I would have like 7-10 tools across those areas of your home to play with for our class. What you grab is up to you, but be thinking about variety as far as what marks they might make and then we'll explore and experiment and see what marks they do create when we get back to the art table. Once you have everything collected, you're ready to dive into our first mark making lesson. I'll see you there [MUSIC] 3. Class Project: [MUSIC] It's amazing what you can do with the paintbrush, but it's even more amazing what you can do when you set your brush aside and start rummaging through your art studio tool box, office desk drawers, and kitchen drawers for unconventional mark making tools. You could go far beyond that. You can look in the garage, you could look in the bathroom, you can look in the bedroom, [LAUGHTER] you can look anywhere that you have anything that will make interesting marks or lines would be wonderful. That's exactly what we're going to do in this class. I've also included a suggested tool list that you can access on the project and resources section of our class. In case you want to get some inspiration, then we'll head back to the art table and see what marks they create. What happens when we dip a whisk into a puddle of watercolor? What mark does a paperclip make? How many ways can we draw with a screwdriver? The possibilities are endless and so are the marks we'll create. After we play a bit and make some notes about the tools we used, and we'll combine our favorite marks to create a mini artwork where you go from there is up to you, but I can't wait to see the tools you gather and what marks they make. Let's get started. [MUSIC] 4. How to Label Your Pages: [MUSIC] I'm going to note what tool I'm using so that I can keep track of which tools make which marks. In the end we're going to have a wide variety of tools and marks on the paper, and I want to be able to look back and say, that is a really amazing mark that screwdriver made, I want to use that in my mini artwork. This way it'll help organize our experimentation so that we have as a reference for later on. I've gone through and I've labeled all of my pages. Up in the top left corner, I've put where the tools came from and then I've written down which tools I'm going to be exploring in each of those areas. I tried to leave myself enough space to work with the tools. When I get to the kitchen tools, they're bigger. A slotted spoon is significantly bigger than a paper clip. I wanted to give myself some more additional room, but I also have some extra sheets of paper off to the side. As I'm exploring and playing, if I'm really on a roll or I run out of space, and I just want to keep going with it or try a couple other things, I have extra paper on hand so I can just quickly grab a sheet and keep going with the exploration. Now that I've got everything labeled, I'm going to go ahead and get out my watercolor inks and acrylics and start playing around with these tools and what marks they make. [MUSIC] 5. Demo: Art Supplies and Tool Box: [MUSIC] For our first experiment, we're going to try out some of the items we've collected from our art supplies and our toolbox. I'm going to work with pipe cleaners, some cotton balls, a screwdriver, and a few random nails and screws, as well as some wire cutter and a paint can opener. I got some small cups here that I'm going to use for my liquid watercolors as well as my ink. Then I've got a palette and some acrylic paints. I can get going with those. First up, I think I'm going to use some of my liquid watercolor. Since I'm using liquid, I'm going to go ahead and put it into a cup. For the art supplies and toolboxes, the tools are pretty small, so it doesn't really matter that I've got a smaller cup. When I move to my kitchen supplies I'm probably going to want to get a larger container so that I can actually get the kitchen tools in there. But for this step of the process, this is going to work great. I'm also going to tear off a couple of sheets of paper towel just so I can have that on hand to set my tools down on. You could also put out a tray or a cookie sheet or anything just to have like a messy area, and then you can keep your work surface clean. It's completely up to you how prepared you want to be. Or have a bunch of different materials that have been dipped in watercolor or acrylic ink. Starting out with watercolor, I'm going to go for my screwdriver first. Great thing about the screwdriver is I've got the end, I have the handle end, and then I also have this as well. This is probably going to come into play more so with the acrylic. But let's see. I'm going to go ahead and dip it into the watercolor. Blick watercolor has a thickness, and gummy this to it. Putting it down and dragging it across the paper. A long way, I'm going to play with mark making the short directions. Can do stamping. We can create some thinner lines that way. I'm going to wave off the tip, and then I'm going to go ahead and dip in handle. We're going to see what happens there. Roll it around. That's a little more interesting to me. Also, do some stamping. Now, what you also might find is that you want more space. I've already found the screwdriver section, and I haven't even used any of my other types of materials. I don't have to. I could say, I understand what marks the screwdriver makes. I'm not going to worry about experimenting further. Or if you're really interested in pushing the experimentation, you can always get an extra sheet of paper and I have some extras on hand. I can pull out another sheet of paper and I can keep going. I'm going to get out to the side for a second. I'm going to get out some of my acrylic. I'm going to go ahead and put some of this. On my tray, you put a flatter area. I want to try rolling the side. I'm going to see what happens there. I'm going to roll it in my page and then I'm going to go to my extra sheets. Then if you need an extra sheet like I do, I can just label this after the fact. I can just know. Interesting. I liked the stamping better because that gives me like a really nice line to it. This could create a nice background texture. But I'm really not going to focus on how I can use these marks in future art. I really just want to focus on what marks do they make and leave it at that, then I'll go back and explore. Actually, the more I do this, the more I enjoy it. I want to see what happens if I throw another color in the mix. You can go as far into this as you want to. If you're really enjoying it, keep experimenting. I'm going to go ahead and stamp some of the green in there and layer over and do like a rocky movement. Play with that. The more I do, the more I like it. Now, acrylic spreads less than liquid watercolor, in general. The screwdriver has an abrasive badge. With the acrylic, it scratches into it more, which can also be really fun. You can also play with layering match too. This would be something that I could think about with my mini artwork that I'm going to make later on. How can I really get the most out of these tools and their mark-making ability? Then as you play with color and value, you'll have even more variety happening. I'm very happy with the screwdriver and the marks I've created. I'm going to go ahead and wipe that off and consider that done for my experimentation. I'm going to set this one aside so that I can get back to my main page and then I can keep revisiting it as I need more space. Now, I want to work with the pink can opener. This one I really love because it's got a couple of different shaped edges that I can play with, which is really exciting. I can already figure out that the edge is going to make a similar mark to my initial screwdriver marks. It is curved. That's going to create another interesting factor to it. I'm going to try rolling it, it gives me some thicker marks. I'm going to try tabbing it. Gives me a stippled effect. I'm going to try dragging it through the wet paint. I really enjoy that. That's the other thing. The paint can go on there. The media can go on there and it can move based on what's on the tool. But then you can also put media down and then mark into it, much like we did with the scratching. I'm going to go ahead and dip the handle in, see stamps that that creates. This help spread it out to liquid watercolors. It gives me some variation. I think I like better the scratching that happens. But again, I want to reserve judgment and opinion for later on. This is just about playing. I'm going to go ahead and play with some acrylic as well. I'm going to see what happens with this curved edge. Like go in and get fat stamp, roll it to get a little bit on it. I liked that line weight. The weight that I get from the thickness of the metal creates a nice rounded stamped edge. Now, I'm going to go for the scissors. Scissors are fine. I think they're going to be fine because they move. I can play with what happens when I open and close them. I think that will become more exciting in the paint. I like the randomness of this, just the fact that you don't really know when the paint is going to go down and when it's not. The other thing you have to work with here is that this edge can be another scratching option. But I think more than that to a couple of colors. I like this better. I like what's happening with the randomness of that, even though it's a little out of control at the moment. The other thing I want to play with is what happens with the handles. I think it's going to be similar to the paint can opener, or maybe not. We can roll it. You get some interesting marks that way. Stamp it. The thing to remember is when you're testing out different tools, you may be underwhelmed by some of them. You chose them because you thought they might do something interesting and maybe it's not as exciting as you thought it was going to be. But don't discount the experiment in the time that you spent on it, because this can give you inspiration for something else. You can always come back to these pages. Something might spark down the road. Now I'm going to move on to the screws. I've got two different screw heads in different sizes, so there should give us different marks. We'll see. Then you can do that. You can just drop the whole thing in there and this is why we want paper towel on hand, and if you don't enjoy getting some art supplies on you, wear some gloves. I don't mind getting covered in India ink, and [LAUGHTER] I'm an artist. I work with traditional materials in unconventional ways, so messes are just part of the game. It's not a big deal. I'm going to go ahead and dip the end of it in and play around with those stamp marks. The cool thing is when you're stepping with anything as you stamp down the amount of material, whatever you're stamping with that transfers over it changes. Each time you stamp, it's going to be different. Could I control this if I wanted to? Yeah. Like I know those first marks that I made are going to be pretty close to solid circles. Then for the screwdriver inserts into the top of the screw, starts to open up. If I was going for solid circles, I could stamp one dip it stamp dip. If I wanted to go for more of the open look, I could dip it, stamp the first one off to the side and then do a couple. You have some control in the unconventional art-making world, so rolling it gives me some variation of line. I can also draw with it. This is the one where I was most excited about. I really liked making line. I love different line quality. I love the fact that different art supplies give you different lines and the different tools used with different supplies also give you different lines. Drying with something like a screw gives you a much different line than I would get. I could not recreate that with any other traditional art tool. Then it's a whole other ballgame when I dip and draw with the other end too. So fun, I love it. I'm going to wipe this off and I'm going to play with what happens with the watercolor. I get similar line quality their, which I'm rolling it. Not going to do much and it's going to go in a circle in the nature of the top of the screw. But that is really fun. I really liked that. I want to see what happens with the acrylic. It holds onto the spiral section one. I'm going to try stamping at similar but gummier, here the acrylic has thicker than the ink. This is my most exciting one in my opinion. But again, reserving judgment and I never even used the other screw. Let's try that one too before all is said and done. I'm just going to start going down here for more. This one has a rounded top to it and you play with that a little bit for drawing my line. [MUSIC] The stamping is different. The ends are going to be very similar because they're both pointed ends. This is why it's also good to have wet paper towel or a wet towel and wipe off your hands for that as well. If you're not worried about having a little cleanup at the end of the day, don't worry about it. The wire cutters are similar to the scissors in that they have that open and close quality. I do want to make sure that I don't gum up the spring section, so I'm going to be a little bit more careful. The fact that they have the double ends, I can keep them open to a certain point and have some nice parallel lines going. I can draw with them, I play with what happens when the lines overlap one another, and rock it and do a side stamp with it if the watercolor changes anything. I can also open and close it. A little more awkward. If you wanted to do more playing with the movement of the tool you might want to tape your paper down. It's pro tip. This pro is not going to follow, [LAUGHTER] not today anyway. Let's try to ping the handle in. Depending on what type of tool you got you want to be careful if you're going to use the handle and it's got a sharp other end. Be careful. The line quality of this is very similar to the screw, but I like the ability to control the screw better. The pipe cleaner that I used last time was a metallic one, instead of the fuzzy. I think it's going to behave differently. But we'll see. This makes some really cool, thicker marks when I go on the side and then it's got the wire inside, but it's also got the fuzzy which is absorbing a ton of the ink. That's really taking over that section. I'm going to go ahead and set this part off to the side for a second while I get out my other sheet of paper, and then I've got a couple of different pipe cleaners, so I'm going to go ahead and grab another one. This time I'm going to loop it and then try to be a little slower in how I do this. This would be the stamping. This would be really neat if I was going for a certain like feather feel or scales can also just dab it. This liquid watercolor is a little gummy. It's going to react differently than other stuff. Here also draw lines with it. Pipe cleaners, great for big bold, expressive marks, and I got the cotton balls. Now I didn't leave a very big section, so I'm going to go ahead and squash this down a little bit. I've done cotton balls with watercolor, both stamping with it before, as well as absorbing the watercolor to create the wispy. I don't think I've done it with ink. Similar to the big bold marks of the pipe cleaners, this is absorbing it more so I'm getting the gray than the black. Now, if I do the ink, I also really like how the acrylic ink are playing together by doing this while they're still wet in areas where it shows through. That one wasn't terribly surprising. There's not a ton more I can do with this. I can get a little wispier with it, but it's just going to absorb. No, actually. Just play, tearing this apart actually gave me my favorite texture that these cotton balls have created. I would say, I'm glad I pushed it. I'm glad I said, let's just do one more experiment to see, because I can see using this texture quite a bit in different things that I do. So we go. Cotton balls or it's applied tools and toolbox tools are all down. I think I got everything. So I'm going to go ahead and clean up my workspace and get set up for my office desk tools, and I'll see you in the next lesson. [MUSIC] 6. Demo: Office Supplies: [MUSIC] Everything is going to be the same. I've got my watercolor, my ink, some acrylics. These tools are relatively small, so I'll be able to make more marks in less area. The binder clip is really fun because you can move it so you've got the different sides of it and then you've also got the ways that you can change the shape of it. I'm going to go ahead and start with the ink. I'm going to dip in and there is rolling. See which is interesting because it's symmetrical, but it's not making symmetrical marks. I would not have thought that was going to be the case. The other thing I want to try doing is putting it down after I stamp it and then ended up trying to do it so it wouldn't close again. There we go. Yeah. That could be really cool if you were doing some different texture for a building or a surface area. I'm going to go ahead and stamp the side shape and that triangle. That's a fun shape and it makes a bubble. I get the bubble where it's filled in, which gives me those solid ones. But then as that bubble pop, I can get those really delicate outlines which is very fun. Then I'm going to try going that way with it and then I'm going to dip to this end. Doing a rolling and a stamping. Subtle, I like it. I'm really enjoying the binder clip marks. I'm going to go ahead and get an extra sheet so that I can play a little bit more with the acrylic. I'm going to bring it down. It makes some really fun stamps that way. I'm going to play around with dragging it. I can rotate it because the initial mark, but then there's also how we can play with that. Reminds me of cauliflower. [LAUGHTER] [inaudible] cauliflower. You're right, I like it. Metal disc. This is from a filming stand. Now goes between the support of the stand and the item that you are attaching the stand too It has a really fun thin edge. I'm rolling at. Getting some neat line that way. Stamping it gives me a little squashed overlies. I also have the rounded end that sticks out. If I dip that part in, not terribly exciting with liquid watercolor, but I bet if I drop it in the paint just makes the larger one. There we go. That's what I was going for. This is where I was going to use this. If I was going for this texture in this mark, I would need a cloth to blot it off on, or I would just have to know that it's going to be a mix of those. But actually, when you use them together, it's pretty cool. That's got super muddled because I have so many colors going on in that green. Paper clips are really cool because you can sculpt them for the initial experiment. I just want to play with what it does in its traditional form. Very similar to other ones, I can dip it like you would do with a bamboo skewer, if you were drawing with a wooden skewer. It's metal so it doesn't absorb like the wood would, but you do get a similar line to it. I can also stamp. I'm going to distort the shape of this so that I have more control over the mark it makes. It's probably the only tool I'm using where I can actually destroy it to maximize its mark making capabilities. I love that. That makes me so excited. Many possibilities for using a method like that. Then I can also think of creating value with mark making. You could use it, is a mix between hatching crosshatching, and stippling or pointillism by layering up our marks to get darker values. You could really control this. You are doing a piece and really get some beautiful shading. Wasn't the goal of the class, but that is a pretty cool bonus. Then I can also scratch through it, create the marks out a different way and also dip it and then scratch and have some bolder lines where I'm controlling more so where the white is. Then also go into my acrylic and see how that changes it. It gives me a little bit bolder initial mark just because it fills in that gap where the curve is a little bit. I like it. Then I can keep manipulating the paperclip even more. Still want to maintain some of the integrity of the tool. I want to know on some level that it came from the essence of a paperclip. I've got two more for my office desk drawer. I have a pen and a safety pin. These were impulse grabs when I was getting a new paper clip, so we'll see. The pen is going to give me a couple of different options. I can stamp with it, just like I would any rounded shape. I can draw with it. That gives me a thicker line just because the edge is thicker. She's pretty nice. Can also, take it apart and use the cap and draw with that a little bit too. Create all these drawing of seed like a paint to paint. None this is for fun, but it's my acrylic on there too. Damping effects is pretty nice. Nice variety of marks. Now we're going to do is safety pen. This is going to be very similar to our paperclips I'm guessing, but we have two different ends. We have the lines that we can create with each one we tried it for drawing is not going to be terribly different. That looks very similar to the pen. If I had drawn more distinct lines with the paperclip, I get the same thing. I can get some interesting smaller marks with the rounded and spend a nature of its design. Captures a little bit of a crescent there. Then I also have the other end too. It's going to give me different ones,. Then I can manipulate these, so these are down and then I'm swiping up, which is something you could do with any of the tools. You've got the initial mark that it makes, but then how do you lift it off of your page? How does that change? What happens? I'm going to clean up my area and I'm going to get out my items from the kitchen. I'll see you in the next lesson. 7. Demo: Kitchen Tools: [MUSIC] These items are relatively big compared to what we've been using, so I went ahead and I put my ink into Tupperware bowl that I have in the studio and I've added some more. First up is the whisk. This one is interesting because again, it's got a couple of different areas to it that we can work with. I'm going to start with the handle first, draw with it and scrape through it. It's a rubber, so it's resisting a little bit against the paper. If you're using ink and you don't want to stain your kitchen items, be careful. This seems to be okay. I think because I'm wiping it off pretty fast, it's not going to stain it, and then I'm going to also play with the wire end too. Roll it around in my Tupperware, I really like how random it is. This would be really nice for a surface texture or a background texture or just if you're working abstract, break up the surface a little bit. It's also really fun when you do it on top of this orange, I'm going to try standing with it too. I can take the part that sticks up the most though and I can roll that to get interesting line or scratch it, and that creates some pretty nice variation. With the kitchen tools you do want to make sure that you wash them really well before you put them back into kitchen use. Disclaimer there, just make sure you're not accidentally putting them back in the kitchen after they've been covered in art supplies. My slotted spoon is interesting because I have this part, but then I also have this section that's cut out in the back, so I'm going to try doing a little bit with that. It's not absorbent at all so I do have to keep dipping back into my paint. I like the textures I'm getting, that play where it hits and where it doesn't hit. Now I can also just do a straight down dip, and that because it's got the little cut-out bit, it gives you that partial amazing staple shape like a bracket. Then what happens if I try that again with my inks similar? It's a nice dotted effects there. If I put this on a flat area, I could get more marks out of it, if I put the ink in a low-sided tray. But let's see what happens if I stamp there. For this one I'm going to get a second sheet of paper. Not what I expected, looks like an ink blot [LAUGHTER] but it's not a bad thing, it's just I thought the slotted sections would show up more. But I do really like the delicate line that I get from the edge of the spoon. That's really appealing, and you can roll it, that's fine too, I really enjoy this now. Has organic grass texture, like a roughness to it that I really like. I could do a bigger picture where I drew the whole thing with the spoon, maybe an idea for another time in the studio. I need to get a second slotted spoon that I can keep in the other studio. I love this. I like this too but I love this, very exciting stuff I can't wait to explore that more. The fun part about the spatula is it's thin, so you can get some cool smear stuff happening. We're going to need another sheet of paper, so this aside because I really want to play with this some more. I want to try the end and what happens there, actually is a stamp down with it a little bit. It's a nice ghost images as you go. That's fun, I like that texture a lot. What happens with the wooden handle side? Now because the wood is absorbent, I'm not going to put the wooden part in the ink because that will stain it. I like when it scrapes through and it stains it, but it doesn't completely scratch it through, that's really fun. Last but not least, apple corer. This one has a bunch of different parts, it's got this end, it's got this end and a little of cup cuts. I'm going to start with the ink, I'm just going to see what the serrated edge part does. Can you see that? just the pokey ends. Super light texture. Now, if I tilt my ink and I get inside of it, I get the edges and I get more of a defined edge, it's inconsistent because it's not giving any of the ink. It is giving me a little bit of that serrated edge, which is super fun. I want to play with this in the paint. The paint sticks to it more than the ink did, so I get a little more definition. It's an uneven edge, but you still get the serrated dot, you can get bolder crescent section and drag. That is my whisk, slotted spoon, spatula and apple corer from the kitchen. Feel free to play more, make as many sheets as you want to, share as many of them as you like to the project section, and I would love to see pictures of your tools too, so we can see the tool that made the mark, because some of these tools are going to vary. Your apple corer might look different than mine, or you might have a kitchen tool that I have never heard of before, and I fall in love with the mark that you make with it and I really want to explore that too. If you could share a picture of your tools along with your mark making sheets, that would be even better, and it's just really fun to see how everyone approaches the class and decide which techniques you are going to revisit for your many [inaudible]. 8. Demo: Mini Artwork: [MUSIC] Now I'm ready to begin the mini artwork. But first, I need to decide which marks I want to explore further. The piece is still going to come together very intuitively guided by how you're feeling, which marks are speaking to you, what colors you feel like working with. I'm going to go back through my pages and I'm going to make notes of which ones interest me. I want to make some initial instinctual decisions. I'm all set up, I have all the media out that I think I want to use. I've got a couple different sheets of paper so I can play. I'm going to work with one tool at a time and set the pages aside and then come back to them, and revisit them with fresh eyes. I got my list of tools that I'm interested in exploring, I've got my tools around, and laid down some initial marks to break up the white space. Sometimes it is really challenging to approach a blank page with nothing on it. I'm going to start off with the spatula and I'm just going to lay down some marks. We're not trying to make a masterpiece, we're trying to loosen up and we're trying to explore, and we're trying to play. If something is not working for you, just reset and go again. [MUSIC] Let me get some basic marks in here, just stamping and dragging. Then I'm going to just set this aside to dry. That is all I'm going do to that one. I could tape it down to keep the bend from happening, but I want to keep jumping between pieces. I'm just going to go ahead and let it bend knowing I can flatten it out later. I want to try a different approach to breaking up the space on my page. I'm going to go back to my whisk, I have some liquid watercolor around. [MUSIC] I'm not trying to go for an even cover, I'm just trying to give myself a jumping-off point so that I don't get caught up in how it's looking. It's all I'm going to do for that initial one. I'm going to do four in total and then I can review them and see where I'm at. I'm not worrying about making a series, I'm not worrying about repetition of color or marks or anything. Each one is its own independent exploration of taking what we've learned and explored in our initial mark making pages, another step further as I continue to loosen up and relax. I really like the binder clip and a nice big puddle of red, liquid watercolor. I might just do some flip-flops here. I can dip a bunch of the sides, just roll it. There's no way to know what's going to happen. This is a very awkward tool to use, but I think that's why I love it. I don't want to overwork it. I'm going to go ahead and use the screwdriver and I'm just going to create some very loose lines with it. [MUSIC] Now what I'm going to do, I could look at them all, I could overthink it, but I'm just going to go back to the first one and keep going. I want to keep going with the screwdriver, maybe some stamping. Just stamping the round end. Ink is a very intense medium and it will take over everything. Just be aware, if you're going to play with India ink, it's going to be a very dominating aspect of your piece. But I like contrast and I like boldness. I'm going to go wipe off my screwdriver, I'm going to set this one aside and I'm going to go back to the second page. You're not limited to the tools you used. You look around and you can get another great inspiration. If you want to incorporate a different material or medium, if you want to incorporate some traditional art-making tools, there's no limitation because it's all about loosening up, experimenting, seeing what happens. I'm going to go back to my spatula and I've got some acrylic here. I'm just going to roll it. Here's some boldness. There is no certain amount of steps to do. Whenever you feel like a page is at a good point and you're satisfied with the experience you've had creating it, move on. Now back to this one. The other thing you can do is keep rotating your pieces around. They might speak to you the next stage that it should move to if you see it from a different perspective. This one tells me it wants to go that way. I have already red on this, but I can still create some boldness by layering it up. Let me go on with the whisk. I'm going to go ahead and duet with India ink because I really liked that when I did my experiments. On my acrylic tray, I'm just going to add a puddle of India ink that I can get my whisk into. Then I think I'm just going to roll it, twist it. I'm going to push it a little bit and squash out some of the rings. Just the nature of the red and black is giving this a very graphic feel. I might see if I can play with that a little bit and mellow it out. I'm going to go ahead and go in with a spatula and put this very light teal. I'm going to actually dip the spatula in to the ink with the acrylics still on there. Now we're getting somewhere. I don't want to lose what I put down in the background and I actually might come back in next time around, reintroduce some of those angular lines. This is very fun. The great thing about this is I love pushing art materials and seeing how far I can go and what happens because it's always interesting. The science behind it is really fascinating when you do these experiments. This is something that I have not tried before and I'm very excited. That's great. If nothing else, if this piece never goes anywhere further, the fact that I've learned that I am very excited about acrylic and ink having this reaction. I'm going to set this one aside and go back to the first one. I'm going to go on with the screwdriver because I just feel like I want something bright in there. The thing that I loved about the screw was that I could get that openness to it and I currently have very thick, white acrylic paint. Get some scrap paper, if I dip it in the white over here, making a stamp off the excess. Maybe if we just roll it. If you do something in one area, we get it's nice to have it pop up somewhere else. I'm going to let this one be done. I may let it dry and I may go back into it with some drawing materials, who knows? Missing some black. I'm going to do a little bit with a spatula, create a little layering effect there. This was not quite done, but I'm not quite sure what I wanted to do next. I'm going to set aside while I move on to the third. This one is close. I want to take it away from the graphic and make it a little brighter. I'm going to go with the paperclip. I really enjoyed the mark that happened when I opened it up and started stamping with it and I have that acrylic. I'm just going to put a couple of these down and overlap them. I don't think it needs much. I don't know if it's done, maybe done as far as the materials that I have out. I'm going to go ahead and let it be done-ish. This one needs some of that purple to come back. Let's see what we can do there. I feel like it also needs a bolder marked. Let's see if I can get spatula in there. I'm still not sure about this one. I think it actually needs something like white POSCA pen, that's going to have to wait till it's dry. I'm going to let this one be done too. I only have one-piece lab that didn't quite yield result and you don't have to resolve these, but I like to intuitively work until my brain says, we're done with this now, and this piece is not quite done yet. Maybe we'll go in a third teal again. I picked up my paperclip with that. Let me see what happens when I use a paperclip attached to a whisk. Now we're going to go into the ink. I lost my paperclip, decided to stay in the ink. The other thing you can do with these pieces is cut them up, collage them, save part of it if nothing else is a reference for a cool thing that accidentally happened one time, you know that you might want to explore in the future. I'm going to do one last thing to this, and that's just going to go for it with the black. If nothing else, it's therapeutic, so just really go for it. Last one, not my favorite. That's okay. Let me pull up some of this. Four pieces done. I'm going to let them dry and then I will show you all four of them together. These are my finished experiments. I'm really excited about the marks that I discovered, both our warm-up and exploration cheats that we did before and additional inspirations in these mini pieces of art. I'm excited to put a little more contrast into them and pull some lights out, put some darks back in, both with ink, maybe drawing in with ink, painting in with ink, some POSCA pens, some colored pencils, who knows? Maybe use some oil pastels because that would be a nice and vibrant, bold color on top of what's already down there in the media that I used. If you have any questions along the way, don't hesitate to post them to the discussion section. I love interacting with students. I hope you had as much fun experimenting with mark making in unconventional ways and getting beyond the brush. [MUSIC] 9. Final Thoughts: [MUSIC] Thank you so much for taking this class and exploring mark-making beyond the brush. These marks were so inspiring for me as an artist and I cannot wait to incorporate them into future projects and future warm-ups and art experiences along my journey, I have a couple of other classes where these mark-making techniques would be exciting to combine. Be sure to check out intuitive art-making, simple watercolor and ink techniques, as well as my decorative papers class. Because these would be a wonderful addition to the art projects that you make in those classes. I hope you had as much fun as I did and you found a few ways to shake up your creative process. I cannot wait to see what tools you use. I cannot wait to see what marks they made. Please take the time to share your projects to the project section, both your experimental initial sheets as well as your mini artwork. A great thing, but that area of class is that you can edit it. Feel free to upload a couple of images as you began exploring different tools and different marks and then add to it as you work through the class or as you revisit some items. It is really fun to see the artistic process that students go through in a class like this. I really hope you will consider sharing your project to that section of class. I'd love to feature your projects on my Instagram page. Please include your Instagram account name when you upload your project to the project gallery. If you do post your artwork on Instagram, please tag me Elizabeth welfare Skillshare, or add Elizabeth welfare, so that I can find that your art online. If you want to stay up-to-date on my newest classes, be sure to click the "Follow button above". That way you will be the first to hear about new classes I create on Skillshare and I'll see you next time. [MUSIC]