Elephant No. 110: Stippling

I didn't feel like assembling anything today, so I thought I'd try something I haven't done in years: stippling. 

Stippling is similar to pointillism, in that it uses a series of dots to create an image. Although the terms "stippling" and "pointillism" are sometimes used interchangeably, stippling generally refers to single-colour or black-and-white drawings, while pointillism involves multiple colours.

The principle is simple: place a series of dots on a surface. The more dots, the darker and denser the area; the fewer dots, the lighter the area. This allows you to create effects simulating subtle shades of light and dark.

A stippled masterpiece produced by Adam Todd for the
Koh-i-noor company, using a Rapidograph drafting pen.
Source: http://maramattiaart.blogspot.com/2008/11/
cat-rendered-with-stipple-technique-in.html

Stippling can also be used in printmaking, with dots indented into the printing plate. Stippling, as applied to engraving, is thought to have been invented by Giulio Campagnola sometime around 1510, although the stippled prints he produced also included sold lines. 

Today, stippled drawings can also be produced by computer, although these often lack the subtlety of hand-drawn versions.

For today's elephant, I decided to work from a photograph. Because I've never really drawn an elephant's trunk, I chose this photograph by Nick Garbutt as my inspiration:

Close-up of curled tip of the trunk of an Asian elephant, Bandhavgarh National Park, India.
Photograph: Nick Garbutt
Source: http://www.nickgarbutt.com/photo-galleries/india/
highlights-wildlife-and-culture

I used a simple black rollerball-type pen with a very fine 0.3 mm tip, and a 14 x 17.75 cm (5.5 x 7-inch) piece of good-quality bristol board. I could have used one of my many Rapidograph pens, which would have given me uniform dots, but I didn't feel like dragging out my pens and loading them up with ink today.

I started by faintly outlining the trunk with a series of spaced-out dots. It's not quite the same as the photograph, but I think it looks realistic enough.

Next, I began filling in the darkest shadows, modelling the shape a bit as I went.

After this, there's not really much obvious progress I can show. I didn't want to fill everything in, as I rather liked the open areas on the left, so I didn't do much more than add or enhance wrinkles, and add more dots to the darkest areas.

I like the finished piece a lot. It was easy, relatively quick at just over an hour, and I liked that I could use simple dots to create subtle shading. I also found it interesting that even adding a single dot out in the middle of nowhere will draw your eye and create a greater sense of shading than the dot actually merits. In that case, you either have to commit to leaving things alone, or add a lot more dots. 

As I often do, I came very close to crossing the line into overworking the drawing, but I forced myself to put the pen down and leave it at this.

Elephant Lore of the Day

In India and China in particular, elephants are seen as lucky. Statues are placed on shelves and near doorways to ensure luck and longevity, and some believe that touching the trunk of a household elephant statue will bring success in business or on a journey. 

There are different beliefs about the way the trunk is depicted. In the West, it is thought that a raised trunk is lucky, and that pointing the trunk at a photograph or object bestows good fortune. In many eastern cultures, however, it is generally believed that an elephant with its trunk pointed up "stores" luck, while one with its trunk hanging down "dispenses" luck. What a curled trunk means is anybody's guess.

To Support Elephant Welfare
World Wildlife Fund
World Society for the Protection of Animals
Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information on a number of sanctuaries around the world)
Performing Animal Welfare Society
Zoocheck
Bring the Elephant Home
African Wildlife Foundation

Elephant No. 58: Bulletism

For today's elephant, I thought I'd try another Surrealist technique: bulletism.

As its name suggests, bulletism involves shooting ink or paint at a surface, then using it to inspire a painting. The result is a sort of ink blot design.

Salvador Dalí claimed to have invented bulletism by shooting an arquebus loaded with ink capsules at a piece of paper. Interestingly, however, Leonardo da Vinci had described a similar technique several centuries earlier, remarking that a person could see anything they liked in the shape formed by throwing an ink-soaked sponge at a wall.

Biblia Sacra 47—Ecce homo, 1969
Salvador Dalí (1904–1989)
Source: http://www.williambennettgallery.com/
artists/dali/pieces/DALI1162.php

Not having an arquebus, I bought a water pistol (something that was actually difficult to find) from a discount store. For the painting surface, I propped an inexpensive canvas against the back of my stove. I covered the stove and backsplash with a couple of sheets of bristol board, figuring this might get a bit messy.

I thought ink might be too thin for a water pistol, so I used full-strength acrylic paints. Unfortunately the water pistol leaked and didn't actually shoot anything anywhere, even when I thinned the paints with water. I defaulted instead to a high-power syringe. Same effect, I figured, if jammed down the plunger forcefully enough.

It is impossible—incredibly so—to make the paint go where you want. I aimed carefully at a certain area, but the paint went high above that point every time. I don't know if it was because the paint has so much volume that it wants to throw itself aloft, or if there's some principle about the syringe that I don't understand. Maybe liquid arcs automatically when shot at a surface.

I had a bit more control with the dregs, which sprayed a fine mist pretty much exactly where I aimed them. Another thing I discovered is that it doesn't matter at all how much or how little paint you put in the syringe. It's still going to make a big, thick splat with the first shot. I even tried priming the syringe with really tiny amounts of paint, but the only differences were that the splat was ever so slightly smaller and dripped a little less.

It was an interesting, if messy, technique. I used a bit of black to accentuate the place I where I saw an eye, then sprayed some dregs of black on the ear area to tie the colours together.

The drips were inevitable, given the angle of the canvas, but I shudder to think how much the paint might have spread outwards if I'd aimed down at a canvas lying flat. As it is, the paint sprayed quite high on the tiled backsplash around the stove and range hood. It made me really glad I didn't use ink.

I kind of like the final result. It's very abstract, but it still appeals to me. I thought about drawing some outlines to define the elephant a little better, but then I decided that this first effort should be as close to full bulletism as I could get.

It might be interesting to try this again in the summer with a "super-soaker" water gun and a monster canvas tacked to the side of my garage. I can already think of a couple of friends who might enjoy sharing the experience—along with a tray of martinis.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Although an elephant doesn't use its trunk to drink, it does use it to suck up large amounts of water. A typical trunk can hold about 4 litres (1 gallon) of water at a time, although the trunk of a fully grown African bull elephant can hold as much as 10 litres (2.6 gallons).

Elephants spray the water into their mouths either to drink, or to give themselves a shower. The trunk even offers a wide range of pressure settings—from a powerful blast, to a gentle rain.

Source: http://www.eleaid.com/index.php?page=elephanttrunks

Elephants also use their trunks to spray dust and mud on their backs as protection against insects and sunburn. When elephants become very hot and there is no water nearby, they often put their trunks in their mouths, suck up a large amount of saliva, and spray it over their bodies.

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund
World Society for the Protection of Animals
Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information on a number of sanctuaries around the world)
Performing Animal Welfare Society
Zoocheck
Bring the Elephant Home
African Wildlife Foundation

Elephant No. 15: Fingerpainting

Today I wanted to do something easy and fun. No glueing, no folding, no sewing, no engineering of any kind. At first I thought I'd do sidewalk chalk, but it's raining. Then I thought of fingerpainting.

I don't think I've tried fingerpainting since I was about six years old, and I was surprised to learn that fingerpainting is much more than a kids' preschool activity. Although painting with fingers has been around as long as people have been drawing on boulders and cave walls, fingerpainting as an educational tool is credited to American teacher Ruth Faison Shaw. She developed fingerpainting as an expressive medium for children in 1931, then turned her attention to fingerpainting as art therapy—an activity that continues to this day.

To some artists, fingerpainting simply means using anything but brushes. Hands, arms, feet and even the entire body are sometimes used, as are tools such as sponges and rags. Others, who paint only with their hands, often use paints such as oils and acrylics. This type of painting is actually a specific sub-genre of outsider art called "Reckless Art", and is represented by artists such as Nick Benjamin, Jimmy Lee Sudduth and Tyler Ramsey. Reckless Art surfaced around 2002, originally as a way of saying that everything artistic had not been done already.

I definitely like the idea of creating reckless art today.

For conventional kids' fingerpainting, the main criterion (other than having lots of handwipes around) is that the paints be non-toxic. Some schools use pudding instead of fingerpaint, just in case smaller children put their fingers in their mouths. You can apparently also make your own fingerpaints with cornstarch, water and food colouring. I think I'll just stick to the pretty colours I can buy pre-made at the art store.

In addition to the paint, you need special shiny paper that allows the paint to glide across the surface. You also need a place where you can make a bit of a mess. I personally need an apron as well.

The fingerpaints in the art store were a bit expensive at $3.00 a jar, and only came in single—and surprisingly unattractive—colours. I was lucky, however, to find this set of eight colours in a department store for $4.99. The kit even comes with sponges and paper. I thought I would need bigger paper than whatever would fit in this 9x9 box, however, so I bought a pad of special fingerpainting paper at a nearby dollar store. If I could have gotten something even bigger to splash about on, that would have been better, but beggars can't be choosers.

This was a fun activity. I don't know if it's because I had no expectations about the materials, or if it was just that the materials are so easy to use. Because of the shiny surface of the paper, the paints glide over it quite nicely. One thing I didn't like was the stickiness of the paints. They have a consistency that's somewhere between glue and pudding, and as soon as they start to dry, your fingers get really sticky. I highly recommend having either running water or a wet washcloth nearby.

On the paper itself, the paints don't dry quickly at all, which has both its pros and cons. If you want to be able to blend two colours together, it's great that they stay wet. If you want to be able to overlay, however, it's not at all easy while they're wet.

Interestingly, the kit I had didn't come with black or white. Since the paper is always white, I understand the lack of white, but black might have been nice. Then again, this is a kit for kids, so bright colours are probably the thing.

I also recommend having fingernails that are on the short side. It's easy enough to get the paint out from under your fingernails with running water, but the paint has a tendency to glop under your nails. This can make it difficult to control the amount of paint you have on your fingertip.

I started with a freehand outline in purple, then started adding colours. I think I used all the colours the set came with, other than yellow and a sort of bright blue-green.

This sketch took me about half an hour, and I'm pretty happy with the final result. I'm not used to working without a pencil or pen or brush in my hand, so this was an interesting experience. Besides, you get to make a mess and act like a kid—and who doesn't like that?

Elephant Lore of the Day
An elephant's trunk is sensitive enough to pluck a single blade of grass, yet powerful enough to tear branches from a tree. Although elephants have teeth, they always tear their food into pieces with their trunks before placing it in their mouths.

Interestingly, the trunk is actually a fusion of the elephant's nose and upper lip. One of the differences between African elephants and Asian elephants is that the African elephant has two fingerlike projections on the end of its trunk, whereas the Asian elephant has only one.

Elephants can suck up to 14 litres (15 quarts) of water into their trunks at a time. They either spray the water into their mouths to drink, or use it in bathing—showering themselves first with water, then mud. When dry, the hardened coating of mud acts as both sunscreen and pest-deterrent.

An elephant's trunk is important in social interactions as well. Elephants "shake hands" by entwining their trunks when they greet one another. They use their trunks in play, and in displays of affection. A raised trunk is a sign of warning; a lowered trunk is often a sign of submission. Elephants will defend themselves using their trunks by either smacking the offending creature or object out of the way, or grasping it and flinging it. And it only makes sense that elephants have a highly developed sense of smell—by raising their trunks and swivelling them from side to side, they can determine the location of food, friends and enemies.

Elephants also use their trunks to paint—either by delicately holding a brush in their trunks, or applying the paint directly, just as in fingerpainting.

To Support Elephant Welfare
World Wildlife Fund
World Society for the Protection of Animals
Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information on a number of sanctuaries around the world)
Performing Animal Welfare Society