Water Marbling Technique

During a lesson, I learnt how to watermarble onto paper which creates a psychedelic effect which goes along with my theme of addiction and drugs. To watermarble, I used turpentine, water and oilpaints. The colours of oil paints I used were: crimson, burnt umber, yellow and mars black.

In the tray, I added water which is used to suspend the oil paints on the surface. The turps is an oil, and oils float on water, so by mixing the oil paint in, it flows on the surface. I then swirl the paints round with a brush to create a psychedelic pattern, before dipping in paper to capture the marks made in the water. Below is a video showing the process of pouring on the paints and creating the marks on the water.

I begin by getting a small amount of the oil paint and thinning it down with some turps. I then pour it directly onto the surface of the water and mix it with a paintbrush to create the psychedelic patterns on the surface of the water. I learnt very quickly that you don't have much control over what the outcome is due to the fluidity and movement of the water never compleatly stops moving. 

This photo shows the progression of my work doing watermarbling, I started on the right and worked my way across to the left. You can see the progression from the more yellow tones to the more darker rust insipred colour palette. Below is a close up of some of the pieces I made, all of which have been photographed on a light box as I find it shows the true depth of these pieces more effectivly than just on a table.

 The 2 above photos are of the same piece, I find the contrast between the lights and darks is strong, and is emphasised by the light box. It shows the layers and how these pieces look compleatly different on each side. These pieces are mainly using the brown and black tones, with a hint of the orange also.

The dark patches in this piece catch my attention, as there is a really variety of tones in this piece. the smoother more fluid light yellows and browns are almost washed out by the harsh concentrated black and brown tones, which are clearly thicker on the water and this has translated onto the paper. There are air bubbles visible in this piece too, which I find links it to the contrast between fluiditiy and decay.

This piece looks more effective on a larger scale, due to it being so dark and there being lots of fine details. This piece has a more negative tone which symbolises the decaying physical and mental health in which people suffereing with addictions might face.

This piece I feel is the strongest piece out of the experiments, this piece is done on thinner paper, so it lets more light through and due to the texture of the paper the marks appear more grainy also. This grainy texture reminds me of 35mm film and how photos look when the photos are devloped.

The colours and the texture of the previous piece remind me of this photo which I took on a 35mm camera in wales of Dinas Beach in the summer of 2018. The warm toned colour of the ground and sand is identical to the yellow and brown marks made in the above piece. This could link as a reminded of good positive memories, before addiction takes over someones body and mind, and the 35mm aspect shows how distant the memories are, almost forgotten.