For this exercise I chose the word umbrella. I don’t know what drew me to this, but I don’t know if I’ve ever drawn an umbrella before! I was looking forward to experimenting with this exercise. I made a list of features that I could think of when it came to an umbrella.

I chose ‘textured’ as the word to focus on. I went through magazines and found anything that had textures that related to an umbrella, whether that be something that relates to the actual texture of an umbrella (plastic-y, scratchy, shiny, folded) . I also included ones that related to water and being wet, when water is on an umbrella the waterproof fabric makes the water run straight off and form droplets.

As well as collecting magazine pages that depict textures similar to that of an umbrella, I also started experimenting with different textures similar to that of an umbrella – I used some recycled plastic packaging, a carrier bag, and I manipulated some kitchen foil to create texture. This played on both the texture theme as well as shiny. I then photocopied all of these things, I scrunched up the different materials and photocopied them. I used both the photocopies and the magazine pages to make a collage of an umbrella.

I enjoyed doing this and working with my hands to create an image with shapes. It was like a puzzle figuring out how all the pieces went together – also making an image from collage was quite fun! It reminded me of being a child and unafraid of experimenting with creativity.

After making the collage I made several photocopies of it again – I tried colour and black and white. The white background of the scanner washed out the collage so I experimented within my sketchbook of layering the umbrella on some more of the textures I had created. I thought the image seemed lost among all the texture and it definitely needed a solid background to contrast. I ended up trying a large envelope to create a contrasting background but still give it that collage feeling. I like the way it turned out!

After making this image I made another copy and lined it as a drawing using black and white pens. I also added some rain drops using some more of the photocopied foil – I then lined these as well.

I like the result of both of these finished pieces – working with collage and drawing is very similar to how I work on my ipad – working in layers and building the image from the base up. My final piece did end up different than my initial line drawing because when I was experimenting I realised that there needed to be an extra section in the umbrella to give it a clear shape. At first I was worried about this but I realised it was a good thing – working in this way gave me the freedom to change what I was doing even though I was so far along. If I had been painting or shading this, the line art would have been underneath and I wouldn’t have realised later. I do enjoy the freedom this exercise allowed but if I were to do it again I would like the end result to be more refined.