FROTTAGE – A NEW WAY TO USE MY TEXTURE MAKERS
Today I discovered a whole new way to use my texture makers – Frottage!
Max Ernst
I was looking at the work of Ernst Haeckel because of another project I am involved in at present, and in my YouTube feed, the work of other artists turned up, including the 20th Century German artist Max Ernst, who was part of the Dada Movement. He explored the use of frottage in his work and I found this most intriguing. Of course, I had long been aware of brass rubbing but hadn’t come across frottage before, and didn’t know what the word meant. It was apparently Max Ernst who made this ancient art form a recognised technique in Western art. The word frottage comes from the French “to rub.” The technique involves placing a piece of paper over a textured surface and rubbing a drawing implement over it so that the texture is transferred to the paper. You can use graphite, coloured pencils, crayons – anything that requires a little pressure. Where the raised texture is, the colour on the paper will be darker, and lighter where the depressions are.
A whole new world!
I have collected a lot of texture makers over the years, including mesh of all kinds – plastic, metal, textile etc., bath mats and sink mats made of plastic or rubber, drywall tape, burlap, punchinella… the list is endless and basically anything with a texture that can be transferred in some way to art is fair game. I use any of the mesh texture makers and mats mostly on the gel plate. Textured papers, for example that gorgeous scrunchy paper mesh packaging which I love so much, can be used as they are, or to transfer texture or used as a stencil. I’m a total texture junkie and find all kinds of ways to use texture in my art. I love it to be tactile, which is why I prefer making books to pictures you hang on the wall (although I do make more of these since completing the DrawAwesome course last year). I want my art to be handled and its textural elements to be felt and enjoyed. For me this is what mixede media art is all about – not just a mixture of art media on a substrate to be looked at, but the engagement of our other senses as well. Someone I follow on the Graphics Fairy adds essential oils to his albums as an extra sensory experience but I haven’t gone that far – I have mild chemical sensitivity and some smells can be quite unpleasant for me. Coffee dyed paper smells of… coffee!! – and that is quite pleasant, for the relatively short time the aroma remains.
Frottage! Who knew? A new way to use my textures!
All that’s required is some suitable paper (not too thick), and something to scribble away with.
Some texture makers in my studio
I had a search around the room and gathered a pile of suitable texture makers. This is not an exhaustive collection by any means. Once you start using texture in art, you spot useful texture makers everywhere! You can use natural things like leaves in frottage, and fabrics – lace, textured fabrics, anything goes.
I found a piece of newsprint for my sampler, and this is the result.
To transfer the textures, I used a brown block from my ArtGraf Tailor Shapes set. It worked a treat! Some were more successful than others. I think if I had taped down the paper mesh, I’d have got a better result – I’m really keen for this one to work, as I already have so many different ways of using it! (The stain at the top is only water – I unfortunately put the paper down on a wet patch. No harm done.)
Frottage on some inked envelope liner paper
I made a small piece which will be torn up and incorporated in my “Make a Joyful Noise” album, and I thought I’d include it in this post. I used a piece of grey patterned envelope paper to which I added some Hickory Smoke Distress Ink, and then did my frottaging. I used fairly small textures and added some metal stuff I didn’t include in my sampler – fragments of thin metal which had been corrugated – some flat, a piece like a fan, and a semi-circular piece. I can’t remember where these came from.
These textures were done with the black Tailor Shape. It was pretty messy, and needed fixing. In addition to the metal pieces, I used punched medication leaflet, burlap, metal mesh and corrugated cardboard.
Isn’t this FUN!!
