This has been an interesting series of exercises. My experience of drawing has been more focussed on accurately representing whatever I am drawing/painting so working with just words as the inspiration was quite liberating. There was no "right" or "wrong" or feeling of having failed to draw something realistically. I feel that my use of different marks was initially quite limited but expanded as the exercises progressed.
I found a surprising range of media to work with and enjoyed working with all of them.
With most of the exercises I found at least one example that I was pleased with. It was interesting that by putting the samples to one side and re-visiting them later I found them more satisfactory after a short break! This has definitely made me more confident.
The most satisfying exercise was Stage 3, interpreting the textures using different media. Overall my favourite pieces were the nebula and the coral. I think this was bacause I matched the media well to the images to capture the textures and created several interpretations that I could see translating into a textile-based project.
My favourite media was probably the aquarelle pencils for versatility. The watercolours were a surprise pleasure as I haven't been very successful with using watercolours previously (I did invest in a book about how to use watercolours so this probably helped!). The pastels were lovely for richness of colour but I need more practice controlling them!
I think there is more scope to explore printing, rubbings and uisng combinations of different media.
