Painting: Tool Making (17/1/23)
On Tuesday, I attended @eoinmclsad tool making workshop, where we were tasked to go around the campus and find items that would help us create interesting tools for painting.
Around the campus I found multiple sticks and rocks that I thought could be turned into interesting tools. The first one I made was a stick with a piece of charcoal added to the top of it (image 1), similar to a tool that was presented to us at the beginning of the class. I recreated this tool cause I wanted to make something that would create an image with a similar technique of movement used during sword fighting, something I think that turned out well in practice (image 2).
I then changed my idea slightly to fit my theme of combat a bit more; I wanted to use this class to create small, primitive weapons, then look at what kind of marks those tools created. The first one I did was a small knife/sharpened stick, which I made using a pocket knife and sand paper (image 3). I then dipped this makeshift "knife" into paint, and used it to create sharp, quick slashes of paint across the drawing I had previously made, which created great sharp line marks on the paper. (image 4)
After the knifes success, I counited with my next tool, an axe/hammer. originally, I had tried to create a bigger version with a much thicker tree branch I found (image 5), but the rock I had used was too round, so I created a smaller version of the axe instead. this tool I made using a smaller branch ,and a flatter and smaller stone tied together with rope 9image 6). the axe made pointed, dotted marks onto the paper, with its only downside being that the stone spun with each hit. not as successful as the knife but still pretty good. (image 7)
The final thing I created for this workshop was made out of the previous axe handle I had created, not wanting it to go to waste. I had found a piece of crumpled paper wrapped and tied with fabric(image 8), so I had the idea of making a mace with spikes, but that idea also didn't work do to the said spikes not sticking to the fabric. In the end I created a plush mallet type tool, to resemble the markings of a punching glove. This created bigger, more rough circler marks, with I was happy with in the end, despite the top of the mallet falling apart in use. (image 9 and 10)
I enjoyed exploring this workshop because I gave me a few ideas on how I could make painting with non traditional tools, and also create images more literally connected to my projects theme of movement through combat. I also surprisingly really enjoyed the process of making the tools, especially the ones out of wood and stone materials. I would like to look further into art created by using martials such as weapons and tools usually used for combat and fighting, all the tools
I have a few videos of myself and other using this tools to create marks, all of which I will post under the tool making tag.
