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| 1/24/19 Conte on Derwent sketch paper (5-min. poses) |
Adventurous watercolor and acrylic painters know about Yupo – it’s a strange “synthetic” waterproof,
tear-resistant paper that’s made of plastic. Its completely toothless, nonabsorbent
surface makes liquid media behave in surprising and often striking ways. Years
ago when I was dabbling in abstract mixed-media collages, I messed around with
Yupo, but it was a novelty more than anything else.
Fast-forward to a couple of years ago when I was preparing to participate in the Women’s March. Rain was a distinct possibility, so I brought along a pocket-size Field Notes Expedition notebook, which is made entirely of
Yupo. I didn’t need it that day, but a short time later in Cannon Beach, I happened
to have the book in my pocket and discovered what a joy the paper is with soft
graphite. It seems counter-intuitive – pencils seem to need some kind of tooth
to grab onto. Yet the experience is like gliding soundlessly on ice, and soft
graphite leaves behind a rich, dark line that looks almost like liquid.
After that, I sort of forgot about Yupo again – until a couple of
weeks ago at life drawing. Thinking it was a colored pencil, I inadvertently
picked up a traditional sanguine Conte pencil that happened to be in my case. Using
nothing but one fingertip to do the smudging on toothy sketching paper, I had great
fun expressing Shawna’s form even on relatively short poses (the ones shown
above were five minutes each). I tried soft graphite and colored pencil on the
same paper, but it was more difficult to get good smudged effects compared to
the chalky Conte (which is a bit messy, though not nearly as bad as charcoal).
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| 1/27/19 graphite in Field Notes Expedition notebook |
Something about that delightful experience made me wonder what
kind of paper would be best for making graphite smudge as nicely – and the Yupo
light bulb went on over my head! I pulled out the same Expedition notebook I
had taken to the Women’s March and the beach and sketched a quick garlic with a
10B pencil. Using one finger, it was easy to smudge the graphite, and the
darkest shadows came out looking almost like a marker. It turns out that Yupo
makes all media behave surprisingly – not just liquids.
I dug out the 11-by-14-inch Yupo pad I still had from my mixed
media days and brought it to the next life drawing session. Typically I use an
ink-filled brush pen on the one- and two-minute poses because I need fluid to
move that quickly. But instead of having a liquid medium, my 10B pencil skated frictionlessly
on Yupo as if the support had turned
to liquid!
On the five- and 10-minute poses when I had more time to develop Bob’s
form, I again used a single finger to smudge the graphite. It was the most charcoal-like
experience I’ve ever had – but without the mess, of course! (One black
fingertip I can handle.)
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| 1/31/19 2-min. poses |
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| 5-min. poses |
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| 10-min. pose |
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| 10-min. poses |
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| 20-min. pose |
It looks like the graphite is easier to control than using wet media on yupo. I've tried both watercolors and alcohol inks on yupo but the liquids puddle and move a lot. I like the shading you've been able to get in these figures. Nicely done!
ReplyDeleteI was thinking of you, Joan, when I mentioned painters using Yupo! I remember you showing some works you did on this crazy paper. I can imagine how hard it would be to control wet media!
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