I enjoyed searching for new drawing tools, because it made me look in a novel way at my household items – not interested in their usual function, but whether they could be used as a drawing tool. I selected what I had from those suggested (wooden stick, bamboo stick) and some more out of curiosity how their marks would look like (sunflower, piece of clay pot, chestnut, metal paper clip, door key, and plastic spoon)
Using these tools with ink was very inspiring because the marks were surprising and new. Using unusual tools in more deliberate ways to achieve a desired effect certainly requires more practice, but this technique is a great way for creating novel types of marks.
I then made marks with soft pastel, oil pastel and wax pastel. It was the first time ever that I used soft pastel and felt a somewhat intimidated. I definitely need some more time to explore this medium. I was more at ease with oil and wax pastel.
I learnt that pastels are very good for creating subtle shades of gray from light to deep black, and also permit to vary the darkness of a line, whereas ink typically produces clearly defined, uniform lines which create a strong black-and-white contrast.
