Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.
- Louis Aragon
Today we are going to talk about different graphis techniques and why I chose to create my drawing black and white?!
As Louis Aragon says - a combination of black and white is intoxicating.
"Death kings and warriors" (characters in the poem La Belle Dame Sans merci)) are symbols of our deep fears and doubts. The protogonist feels fear of "the lady with no mercy" and because of that he is back at "sedge" where "no birds sing".
The black silhouette of a female head is a mysterious element in the picture that plays the role of the cave (mentioned in the poem); place where the man is with his beloved.
There are many example of other artists using black or dark grey to show something terrifying, evil or secretive. It is always combined with light for more dramatic looks.
The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters
Etching by Francisco Goya
Surrealist artist, René Magritte's "A Friend Of Order" 1964
Darkness in not only symbol of an evil secret world but could be the quite opposite - a parable of the universe, of the earth energy, state of peace and the unconscious mind.
Graphic techniques
First one is Lavi.
It`s like drawing with watercolors. Ink is deluted with water and if you put more water, drawing becomes lighter.
Second one is Linoleum cut printing.
You carve a painting in a linoleum block and print it with ink. It becomes black and white. You can make the effect digitally too.
Gravure by Frans Masereel
Third one is Crosshatching.
Layers of hatching applied at different angles to create different textures and darker tones. At its simplest, a layer of linear hatching is laid over another layer at a 90° angle, to which further diagonal layers may be added. (Wikipedia)
La belle Dame Sans Mersi is created with Crosshatching.
Thank you for being my guest today!
If you want to read the whole series of this topic, please look the previous articles: