arts: touch drawing- a new wave of self expression
Artists experience their work through touch. Touching and feeling their art. I know before I even start an art project I have to feel the board or piece of paper I am working on. It is an instinctive reflex that many artists experience, but could we actually draw a picture with our fingers, our touch sensors? The logical mind would say no, one would need some kind of tools to create an image on a piece of paper. But to Deborah Koff-Chapin, you absolutely can! Deborah Koff-Chapin is the woman who founded “Touch Drawing”, by mistake actually.
“On my last day in art school in 1974, I had a creative awakening. In a moment of playful exploration, I moved my fingertips on a paper towel that was intended to wipe an inked plate. Lifting the towel, I saw childlike scrawls had appeared on the underside from the pressure of my fingertips. I laughed ecstatically with this discovery! I had received a precious gift; a direct mode of expression that fulfilled my longing for a more natural way to draw. I sensed it would also help others open to their creative source. With this realization came a sense of responsibility. Somehow, I would share this process with the world.”—Deborah Koff-Chapin
After listening to Deborah’s message and watching her in action on her website (http://touchdrawing.com), my art class decided to give this style of art a try. The experience seemed sacrilegious in some ways when we first started because we always use our art tools. A paint brush, pencil, charcoal, something! It was difficult to get used to the feeling of using my fingers as the actual tool to create my piece of art. After the initial shock I felt a freeness in the process of drawing an image with my fingers. It was not perfect or close to realistic, but it was expressive and objective. The way you could do this, or the way we did it in class was you would take block printing ink, however I think acrylic paint would work just fine, and use a brayer to roll the ink on a plastic board. I used multiple colors and blended my inks to create a tie-dye look, but you could always just use one color. After you have the ink spread out on the board and it looks the way you want it, you take a piece of tissue paper, something you can pick up and the drugstore, and lay the paper over the paint. You can crinkle the paper or keep it flat, but crinkling the paper gives the finished piece a textured look! Do not press the tissue paper down onto the paint because then you would not get your image, this is the stage where you draw your image with your fingers. You can use your nails to get a thinner line or use the bottoms of paint brushes. You could also just stamp your hand down onto the ink for an actual hand print! The next step is to carefully peel the tissue paper off of the board and let it dry for 24 hours. Once it is dry the next step it pick out a piece of white or colored matboard (something you would mat a painting or drawing with), and use matte medium or mod podge to paste the tissue paper onto the board. You could have the ink facing the board or facing up, either way will give you a different ending result. Once you finish painting you will then need to let the board dry for another 24 hours. Then you're finished! However, the finished product is a great background for something else, you could absolutely paint, draw or collage over the tissue paper you pasted down.
This whole process is very freeing, a project to release all the stress you may be under or if you just want to create a unique piece of art! It is very easy to create many, many touch drawings in a short amount of time. It is easy to get lost on this style of art, and create pieces noone has seen before. Go get lost!
Article by: Belle Mercurio
