From sketchbook to work on paper

My sketchbook images were reference for larger images mainly because I usually capture energy and movement in the initial mark making. Several images done on folded Fabriano print making paper meant that being absorbent the fibers would retain my application of pastel staining. Large pastel stick grated with my Stanley box cutter knife stained and bled into damp paper but also mixed in water like a slurry. Because the paper was tough and absorbent I made lines into which colour accumulated by gouging into the paper with the blunt side of my knife. For example:

Flood plain at Anbangbang Billabong

Sketch in ink pen from Anbangbang Billabong

Kakadu landscape titled Anbangbang Billabong 5, 2003, 30×102 cm, pastel stain on Fabriano

Kakadu landscape titled Anbangbang Billabong 4, 2003, 30×100 cm, pastel stain on Fabriano

Return, 2/10, 2013, digital print 50×42 cm print, 58×47 cm paper

Kakadu landscape titled Anbangbang Billabong Revisited, 1/10, 2013, 75×25 cm print, 82×31 cm paper, on Hahnemuhle

Digital image titled Billabong Revision 1, 2013

Two parts of this landscape captured my attention. Firstly the hole in one end of the background rock formation that reminded me of an eye. It felt as though we were being watched from afar. The other part was the dry billabong where triangle-shaped debris made of dry vegetation caught on sticks and branches. Swept into these shapes by a raging torrent in the previous wet season, they scattered across the flood plain . The other element captured was heat haze on the plain with blue sky. The pastel image with jagged lines resembling teeth may have been influenced sub-consciously by warnings to watch out for crocodiles.