Tobias Sylvester Vierneisel combines different types of paper, cutters, syringes and computer programs to create graphical art. Tobias is a graphic designer, artist and inventor of the painting technique Dotting. The current guest blog post is from his blog ‚Farbtunnel‘. Most of his paperart are created by using analog tools. In the following article he describes one of his creative combinations of traditional processes with digital art techniques. Tobias Sylvester Vierneisel prefers the use of Hahnemühle artist paper for both, the pre-work process Burgund Watercolour Paper and for the final artwork Acrylic Paper. Read on for a creative ‘fusion’ of techniques and papers.
By Tobias Sylvester Vierneisel
Female Body Remixed_2 is a current new artwork where I reused a drawing from 2002. Female Body 01 was formed using sweeping strokes to capture the shadows and muscles of different body shapes. These strokes are then used to develop an armor-like structure, so that by the end only the posture of the person or the object remain. I finished several drawings in 2002 using this technique but only the piece Female Body_01 was repurposed for this new series of paperart.
In 2015, I digitalized the drawing Female Body 01. Using tracing paper I captured the main layers of the figure. I scanned this in pieces reconstructing the image and shapes and combined it with a net structure.
I transferred this digital version onto a large piece of paper, allowing me to cut out the black outline and create a stencil for the final artwork. A common problem when applying wet colour to a stencil is the dissolving of paper fibres which results in the paper deforming. To avoid this effect, I used Hahnemühle’s Burgund Watercolour Paper. Even after multiple tries the stencil can still be reused.
The basic structure of the new artwork was then transferred to acrylic paper using a brayer and acrylic colour; I used a special application technique to add intertwining colour layers. The paper I used for this painting was Hahnemühle’s 360 gsm Acrylic Paper, this paper absorbs colour fantastically and offers great colour contrast. The effect created by applying colour using this technique results in small bubbles forming during the drying process, which creates an interesting surface structure. After a few weeks passed I revisited the piece of art and discovered what was missing from the composition. Adding black frayed semi-ovals to the background generates a three-dimensional effect, enhancing the movement throughout the composition.
The most important aspect to this artwork for me is the repetitive switching between the analog physical application and digital transformation. The digital process is never an alternative to the physical process – it is an extension. In my opinion digitization will never be able to reproduce the unpredictable behavior of different kinds of mediums and their reactions to different processes. Uncontrollable factors such as the surface, the behavior of the different mediums on a wet surface and the climate all effect my application technique, resulting in each piece being unique and one of a kind. The physical application of colour is key to creating an emotional connection to my artwork.
More on artist, designer and inventor Tobias Sylvester Vierneisel on his blog ‚Farbtunnel‘.
