Illustration Grounds?

Dean also used chalk boards to draw on

The main focus for me has largely been on what I've actually been illustrating but the grounds which I've been working on have become more of a focus since the workshop with Kerry Andrews. Having looked at some of Tacita Dean's Alabaster drawings in one of my last posts and contemplated the wall as a surface through looking at the Gond Art from India I have decided maybe there is some way I can produce a surface that is in some way related to the content and context of the work.

Two of the surfaces from the workshop

The random nature of the reworked surfaces I produced in the workshop are one some level rich with some kind of earthy content, the materials working hard at the fragile surface, breaking it down and opening the grain of the paper. The patterns I created were the result of a process that was generic but what if there was a way of creating a ground in nature seeing that is what I'm illustrating?

One idea I have is to have birds and even crows create a surface themselves. I'm unsure if this even validates the process because it is linking the subject of crows with the actual birds themselves but it seems like an interesting place to start. The concept has formed like a science project in my mind and the process will be as follows:

1.       Mix black food die into fat

2.       Spread this on to sections of a sheet of paper

3.       Sprinkle seeds on to the surface to attract birds

4.       Place outside and hopefully birds land and leave their foot prints on the paper

I'm unsure if this will work yet but the surfaces may be interesting and might enrich the final illustrations I do over the top. Results will follow.