Introductory project: Stage 2: Observing qualities: The flipflop

Sunday evening: This afternoon/evening I started looking in detail at the flipflops I had chosen as an object for my Tropical Tourist theme.

I looked at them quite closely, examining the circle pattern that is on the upper part of the sole, on creamy-white sketchbook paper. Here I attempted to record the circular pattern I observed in greater and greater close-up, using a finer thickness of pen as I progressed into greater detail:

Circle pattern from upper sole of flipflop, in increasing detail, and using finer pen

Then I sketched one of the flipflops, using black paper and a white roller ball pen. I drew the whole left flipflop, looking at the shadows cast by the plastic straps, and the pattern of circle on the upper side of the sole, trying to capture this in reverse/negative (quite hard!). I looked at it quite closely and attempted to capture an overall impression of the flipflop and the pattern in the below drawing:

Overall view of left flipflop, showing circle pattern on sole, white roller ball pen on black paper

This detailed examination of the sole of the flipflop then led me to consider that it would make a great stamp (!) so I tried a few different prints, by dipping the surface of the flipflop sole in white paint and printing on the black paper, first of all in a regular pattern:

Printing with a flipflop with white poster paint on black paper

I think it is interesting how the areas where there are thicker and thinner layers of paint print so differently, with the spot pattern only visible in those areas with a medium layer of paint.

Here, I overlapped the prints more densely:

Below, I tried moving the flipflop loaded with paint around, in order to achieve a different effect, creating some interesting lines as well as spots:

Below, this print was a less structured approach, with both printing and smearing to see what effects could be achieved:

This then led me to think of the effect that bubble wrap can give, so I then tried printing with that, using the same white paint and black paper,below, just pressing it down with my hands:

Again, I think the variation and irregularities are really interesting and worthy of further exploration.

Here, I wrapped the bubble wrap around a kitchen rolling pin, to see what would happen to the circles. In the areas where I have applied more pressure on the rolling pin, the circles seem to elongate. The smudges and spots of colours around the edges are also interesting to me.

This led me on to try to capture this in drawing again. I viewed the flipflop more horizontally and attempted to capture how, with perspective, the circles change in size and shape, depending on how close or far away they are:

I then returned to trying to capture the overall shape of the flipflop, drawing with a continuous line and quickly:

Next, I turned over the flipflop, thinking that the lower part of the sole would probably be similar to (if not the same) as the upper part. (Why did I assume this, when it has a totally different job, that of providing some grip on the walked-on surface?)

This is the pattern I found, so I drew a quick sketch to give an impression of the shape and pattern of the underside of the sole:

Again, returning to black paper with white pen, and focusing only on the pattern this time, I attempted a quick sketch to get an impression of this pattern, after looking at it closely to try to analyse it:

This didn't successfully capture the ways the lines intersected in a geometric way, so I looked again and tried to capture it in more detail, as the way the ridges created shadow I found really interesting, but it was actually quite a complication pattern to capture, and took me several attempts, eventually going for a super close-up in order to be able to capture it on paper:

Who know a 90p pair of flipflops could be so interesting??

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ACTIONS:

Look at recording flipflop(s) using other media:

• pencil drawing

• collage using printed paper

• painting or ink

• using different papers, card, plastic.

Photograph the underside of the sole.

Explore further the possibilities of printing with bubble wrap.

Look at pattern on underside of sole again and look at other ways of capturing it in even more detail.