What is mark-making?

On the homepage of my website, I reference that ‘mark-making is a creative journey’, which has intrigued some people to ask me what I mean by mark-making?

So this journal entry is an attempt to explain my process and why I use that term. Mark-making simply means… to make marks.

In a previous life as a teacher, mark-making was certainly a focus in the nursery class, where young children were allowed the freedom to develop early drawing and writing skills through a variety of planned and free-form activities.

Mark-making pretty much has the same purpose for me now as an emerging artist, I spend a lot of time observing, experimenting and drawing. Mark-making has been a way for me to gain confidence using different materials to develop a variety of drawing strokes and techniques without feeling precious about the end results. These trial-and-error exercises have allowed me the freedom to make mistakes and to explore different possibilities. As my mark-making or drawing practice has evolved, I have become more confident, and I am more likely to achieve my intended result. I like sinewy lines, and they appear in a lot of my paintings!

Every time I begin a new painting, I start with an under-drawing. It may be the horizon or the route of a river or a rugged coastline. I use those initial marks as a guide but do not necessarily stick rigidly to the original drawing. I often use charcoal, but mark-making can involve drawing with pencil, pens, inks, and paint too.

Like a signature, the marks give a painting its identity, and because of the unique characteristics of the mark-making, it becomes a way to identify a particular artist’s work.

The best compliment I have ever had was from another artist telling me that she could always recognise my paintings from the marks that I make. I think that means I am developing my own ‘painterly’ language!

While drawing lines is important for me at the start of a painting, I often apply marks to a finished painting, too – either drawn or scratched onto the surface.