Frottage – Stair Rubbings

Frottage is a surrealist and “automatic” method of creative production developed by Max Ernst in 1925. Ernst was inspired by an ancient wooden floor where the grain of the planks had been accentuated by many years of scrubbing. The patterns of the graining suggested strange images to him. He captured these by laying sheets of paper on the floor and then rubbing over them with a soft pencil. Source Wikipedia 

Gather Materials:

• a piece of paper
• charcoal stick or soft pencil or crayon
• a glove to keep your hand clean (optional)
• Timer
• I used Oil-Based Paint Markers

Today’s Exercise

• Take a blank piece of paper and a charcoal stick and look for interestingly textured surfaces from which to take rubbings. 
• Lay the paper on the textured surface and rub with the charcoal stick
• The drawing can be left as it is or used as the basis for further refinement. 
• Layer several rubbings on top of each other to create an entirely new image.
• Set a timer for 5 minutes and do additional mark making on top.

Reflections on the Exercise

• I liked the immediacy of this exercise.
• I can see that layering multiples could become less automatic. You can look for shapes and forms to add to the image
• I found that pencil crayons and charcoal didn’t work well together. There was a resist. I then used oil-based paint markers on top. They worked well over the charcoal and dried fast.

Source: This exercise is from A Book of Surrealist Games by Alastair Brotchie