Assignment 5- imagination

This assignment called for one large collaged mono type on an imaginative theme or a narrative sequence of 3 -5 prints, from own choice print medium.

Inspired by the contextual studies into multi media and narrative prints, I decided that I wanted to produce a narrative sequence. I was considering using a story or nursery rhyme as the starting point when the idea for the print came from a real incident.   A very large spider ran down the bed when I was quietly sitting reading.  This reminded me of the Miss Muffet nursery rhyme and this in turn, of the Nursery Rhyme series of etchings by Paula Rego, which includes a Miss Muffet piece http://collection.britishcouncil.org/collection/artist/5/18742/object/40023/

Using the traditional nursery rhyme as the inspiration, I sketched a figure sitting quietly reading under a tree with the spider hanging high above.  Then a series of thumbnails

 I feel the first and second pieces work as stand alone pieces as well as part of the triptych. However the third piece showing the figure running into the space doesn't work alone.  It  is a boring very plain image without a story.

I then drew a figure on a bed with the spider close to the leg 
but felt the figure jumping off the bed didn't work -and also my drawing wasn't up to portraying the figure well enough and I was unable to transition for a print from 2 into 3 so went back to the idea of a figure sitting under the tree. I tried the "what if...."game to try to resolve the issue of the third piece working as a stand alone.

The alternative storyline involves the figure remaining sitting - in the second print she is reacting to the spider and her hand is raised - to fend off? in alarm? - who knows. In the final print the spider is sitting in her hand on top of the book and she is looking intently at the spider.

The next set of thumbnails considered backgrounds, including trees and hills but I felt the detail on the background diffused the image of the figure and the spider.  I then looked at different positions for the figure - facing left and also facing centre under a much larger tree.

 This minimised the figure making the tree the most important element and this also detracts from the image. I felt the figure facing centre made the image feel to symmetrical and when the figure faces left, it seems to be counter indicative to how we in the west "read" images - the image of the figure facing right and with just the side and branch of the tree showing gives the right emphasis to the figure and the spider and the right balance.

I was still trying to resolve the printing method - my preference would be for an etching as a homage to Paula Rego but I do not have the time for the necessary visits to the Print Centre so was considering collograph/lino cut when I came across the method of silk aquatint in the blog of Sue Brown http://suebrownprintmaker.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/end-of-term.html  The method gives the deep and varied tones of aquatint but is a collograph method.  I researched the method and realised that prints I had admired and thought of as etchings by Sean Harris http://www.arts-engine.org.uk/index.php?id=44&action=viewOrganisationData&returnID=28&letter=H&OrgID=715001were in fact, silk aquatints.  I therefore resolved to try the method for the assignment. Although this risks prints that are not up to the quality required I feel that it does fulfil the brief to try "experimental and exciting techniques".

I made a trial prints to experiment with the technique. On the plate, I used wood glue to draw the image, but although this is white when wet, it dries clear which caused a problem when inking as I couldn't see the image against the dark acrylic background.  I then made two more plates and drew simple images in white acrylic - building up the thickness in places over a couple of days as the layers dried and also scratching back to create lost details in places. I also amended the original trial plate of the figure with white acrylic to create more tone and texture

After experimenting with the plates, printing them and subsequently building up texture with white acrylic, gloss medium and wood glue - I am still not satisfied with the level and evenness of tone and realise I need more practise with this technique and also some expert advice and am not ready to use the technique for this project.

I re drew the sketch looking at the potential for mark making in lino cut or wood cut.  I was inspired by the lino cuts of Ian Phillips http://www.reliefprint.co.uk/and the wood engravings of Colin See-Paynton http://www.see-paynton.co.uk/index.html and used some off cuts of lino to develop the marks on paper into lino cuts.

I cut the plates utilising some of the mark making from the trial plates. After several proofs I decided to use stencils to reduce the marks from the cleared areas and proceeded to print a small edition of 3 prints of each plate. I decided to use a dark grey ink as I felt black was too harsh and experimented with various combinations, finally deciding on a mix that included a touch of blue.

I started out by hand burnishing on newsprint but reverted to the press for the prints on Fabriano Rospina when I found that I cannot form enough pressure using hand burnishing on the thicker paper

 I am reasonably pleased with the prints. Some marks have come through on the arm and the trousers but I feel these do relieve the large blank space. 

I experimented with hand colouring on one of the proofs.  I prefer the original monochrome images as I do not consider colour ads anything to the image.

Reflections

• The softer grey of the prints was more effective than the harsh black of the scaled drawing.
• The stencils to protect the unprinted areas would have been more effective if cut more accurately and from thicker paper
• With lino cuts I aim to clear all the extraneous marks but looking at the prints, I feel that the marks left he arms and trousers enhance the image.
• I am pleased with the design but like the effect of the enclosed wood in the experimental print where the tree plate was printed upside down. This provides an opportunity for future development and ties in with my wish for my work to have more layers of interest



• I don't feel that I fulfilled the brief for explorative or experimental print-making. However, I have tried new methods - silk aquatint and hand colouring - and have explored a wider range of mark making for these lino cuts 
• I intend to further experiment with silk aquatint and hand colouring
• I enjoyed the process of developing a suite of prints to tell a story.  From my research into narrative art works I realise that my work is only two dimensional and would benefit from more time spent developing ideas so that the final works are more complex and offer the viewer more interest.

Texture using collograph

The requirement is for a collograph print with the emphasis on texture made from jigsaw blocks.

My first thought was an idea for a print based on a drawing I worked up inspired by a drawing of pears on a plate by Ben Nicolson.  I chose apples as a theme I return to many times when drawing or doodling. However, I felt that it wasn't suitable for a textured collograph as I couldn't "see" the apples with texture.  I then considered a landscape based on the view of rape fields at Rabley Drawing Centre.  I simplified and abstracted the design and felt that it was developing along the right lines.

However, when I came across some ornamental gourds, their textures, shapes and colours seemed very applicable for a textural print. 

I drew several sketches and produced some collages but realised that I needed to look in more detail at the composition - bearing in mind that the final design needed to be suitable for jigsaw plates. I used the Ben Nicolson again as inspiration in the way that his composition used the stalks of the pears to draw the eye around the drawing.  While looking at this stage I also checked the suitability for a jigsaw print by drawing thumbnails and dividing the image into 3 blocks.

 I cut the plates and by referring to the sketches and textures of the actual gourds decided on the following texture:

plate 1 -  masking tape with gaps which are scored with craft knife ,  plate 2 -  ghesso - roughly applied with varied depth and for gourds with bumpy texture - wood glue roughly applied and while wet, textured with medium carbonumdrum and plate 3 - medium texture was created by a mixture of khadi paper, watercolour paper and tissue paper

The project also requires the print to be printed on a variety of textured colours.  So I lightly coated the card left from cutting the jigsaw plates with ghesso which I intend to print with the jigsaw plates. I also had some coloured wrapping paper which are quite light in weight but have been tested for colourfastness so should be alright when dampened for printing the collograph plates.I used a mixture of mono printing, acrylic inks, and chinese ink to colour and texture a mixture of Fabriano Rospina and Somerset velvet printing paper.
The first proof - on cartridge paper - was to see if the texture worked. 
I closely followed the sketch for the plate in terms of colour and tone and was pleased to see the plates and colour were effective. One thing I was not prepared for however was that the plates did not fit each other totally - I assume this is due to the cardboard expanding due to the wet media used for the textures - glue, ghesso etc. This is quite minor but needs to be born in mind for future projects.

The first print was onto deep red hand made texture wrapping paper with a strong leaf design.
The paper was not colour fast but the tone wasn't affected much although the blotting paper was stained.   Again not a successful print because the red of the large gourd is lost against the red of the paper but I do like the red of the paper coming through in places and realise this can be utlised very effectively.  I chose not to wipe excess ink off as much as normally as I was aware that the red of the paper was very strong and was concerned that the print would not be seen which is the case.  The yellow is very thickly inked. It would have been a better print if perhaps it had just been inked in black which would have shown the texture of the gourds and shown up against the red paper.

The second print was onto the paper textured with random acrylic inks.   I think this print is the most effective. The plates were inked more lightly compared with the previously and this means that the texture from the paper comes through the print of the gourds.  This was unintentional but quite effective, but would have been better with more ink.  I have enhanced the colour in places with pastel.

The final print of the session utilised the card that the jigsaw blocks had been cut from.This was very randomly inked using colours left on the inking sheet, and the blocks were not inked from the previous print so is a ghost image. The jigsaw blocks were inserted for the printing which was on a piece of Ho-sho paper.
The print clearly shows how the plates have changed slightly in shape during the making process with white borders around some - however this shows as blind embossing which I find attractive - not appropriate for this image but on the right print could be very effective.

I used other coloured sheets,  one with chinese ink and two monoprints from previous printing sessions. The chinese ink sheet was too dark, but where excess has been blotted away, an interesting texture is left which would be very effective if the gourds had been printed in different colours. Where monoprints were used, I found the colours and patterns coming through too strongly but this could have been better utilised with prior consideration of the colours of inks being used.

Reflections

• I think the print with the collograph on top of the acrylic ink design most successful - the ink marks make almost an abstract design across, under and through the gourds which add to the texture.
•  I like the dark red paper as it comes through the collograph design - this can be exploited in various ways in the future.
• However, I feel the complicated design of the gourds needs to stand alone against a paler background, they are too complex for a textured, highly coloured background.
• more time spent on considering the background before inking the plates would have led to more successful prints.  I focussed to much on the colours of the gourds rather than the print as a whole.

Print from memory - part 2

The brief was for a mixed media print.  I had decided that I wanted a yellow/red orange background so randomly put coloured acrylic washes on heavyweight cartridge paper. I had two pieces where I had used acrylic transfer - the images chosen quite randomly again - and I also covered these with thin acrylic washes.  I chose acrylic because I planned to use dry-point which requires the paper being dampened and any watercolour washes would be washed out

I chose the print media based on the finalised design. The main figure of the child I wanted to be lino cut and the rest of the figures would be dry-point and I also added the ballet shoes onto the matrix.

The dry point plate was inked in black and proofed on a coloured sheet with the music as chine colle

This showed the dry point as acceptable, the roulette marks in the shoes and in the dresses showed clearly and gave a pleasing variance to the marks. However since the music had not been coloured, it looked odd with the colour behind.  I therefore decided to add the music to the sheets and recolour them before printing.I printed the sheets with the dry point - adding chine colle on some sheets. I found that the very busy and dark sheet that had had acrylic transfer was too busy for the design and was unsuccessful, so need to bear this in mind for future prints.
 
I cut the lino cut from a tracing from the drawing in my sketchbook, using Japanese vinyl which allowed me to cut fine lines.  I also remembered not to cut too deep this time of using and am pleased with the result.  The proof indicated some marks that need to be cleared but they do seem to add a sense of movement so I will keep some on the matrix.

  I then added the lino print, again adding chine colle on some sheets.  I found that, on some sheets, the chine colle did not glue as well as others. I am not sure why this happened as the sheets were coloured with acrylic in the same way and I am confident that the glue was added to the chine colle evenly but they can be glued when the sheets are thoroughly dry if necessary. One one sheet no chine colle was added as I wanted to add the colour with pastel

The final task was to finish off with oil pastel, graphite and conte. The fist piece did not have chine colle over the child's dress so I used pink conte, colouring in the blue bodice and the shoes with red pastel and strengthening some lines with graphite where necessary.  I knocked back the three images at the base of the piece as I do not want them being so prominent.  The next piece was finished with white conte over the middle ground again to make this piece recede and to leave the figure of the child more prominent

Finally with a piece where the child's dress was in chine colle, I used a light ground of white conte over all but the shoes the blue ballet dancer and the child.  These are the most important images and need to be brought forward. 

 

Reflections

•  The design works and the working out in the sketchbook which led to the final design was worth the effort.
• the final piece is the best print  in terms of balance of tone and colour
• I feel that the movement of the original sketch is not fully carried over into the print which is a disappointment, but overall it is successful
• If repeating the print I would have  a less intense colour in the background so that the most important elements were more prominent and  thus removing the need for the white conte
• it is the first time I have used a memory as inspiration and Much to my surprise I enjoyed it. I will repeat the process.