A print from memory

When I first considered this project, I came across a reference to the song "Blackbird, bye,bye". I wasn't sure what triggered it but the memory of the song was very strong.  I started to look at pictures of blackbirds and music but quickly realised that the idea had been triggered by looking at artists recently who are using birds as a symbol in their prints and I was trying to replicate them.  So I reconsidered  and the memory I decided to use was one of ballet dancing as a child. I have a clear feeling about the colours, light and feelings associated with the memory and also reading and loving Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield as a child. There was also a red ceramic wall ornament  in the bedroom I shared with my sister of ballet shoes and this had to be an element in the development.

After posting the previous assignment which was very rushed at the end due to ill health and prevarication, I had a period of reflection and came to the conclusion that I really had wanted to continue to work on the images - that I hadn't finished the development of the images or worked through all my ideas. I resolved in this new project to work on this aspect - to give myself the time and space to experiment with my ideas to their natural conclusion.

I had first mapped out words, colours, shapes, images  and emotions as suggested. I realised quite early that colour would be an important part of the final print so pulled colours and textures from magazines and collaged them randomly together in my sketchbook

 I was away for a week and worked in my sketchbook, allowing myself to play around with ideas without pressure, using collage, pen, acrylic, acrylic transfer and felt tip and enjoying the process.

I returned feeling these were a good beginning and with plenty of ideas to further develop. When the previous assignment was returned my new tutor said in her feedback " .. you do have a tendency to decide quite early what the final image is going to be and then completely stick with this with small variations of the same". This I feel, is the same as my insight. I give up and make do far too early.

 

The colour palette for the experiments remain the same. Pinks reds and golds featured quite heavily but as I have been developing the idea the colours are becoming more muted and fewer although still either from the yellow or red palette. The key elements from the memory for me where the ballet shoes pottery ornament, the pink tutu that I remember wearing and twirling around and around and these have continued to be important elements

I have experimented with different ideas as they occurred -using both collage and acrylic transfer techniques I have tried a textured background and also drawing the figure on a transparent layer. 
 I also added some words. I thought they would add to the image but they do not belong to my memory of the time so feel out of place.  The transparent layer knocks back the ballet shoes - allowing them to be seen but not be the most prominent part of the design.  I think this adds another dimension to the piece.  My memory also includes the music from the "Sugar Plum Fairy" perhaps every little girl dancers dream song, so I added a few notes of the well known theme.  I realise that I need to avoid these various elements looking just that - disparate elements in space.

 I used the Internet for inspiration of dancers and their movement. I felt originally that these could be a better image for the main figure but seeing them drawn on top of each other I wonder whether they could be used in the background as a repeated motif.  I also felt that the images coming through the paper from the other side was a possibility for experiment. I repeated then over an appropriated image of dancers. Although I feel these images both offer opportunity for development they did not reflect the memory and the story I wanted to convey but certain elements provided useful ideas.

I am sure this is because of the images I have been looking at recently, many of which have repetitive elements as a key part of the design.  I drew a small figure and repeated it on the page and also used the idea of the ballet shoes as a repetitive element but this time in collage.I felt that the gaze of the child was too dominant so tried an image of a child dancer with her back to the viewer - looking into her dream rather than having it behind her and her looking at the viewer. This balances the image better.

The texture of the acrylic transfer gives a worn distance to the background in keeping with a worn memory and I plan to retain this feeling in the final print. However I need to experiment with printing on this type of transfer as I am not sure how an acrylic transfer will stand up to the necessary dampening of the paper for a dry point for instance. I can also achieve the effect I want with either watercolour, acrylic or mono printing.

I had been using a fine line for the drawing, particularly of the figure, giving it a fragile element but after drawing some figures in black and white acrylic marker over a magazine image of dancers, I wondered what the figure would look like sketchily drawn with these markers. It would give more weight perhaps and make the figure a more dominant element.

Deciding to use these markers which make bigger and coarser marks also resulted in feeling that the figure had to larger. I am still working in an A5 sketchbook at this stage so smaller than the final image would be, but of necessity enlarged the figure - realising in doing so that the figure was now definitely the dominant image.  I also abstracted the figure to a degree adding a sense of movement in the skirt which is really important to prevent the viewer feeling that the child is passively watching - she is an eager participant waiting to join in, but feel the ballet shoes are too prominent. 

I reintroduced the idea of music into the image and also the idea of a repetitive element .  The texture behind provides interest.  the figure is not so strong, and the other elements feel as if they have just been placed without real thought to design or meaning.

The figure again feels strong - the yellow textured background helping with here.  I like the figures in the background but want them to be less prominent and perhaps smaller - the ballet shoes, such a key element originally, now looks like an afterthought but the music adds to the image.

I used a print of the music from "The Sugar Plum Fairy in the background - this makes the music a more substantial part of the image than just a string of musical symbols and adding it in the portrait layout works but in the landscape layout it just floats and is not connected.I also went back to adding colour to the image of the figure rather than just a black and white superimposed image. This gives a greater cohesion to the design.

The next images incorporated those elements that I felt were the most important, the music, the shoes, the watching waiting figure, texture and the dancer. The colours, yellow, red and to a lesser degree, blue, were also key. I also moved into a larger A3 format.



 In the final two images, I moved to A3 format and  introduced the idea of a ballet bar. This was the result of looking and analysing the images I had produced so far and finding them wanting. They still had the feel of related elements placed on a page in various ways but without a narrative feel to them. The bar I felt might provide a sense of location but when I placed it between the figure and the rest of the action, I also found that it distanced the  the child from the shoes and the dancer. I  introduced the second image of the child to give a feeling that there was more than one child, to reduce the sense of isolation but then,in the final image, the feeling of movement produced by the three fainter figures coalesces into the child was moving closer to want she wants or aspires to.  Also the child is more substantial still with the movement of the skirt suggesting than she is ready to join in.  This final image feels cohesive and tells the story I wanted to convey.