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.

Revisiting a previous project - collograph

Assignment 2 was all about abstract art. This is a subject I have never really been drawn to - liking a few abstract artist such as Rothko, Barbara Hepworth, Kadinsky, Ben Nicolson and Pollack but not really understanding what it was all about and without analysing why I am attracted to some and not others.

Looking at abstract paintings and prints with a more critical eye, I found it easy to identify that colour and texture appealed to me but still found difficulty in understanding what makes a good composition in abstract terms.  I have a little experience of painting abstract art from a short workshop which looked at how emotions and colours and lines are linked in our memories. This however didn’t help with the starting point for the imagery.So, I had no idea how to start this project

I have “Art of Abstract Painting” by Rolina van Vliet on my shelves and for one image she had used an aerial photograph as a starting point . I have often used imagery fleeting seen on the TV, through car windows, in books or captured in photographs as a starting point for a doodle but have never taken the idea further to try to develop it into a piece of work.   This assignment would give the opportunity to explore this to see how far I could push it. I searched through photographic books for images that had some potential. In “The Earth from the Air – 365 new days”  I found an image of the river Lippe in a flood near Olfen, Ruhr region and felt that it had possibilities.

I chose one image to work on in more detail to test whether my ideas would transfer to an abstract image. I worked one of the little thumbnails up to A4 using coloured pencil to play around with colour. I liked the colours of the earth shown in the original photograph and decided to use the same palette of colours in all three images. I then completed a quick watercolour to give the colour in the image more depth, and took the opportunity to make more generous curves than more original drawing. I made adjustments to the image and decided that, for balance the image would require some white – reserving the paper – for more interest. I then tried making the lines more geometric and finalised a design for the print based on blocks of colour, deciding on a multi-plate lino cut.

I had great difficulty with the prints, the plates were not cut well and did not register although I felt the colour was clear and reflected the landscape that the design was based on, the image is not successful as a print or as an abstract. I didn't enjoy the process at all. After a very bad - deserved - critique from my tutor, and a period of despondency, I eventually decided to revisit the image as the failure felt like unfinished business.

I  bought a little book - "starting with Abstract Painting" by Kenneth Jameson - in a second hand bookshop which was very helpful.  The book reminded me of the keys to successful design whether  realistic or abstract: 

colour:tone:texture:line:balance:form:pattern:rhythm:harmony

I used one of the ideas from the book  - cutting a photograph into uneven pieces and using one of the pieces to lead the design. This is a similar process to using a viewfinder and focusing on isolated elements. I decided to use the same source material as in the original print, and to explore some of the ideas using the image as a starting point with the intention of incorporating chine colle and/or monoprint into the final print.

I took an element from the cut photograph and started to experiment with shape and colour - one drawing leading into another drawing.

I also used collage to produce a piece to introduce a textural element. Certain strong shapes emerged in the collage that looked to provide possibilies for the print.

The textures in the collage suggested a collograph as the dense coloured texture element I wanted in the print could be achieved with quite coarse sand. I had the drawings and collage in front of me together with the original inspiration from the photograph, but I wanted the plate to be a further development rather than trying to precisely adhere to a drawn/collaged piece, so used them as inspiration rather than copying them.

The plate as made from mount board with gesso roughly spread on varying thickness on the plate and a palette knife used to create marks inspired by the previous works. Before the gesso dried I scattered rough sand in a focused way, trying to place it in specific places and shapes where I wanted certain elements of the design to be and intentionally varying the lightness and heaviness of the spread in places.

After sealing the plate, I proof inked it using ink left over from a previous print run. This was a darkish green and I used a dobber to apply it to just the raised textured part of the design. I had pre-prepared some paper so that it was damp and ready to use but the first two runs through the press required adjustment of the roller to ensure the right amount of pressure without the danger of the very sharp sand piercing through the layer of tissue and newsprint into the blanket. 

I then thought of Barbara Hartill's collographs - http://www.brendahartill.com/Brenda_Hartill/Welcome_to_Brenda_Hartills_website.html

 

She uses quite strong colour which produces some delicate effects on the print which I like so decided to apply primary red and primary yellow to the plate in a considered way first with a dobber and then later with a brush. The results were varied and I realise that I need to really push the ink into the textured service to ensure that the intaglio is inked thoroughly. After inking various plates, I wanted to try the effect of adding chine colle before putting through the press.  I took photocopies of a couple of prints and used oil pastel to imitate the effect of chine colle

I liked this effect so added chine colle - tissue and thin hand made paper stained with acrylic inks in various colours  -to the next few plates, continuing to vary thickness of oil and mixing colour on the plate with the method of "rubs" that Barbara Hartill uses. I also tested out various glues to attach the chine colle - Nori paste, pritt stick and finally liquid PVA applied with a brush. The final results are interesting and provide a good basis for further experimentation.

The textures have potential but I will use carbonundrum rather than sand in the future to achieve a denser more even texture and so that there is less danger of the paper being damaged by the sharpness of the plates.

Some of the marks on the plate are too considered - for instance the radiating lines at the top and bottom are not pleasing.

I think using gesso to produce a lightly texture background emphasised in places with sand has worked and will repeat this next time I experiment

 The addition of chine colle has been effective - giving an almost watercolour effect especially on the lighter prints.

I prefer the prints that are the result of much lighter inking, the dense colour not being as attractive or giving the feel to the image that I wanted.

This set of prints are more successful than the linocuts but I am still uncertain as to whether they work as abstract images.

The assignment has been an uphill struggle from the first mark I made.  However, I have enjoyed this revisiting of the work and have allowed myself to experiment with technique, colour and a new style and will be revisiting it again to see how far I can push the image and where it takes me.