Thursday 16 December 2010

Wednesday 1 December 2010

Prints from week 30/11/10

__ How many Prints did you make this week? 15 monoprints onto various papers such as old envelopes, graph paper, mg paper, cartridge, coloured papers etc

__ How many of these taught you something new? The majority of them , as I wasn't aware that the ink on the surface you print from needs to be rollered until it's a layer literally thinner than paper! So I was rolling the ink out in all kinds of thick slabs and the effect was pretty messy! I also made a couple of simple 6 page folded books with the intent on monoprinting straight onto them but I kept messing up the page order and printing onto the wrong side etc. Eventually i managed to get one almost completed one which I intend to finish next week!
__ How many hours did you spend in the Printmaking Workshop? 6 













Assess yourself using these bandings.
0-29
no show - did not try
30-39
failed to understand
40-49
minimal application, 40 is a pass
50-59
satisfactory
60-69
really good
70-79
great
80-100
Excellent - perfect

Assess yourself for this week for
__ Competence in practical printmaking techniques
50-59

__ Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking
50-59

__ Visual Sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas in images
50-59

__ Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work
50-59

__ Active participation in taught sessions
70-79

Prints from week 9/11/10

__ How many Prints did you make this week? 8 etchings

__ How many of these taught you something new?  I learnt that when the paper is too wet, the print comes out much fainter and with a more washed out effect. Also that I often remove too much ink and this resuts in faded, wishy washy prints. 

__ How many hours did you spend in the Printmaking Workshop? 6


Successful prints - 




I think these prints have come out really well, these were the final few after the mistakes. This is the scene where the Jay finds the peacock feathers and adorns his tail with them, then attempts to join the Peacocks. 


Unsuccessful prints





Really, I don't think I even need to write why I think these prints are rubbish! The tone is too light and they are not 'inky' enough.


Close up sections








Assess yourself using these bandings.
0-29
no show - did not try
30-39
failed to understand
40-49
minimal application, 40 is a pass
50-59
satisfactory
60-69
really good
70-79
great
80-100
Excellent - perfect

Assess yourself for this week for
__ Competence in practical printmaking techniques
60-69

__ Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking
50-59

__ Visual Sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas in images
60-69

__ Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work
50-59

__ Active participation in taught sessions
70-79




Creative book forms & all that jazz

Cara Barer - This artist transforms existing books into monsters and creatures. Her sculptures are really unique and beautiful, they remind me of dancing flames.





Art created from existing books


I could not find the artists names who made these fascinating creations, but I think they are simply wonderful! Really delicate and precious, there is something I find intriguing about manipulating something which already exists and putting you're own mark on it, or taking it and changing it so it exists in another form. I particularly love the Alice In Wonderland images.





Tuesday 30 November 2010

Inspiring imagery of birds

I found all these prints and images very beautiful and inspiring, particularly the colours being so vibrant. I also really like the decorativeness and use of pattern.





The above image is really lovely, I particularly like the floral design and the composition. I am considering incorporating quite alot of feather designs and natural imagery to represent the nature of the story.



Sunday 21 November 2010

Ed Boxall

Ed Boxall is an Illustrator based in Hastings, he has done a series of printmade wonderful and charming books such as The bird watchers, The rooftop garden, The shell collector and others. Here a just a few of his handmade illustrations...



Cathy Cullis

What lovely little handmade delights Cathy Cullis creates! Her books are so delicate, so tiny, so precious. Her use of materials (embroidery, monoprint, fabric, paper) intrigues me as they are very tactile, this makes me want to touch the pages. This book 'Somehow' is only 5-6 cm in height.





Ideas for end pages

I would really like for the end pages of my book to just be purely decorative, a pretty pattern or design, no drawings or over crowded imagery, just something subtle as the contents will be busy and quite lively. The nebula images I previously uploaded have inspired these watercolour paintings by the colour, movement and space. Although the tones are much lighter and more dreamy I feel this works for what I am aiming to achieve and i quite like the effect...









Stuff, research and things!

After spending so much time on sketchbook work and finding my ideas I have now decided after speaking with Steve and David that I am going to make my entire book by hand. We agreed that it would be far more precious, delicate and special than it simply being whipped up through a computer programme. There is nothing wrong with this, but it seemed almost ridiculous to make each part of my book by hand then scan it into a computer to reconstruct it and in the process lose much of the handmade quality that is in my experiments. So, I have been working on this final for just over a week and i have very, very nearly completed it! I have been using a variety of mediums and materials, such as textured papers to add surface to make it more engaging, paint, drawings, photocopies, buttons, sewing, glitter and just about every other thing you can imagine, it is going to be difficult to make it not look too tacky, I think a certain amount of tackiness is required, only just a touch.






These images below are unfinished, but i thought i would upload various stages of my progress. I've been exploring paint marks and techniques as a way of finding interesting backgrounds, unfortunatley the bottom two images are on the same piece of paper so when using spray paint for the black blocks it trickled through on the reverse image which is annoying.