Screenprint Post-Its & Spines

These are my screenprints step by step as I added each colour. I liked the way they looked even at this stage.

I tried printing onto newsprint and thought the effect was quite nice (though the photo doesn't do it much justice!) :

 

The finished prints:

I liked the way they turned out and found the most effective way to display them was on bigger sheets, it seemed to make them more "important" and became less about the writing on the post-its, therefore enhancing the idea of secrecy etc.

I was also happy with the way my image of the diary spines turned out. The best ones again seemed to be the ones on newsprint. It gave a sort of delicacy to the prints. Though the idea of diaries, documentation etc. may not be 100% clear from them I think they work alongside the other prints and also enforce the idea of thoughts and secrets being locked away.

Silkscreen: take one

To start the process of making a silkscreen I photocopied some of the post-its and got this nice image (almost by accident).



 I then got a sheet of MRPVC and used black acrylic paint to trace over each individual colour in the image:

...to be continued...

I also want to do some work with this image (also to be continued...)

PRINT: Notions of Identity

So our first project as official printmaking students is on the idea of 'identity'. We've been asked to develop a body of work over the next 6 weeks which "explores our sense od identity and place" in whatever format we'd like, but through the processes of both silkscreen and collograph.

I'm starting with silkscreen for the first 3 weeks and I started to look at the idea of insecurities and the way in which we portray ourselves to the world versus how we really feel and think. This lead me to explore the idea of thoughts and the way in which we document these thoughts. For example in a diary or journal...

To begin, I started looking at the basic image of journals and books- places where secrets and our true thoughts (generally about ourselves) are locked up.

I also started to look at other ways we record our thoughts, for example I always find myself writing my thoughts on post-it notes in a stream-of-conciousness type way almost in that it's as if I feel the need to record every thought that occurs to me. These start to build up around my room and when I look back at them, they often don't make much sense...

I think I'm going to start looking at the idea of doing a series of prints around this theme...

Also thinking about and looking at this: http://www.postsecret.com/

Elective 3 : Visual Communications

Lucian Freud

 Over the weekend we were supposed to reproduce a portrait by Lucian Freud. I chose this one 'Susie' (1988, Oil on canvas)

Installation

 So on Thursday morning we had to create an installation using materials inspired by an image we had chosen. We had to focus on the contrast between textures, tones and materials in general. I began to work with materials such as black bin bags, brown paper, clothes hangers, black string and masking tape. 

When I started the installation it was a bit too much of a relief piece on the wall so I tried to give it more structure. There was also a lack of colour in the installation, so I ended up teaming up with someone and we added scrunched magazine pages and different pieces of fabric.
 

After doing some more blind painting looking at both positive and negative space, we began to work on thumbnails of sections of our installation. We started to focus on the composition on the page. 

I mixed three different tones of paint, a dark tone, a medium tone and a light tone and started by mapping out the painting (using paint, not a pencil!) according to the thumbnail I'd made. Then I started painting using a palette knife and working from the background, to the middle ground then lastly we were to build up the foreground focusing on applying each tone next to eachother. I really enjoyed using the palette knife as it was so different from using a brush and gave a nice thick build up of paint.

Blind Painting and Negative Space

 Yesterday we did the first part of painting which was blind painting and negative space. We were looking closely at a cluster of desks and easels,and weren't supposed to look at the page or lift the brush. It was very tempting to look, and it was hard not to be concerned with what the outcome looked like, but eventually I began to get used to it and thought it was a good exercise in training my eye. I decided to continue some of this in my sketchbook...

We also started to work with plastic cards (like credit cards, supermarket  loyalty cards etc.) to learn about how to push the paint around the page in a different way than just using brushes. I really liked the effect the card could give, creating thin lines with the side of the card and dragging the paint to create an interesting surface.
 I experimented with this in my sketchbook as well and also decided to try using a plastic palette knife to explore different tools used for painting...