Fine Art - Day One: Printmaking

  Today, I worked in the printing classroom creating different prints and experimenting with all kinds of printmaking techniques. I did have experience before participating in this workshop with printing such as etching and mono prints however, I learnt new skills and techniques for perfecting my prints. Within this blog post I explore in detail all the technique I have learnt and which ones were most successful in my printmaking process. 

    The first print type we learnt about was a trace print which was new to me and not something I have done before, this process involves laying the piece of paper on top of the inked up printing plate from there I drew marks on top of the inked plate on the back of the paper, before lifting up the paper slowly to reveal the print itself. I feel as though this process proved successful for me as the print below with the circles was a trace print, that was extremely effective in creating the circles and creating a print that looks drawn in a way much more free and fluent. Problems I had with the trace print process was getting a crisp print as like in the one below i didn't blot the inked plate first so I had excess ink that printed across it making it less of a clean print also, I had slight issues with keeping the surrounding area of the print clear without smudged ink around the edges. 

    The second print type we learnt was the mono-print which was familiar to me as I have done it a few times previously, this print involved laying down the ink using the ink roller and either removing the ink using things such as cotton buds, cotton balls and oil paint brushes where it leaves strokes on the printing plate, leaving lots of marks to create a textured affect. I think this was a very successful because as shown in the red print of the sea it created a sense of movement within the print with the fluent strokes from the brush creating the ocean and to create a sunset like area at the top representing the sky above the water i used a cotton wool ball to remove the ink slowly, leaving the remnant of a thin blended layer of ink, creating the sky affect. If I was to recreate this print I would possibly use other tools such as cotton buds and the opposite end of the brush to experiment using a less obvious option to create my desired affect. If I was to recreate this print i would adapt the top part of the print where the sky it and remove less of an area and make it a lot more of a subtle blend central to the top of the print. I would also use a cotton bud to remove the areas of the rocks defining the shapes a lot more and adding more tone to each of the rocks individually as opposed to the textural approach I took.

    The third and final print I created was the trace mono-print which is a very similar concept to the mono-print except I cut out pieces of paper and laid the paper on top of my printing plate after I had added the texture by removing the ink with a paint brush (as shown below). Causing the areas where I laid the paper to remain white on the paper that it's being printed on. I think that this print wasn't as successful because it didn't print as well as the others the shapes printed clearly leaving the area of the ink to be removed but the ink around the shapes was extremely faded making the shapes that have been removed less clear around the edges. If I was to recreate this print I would remove less ink focusing on how clear the the shape will be compared to the background. 

Marc Chagall- View of Paris Print

My first chosen artist is Marc Chagall because I felt inspired by the textured affect he has created within his piece and I attempted to recreate this in my mono-print where I created the texture of the water and waves as well as the rocks along the seashore. I think that the subject matter behind this work is the view of Paris from the rooftop of a building, where you see the city of Paris and the Eiffel Tower on the background. His approach to this print is almost a dream-like approach of the famous city within France, also the use of the red goat in the foreground is a reference to Chagall's Jewish heritage that he includes in all of his prints. I think the process of this print would've been an etching because you can see all the fine details and shading that has been created through making lots of little marks into the etching plate also, I after researching into Marc Chagall I discovered that his printing methods nearly always involve etching as opposed to other print making types suggesting to me that it's an etching. What appeals to me the most about this particular print by Marc Chagall is the details and dream-like approach to his print, emphasising how Paris is seen as being a dream to go there because of the views of everything within the city such as the Eiffel Tower that is featured in the distance within his print. Also, the way in which he has used the etching to engrave the details and make it look almost as though it has been created using watercolour or in a paint-like way. I really find this piece personally appealing to me because of all of the amount of technique he has clearly used to create such a captivating print, as well as the goat in the bottom right corner that he uses as a reference to his own culture making it even more personal and brings in another narrative to the piece. Additionally, I feel as though the colours within the piece communicate the narrative well with the blue making it seem dream-like and as though it's a fantasy landscape and the red colour of the goat referencing the story behind the goat in reference to his Jewish heritage. As typically in Jewish culture it featured the 'scapegoat' of which two goats are sacrificed one being laid upon the rocky headland known as "Azazel" representing the sins of the community and the other goat (symbolising the Lord) being slaughtered as part of the general Yom Kippur rituals. I think that this was very successful because it communicates the narrative clearly and represents the View of Paris perfectly as well as his Jewish culture. The knowledge I have gained from this piece will influence my own work because, I am going to experiment using an etching plate in a similar way to Marc Chagall and try to use it to create the fantasy and beauty of a certain landscape by diving out of my comfort zone and exploring the full potential print making can give. As I have already taken the textured affect of the print and applied it to my mono print I hope to try incorporate a piece of my Italian heritage into a piece or even multiple pieces of my work to add a second narrative into what I create, possibly a landscape piece. 

Christine Sloman- Lost Voices 

 

I have chosen to look at Christine Sloman I have chosen to look at this particular designer because I feel as though it creates a completely new message compared to Marc Chagall's work and it intrigued me how she made it appear to be as though it's a remnant while also communicating the message of emptiness. This particular artist links to my work, because of the trace mono-print as when the paper is removed it removes the area that covered it leaving an empty area creating a remnant. The theme behind this piece of work is what I believe to be based on soldiers at the war as a soldier being a light grey/white colour keeping this piece purely monochromatic but by having the soldier in the lighter shades of grey, and the background being black and very darks it represents the trauma they faced at war. The process she has used involved a mono-type print worked from old, found photographs her typical process of printmaking starts by working upon a thin sheet of perspex where following a guide placed beneath the perspex she would gradually build up images using ink rolled on to the perspex that she the layers up. That she will transfer by passing the matrix and paper through press in-between each layer printing them one by one. What appealed to me about this piece of work was not only the water like texture to the print giving the impression of watercolour also, the meaning behind the print and the direct narrative it portrays to me about a soldier who has seen the light in the dark after the war. I think this was very successful as the incorporation of the old found photographs adds a whole new element to the print, combined with the layered prints of the inked up perspex portrayed the narrative from multiple angles. The knowledge I gained from Christine Sloman I hope to apply to my future prints as I want to experiment with layering prints as well as incorporating an old rustic photograph to make it seem more rustic and vintage while adding to the photo to convey the meaning I aim to convey that could be completely opposite to what the main photograph's narrative is.