........

I forgot to upload these last 2 images on the last blog post!..These 2 prints were completly off-register but i cut them down to see what they looked like when the mistake wasn't so obvious and I think they still worked really well ..there was more red coming through.

Final Wall for assessments!..I kept it simple and used what I think were my strongest prints over the whole semester.

Printing the wood-cuts

I cut out the image I had prepared in my sketchbook and began printing it in black ink to see if the image functioned well on paper.

First black ink print

After printing out a couple of testers I tried to figure out which 2nd colour would work well, I decided a yellow would add depth and light to the picture so I cut it out and printed it.

Not my best yellow and black

 After talking to Suzzanah, I realised that I wasn't getting enough out of my woodcut..It was lacking depth, and space and colour so I got a third block and added a new colour in to try and make the image stronger and more interesting. I cut out a third block then decided to add a red into it. I swapped the colours around on the blocks just to see the different effects.

 

After experimenting I decided on which order my colour scheme would go and I'm pleased to say it turned out a lot stronger and vibrant than the original yellow and black image.This is the final woodcut I put up on my wall:

I added in a path, lampost and street markings to add depth. I think the colours hold well together on the page but I regret settling at this image and not experimenting with colour more..maybe some blues and greys could also have worked.

 

 

 

 

Woodcuts and Streaking

We got our wood cut brief on Wednesday!..We had to think of a line from a story in our lives and then recreate and image from that line to sum up the story. I love wood cuts so I was instantly dying to get into it..anyway I should probably write up my story to start off ..ahem..

Last year me and 5 other lads were living in a huge,damp shithole of a 7 bedroom, detached house in Galway. After about two months we had grown to love it but 2 of the lads had decided to drop out and we couldn't afford the rent so we had to up and leave.We felt we had to celebrate our time in that house by going on a mad one drinking..until eventually somebody came out with the great idea that 'streaking through the neighbourhood and out onto the main road' would be a great idea for our last night there. Anyway 2 of us agreed and we decided to go for it, football socks over our heads we were ready to go. One lad actually was wearing a child's shark costume over his head, I can't remember how or why..but anyway we left and started jogging and we thought it was great until we realised we were all unfit and couldn't make the run..by this stage we were stranded half way of the distance we had planned to run.. we had no choice but to hide out in somebody's garden, naked and quickly sobering up until we had the breath to run home and pray the guards wouldn't drive past.


So here's my image that I worked up on the block ...

I've printed it today and it's come out well,I'm working on my second block to add in colour on Monday , maybe some flesh tones or a nice yellow to add some depth and contrast ...

Screen

 I only got one screen print done, well the same print done about 15 times.I was hoping to have done a lot more  , I had a couple more ideas almost ready to print but never got them printed in the end due to the ulcer that decided to appear in my stomach and render me hospitalized. Hopefully I might get another chance to screen print again if i get the wood cuts done early though so fingers crossed. Here's the one print I did ..Although it's fairly boring I do quite like the composition of it on the page.

Man holding a hood down over his face ..I had intentions of adding something more into the background... graffiti etc. My own photograph was used.

Here are some of my other ideas and sketches from my sketchbook that I intended on developing and printing....Just simplyfing the shapes of hoods, creating patterns and adding some text into it.

Collagraph

 Collagraph!..Actually happened to really enjoy collagraph and all the happy mistakes that came with it. I started to embrace the unpredictability of this method and really started getting into playing with colour and textures. The first range of prints i did with my first board were ones of Masks.I was trying to convey a sense of hidden identity but also emotion in some of the later ones...

First one I did

Ghost print of first with colour added. I think this was definitely the most successful. It sits well in the centre of the sheet.

I like the fading texture created around the mask with finger marks.

adding in a small mask with masking tape on acetate.

continuing with adding more masks and experimenting with colour  to express distress and emotion.

The second board I worked again with acetate. I first created some self portraits with glue on the wood board then went back and tried to re work some of the prints with masking tape on acetate to try and create more texture and also to go along with the concept of blocking out areas of the figure (personality).

I really like this one.It's simple but dramatic and the contrast came out the most successful.

Using the previous acetate to try and add a new dimension and tie both ideas together.

The idea here was that the Figure is gradually getting more covered by the tape as you follow the prints. The ideal way to display them I think would be in a line on a wall.I think the concept becomes more clear to the viewer then....

The lighter ghost prints tended to be the most successful I regret not making more like that I think the piece as a whole would have tied in a lot more nicely together...

Notions of Identity

First blog in a while so a fair bit to catch up on!  First of all I got a place in print for the time being all I have to do is not fuck it up in the second semester and I should have a place in print in September!..Anyway the brief we got for Collagraph and Screen Printing was 'Notions of Identity'. Basically we had to make our 'notions of identity' into images, some people went autobiographical while some people went wider and dealt with the country or peoples roles in Society. We started with collagraph which at first i thought I was going to hate but i actually loved the painterly look to the prints I came out with! I sort of started off toying with the idea of a person wearing 'masks' in certain social situations or around certain people, not being themselves really or showing their true self and created some 'self portraits' (pity there wasn't much likeliness) and some theatrical looking mask prints. Then in Screen i sort of went the same route but a slight bit off. I found myself dealing with the concept of concealing ones identity completely and the intimidation and power behind that.