Assignment 1 focuses on introducing you to Printmaking and Monoprints. This is an exciting start to your printmaking course, I can see you have worked with integrity and diligence questioning the quality of your prints and the technical aspects of Printmaking.
You have a well organised and clearly labelled body of work that has been uploaded digitally making your progress easy to follow, thank you.
Your work submission shows a great deal of care and planning. Learning to print is not easy, but out of quantity comes quality!
You have a lot of prints that demonstrate your potential as a very good inventive printmaker.
It has been a long time since I've done printmaking and I was curious to work through this course to see if this kind of work would be a good fit for me. Having been a mixed media painter for many years my interest in the fine art side led me to choose this course as my final unit for level 1.
I seemed to get off to a good start and it was nice to see that my composition skills are improving and my use of sketchbooks to plan and test ideas is also improving. My interest in nature was a huge inspiration for this course and I got to explore it in different ways throughout each part.
Starting with the monoprints which I have never done before, it was an interesting exercise and I enjoyed experimenting with the different tools and learning to work with the inks. The brushes created interesting textures that I didn't expect and when the colours of ink blended together they created some lovely effects.
Making the masks and using bright, bold colours was a very enjoyable start and I found myself wanting to experiment with different colour combinations. My aim was to produce a high number of prints not only for my own satisfaction of aiming to produce prints of quality but also to practice the methods that were new to me. I used thin card for the mask templates which seemed to hold up well when cutting and regular printer paper for the actual masks.
Looking Andy Warhol's series of 'Flowers' prints as suggested by Michelle, I could see the reference to the bold colours I have used for monoprints, the simple shapes of the flower petals with the vibrant colours really stand out from the detailed background. Although I like the colours Warhol used his work is not inspiring to me because it is more graphic in style and collaged with other artists photographs. I enjoy a more cleaner, nature themed look to my prints.
Garden Collage Magazine. 2022. The Story Behind Andy Warhol's Flowers - Garden Collage Magazine. [online] Available at: <https://gardencollage.com/inspire/art-design/andy-warhol/> [Accessed 29 January 2022].
Michelle suggested that I look up artists such as Stef Mitchell, Serena Smith and Squeak Carnwarth to see how they work and help me to develop my voice within my work. It was useful to visit their websites and learn about their process and how I could develop my own work. Stef Mitchell and Serena Smith have a very delicate look to their prints, whilst I like the detail, I know I want to work with brighter colours and thicker lines and marks. It was interesting to see the kinds of effects that can be produced with printmaking techniques that they have shown in their portfolios. Squeak Carnwarth's work I found very interesting. Her use of layers and colour and how she created a mixed media soft effect but with ink. This artist will definitely influence my work for the next parts.
Staithesstudios.com. 2022. Stef Mitchell – Staithes Studios. [online] Available at: <http://staithesstudios.com/stef-mitchell/> [Accessed 29 January 2022].
Serenasmith.org. 2022. Labyrinth-Serena Smith artist and lithographer. [online] Available at: <http://www.serenasmith.org/a1-gallery2.asp?roomID=12577> [Accessed 29 January 2022].
Youtube.com. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSPWbgdkqj8> [Accessed 29 January 2022].
Michelle also encouraged me to keep doing more observational drawings in my sketchbook that relate to my ideas and how I can develop them for further prints. Also to enlarge my drawings and crop them to explore different compositions and to think about my use of shape and scale. I feel I am somewhat limited due to the space I have available, the time scale left, cost of materials and the size of my equipment. I therefore am working on a range of papers from A5 sized to A3 and three different paper types.
My personal voice is developing slowly overtime, at this point I am finding it difficult to put into words. Nature is a passion of mine and my Christian faith. I aim to explore these themes further during the course.
Overall I feel I made a good start to this course and I am very happy with the feedback from my tutor Michelle. I am looking forward to working with lino prints and seeing where my work takes me.
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