Tutor Feedback Part 2

Assignment 2 focuses on introducing you to relief printmaking using linocuts in response to Place.
You have uploaded a clearly organised log enabling me to follow your thinking and progress clearly, thank you.
You are having to work intensively and quickly to meet the deadline and I admire the diligence in which you are approaching all the tasks. You are treating your work and this course with great sincerity and rigour. You are making great progress being as you are new to Printmaking.

 I began part 2 lino printing with great enthusiasm and excitement. The first task to test out the cutting tools was very interesting and I was so pleased with how my prints of these came out. They reminded my of Zebra and Tiger markings with the boldness of line and the black ink. The yellow version also was quite successful. I used an A4 sheet of lino and Schmincke inks.

Michelle referenced the amount of ink I was using and I was using a fair amount but I think the limitation of my small rollers and inking plate made the quality of print harder to achieve. I spent a very long time building up layers of ink and re-printing many times over  with a lot of pressure and still couldn't get a perfectly even print, which was very frustrating.

For task 2 project 6 Michelle referenced adding more text alongside my images to develop my personal voice. I have gone back to this and updated it.

I really enjoyed experimenting with different colour palettes for my banana leaf lino reduction print. I started with a lovely green and burgundy with black and then tried out brighter colours. Michelle mentioned that these would really pop if printed larger such as A1. With the struggles I was having printing small, I couldn't conceive printing so large but agree they would look quite striking.

Michelle suggested reading art reviews on the Guardian to try to understand how to write more academically. I made a start doing this, but at this point, this type of writing was very unnatural for me and I was having a hard time getting my head around it.

the Guardian. 2022. Art | Art and design | The Guardian. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/art> [Accessed 29 January 2022].

I have also now added links to my responses to tutor feedback as requested. These can be found in the 'Categories' drop down menu on the right side of my learning log navigation.

I think I naturally take in influences from other artists, techniques and thinking and apply them to my own work but have a difficult time articulating that into words at this point. This is something I am aiming to improve during the course.

Artist's to look at were:

Jeanette Barnes - The energy of Barnes' drawings really inspired me. The marks reminded me of my initial experiments with painting with the ink on the plate in part 1 and the interesting marks that came out of that. Working with energetic marks is definitely something that I do in my personal abstract paintings and also in my sketching process for my illustration work. I felt that was harder to achieve with the lino printing but something to consider for future prints.

JEANETTE BARNES. 2022. Urban Drawings. [online] Available at: <https://jeanettebarnesart.co.uk/urban-drawings-2/> [Accessed 29 January 2022].

Dale Devereux Barker -

Barker's lino prints are a combination of both boldness and controlled lines. The bright colours combined with the nature theme work really well and show what can be achieved using these different techniques together. The flower series Barker has produced are quite inspiring, they look quite graphic and pop art in style. This is something to consider if I want to explore in the next part.

Daledevereuxbarker.co.uk. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.daledevereuxbarker.co.uk/linocuts> [Accessed 29 January 2022].

Simon M Smith -

Smith's work is very inspiring to me. I have worked with mixed media in past years with my painting in acrylics and used collage papers of varying types. I love the more natural colours Smith uses and the detail he has used for the flowers. Leaving some as outlines and some as solid shapes, these are really beautiful, blending detailed botanical drawing with a pop art, bold colour palette. This is definitely a style that enjoy and feel it is more in line with my own personal work.

Gallery57.co.uk. 2022. [online] Available at: <https://www.gallery57.co.uk/simon-m-smith> [Accessed 29 January 2022].

Pointers to improve were developing my critical and reflective writing and use my sketchbooks more in my process. I think due to the speed I was needing to work to, I did neglect my sketchbook planning stages and felt very pressured to complete work as fast as possible. I aim to improve this next time and will update my writing to add more detail.