November 9th, 2010

Printmaking Continued

The first thing I would like to highlight from this class is how fantastic it was to have created three different plates for three different processes—and printed them all—before the end of class. This was because the structure behind arriving at the imagery for the plates was so clever and yet so simple while yielding very "convincing" results.

I put this word in quotes, because it keeps coming up in conversation in class. Sometimes students can get caught up in the ideation behind their work, I certainly do it myself. Letting the process take over to arrive at a convincing image is a great way to coax great work out of those that aren't secure with their creative abilities, and a perfect method for printmaking.

This week's collagraph was much more successful for me, and I think it might have been at how I arrived at this image. It was the not knowing. And yet, of course when the prompt "most interesting legs" and "scary teeth" are given, conscious thought takes over, but there is still enough of an abstraction here, that I don't think it speaks directly to "monster" it is also convincing as an abstract design, as were the others in class.

"The Paul Klee Method" was a real treat because although I love the ease and clean-up of water-based inks, I prefer the quality of oil-based inks. Even though this piece looks dark and heavy, the quality of the ink, and the haze you get around your lines adds to the other-worldliness of the theme of creatures. This process was meant to be a mono-print, but because I was unfamiliar with it, I ended up doing two versions for the experience.

The third process with the corrugated cardboard was probably the least successful for me, and yet I loved the pieces that the other students produced.

I thought that the chunkiness of the pattern lent itself to big round shapes, and so I went for a Hippo, but the other students got these very elegant, thin -lined animals "convincingly" out of this material.

I would like to try this process again, but on a larger scale. This process worked the least successfully with the create-as -you-go approach to arriving at a plate. Maybe, again, because it was the least abstract, and the most dependent on my ability to replicate what looks like a real animal, without the benefit of too much detail!