Woodcut

New brief today! Woodcut!
Ok we've been given two pieces of mdf 6inX6in, we have to do four colours(including black) and it has to be based on a personal story.
 Got my key plate/block drawn out, pretty happy with it, the rest however - not so easy!!!
Gotta get it figured out tonight and get it cut to start printing tomorrow.
If I get anything done tomorrow I'll post pics but until then I'm keeping it to myself!

Collograph

We have been working with collograph for the last two weeks and those of you who know what collograph is will know how frustrating and dissapointing collograph can be! For those of you who don't know what it is: you make boards from thin wood or cardboard with layers and textures made from acrylic paint, tile adhesive, pva glue, ribbon, or if you're me - teabags!! The point is to create places on the boards for ink to 'grab onto' so that when you run the boards through the press the most textured areas leave the heaviest amount of ink... does any of that make sense? Probably not but when I'm finished I'll put up some pics of my collograph boards and it might help to explain!
For now I just have one or two images to show you of the kind of thing I've been doing.

This is my pile of teabags that have been sitting on the radiator, drying, for about a week now. I've been looking at the patters and stains left behind when they have been used and left to dry. They look like maps to me.

This is a drypoint etching of one of my 'teabag maps'. I plan to print these over some collograph/monoprints that I finished on Friday.

This is a terrible (and sideways) pic of one of my favourite collographs. The square at the bottom is tile adhesive, then carborundum and pva glue with the back of a piece of board printed over it, then a 'teabag map' etching at the top.

This is a triptych of tealeaf readings. No I can't read much into them either...

Thats all for now, big 'Hello!' to Alan (whom Daddy informs me reads my blog!) and to anyone else out there reading this, although I really don't understand why you would be - have you nothing better to do?!

Keep in mind people (my imaginary blog readers) that all my prints are for sale at the end of the college year so let me know if you see anything you fancy.

Last of screenprint

Here is the last image I made in screenprint:

Yes it's a teabag!

I've printed a few extras too because everyone whos seen them so far has loved them so I was thinking they might be good presents or maybe I could try sell a few.

Collograph next week....... should be.... interesting?

Anyway I'm outta here, I have Easter eggs to eat.

Screenprint is fun

No really it is! Terrifying to begin with, there are so many steps to remember, but then you do it once and you're left wondering what you worrying about!

I moved on from cups and started using my passports and ID cards etc to talk about identity.
Here is my almost finished image :

And this is a close up of the green on the top half. I f-ing love this green!

Just a little aside: I can't believe that I am actually allowed to get a degree in this stuff. I know it's only the beginning and I shouldn't be getting too excited just yet and I know there will be hard work too but I just can't believe that I am allowed to go into college everyday and do all of this.

First week of print

So it's the end of my first week of being in print.

'Notions of Identity'

WHO AM I?!

'Are you a mug of tay and two cuts of brown bread or are you a cup of tea and two chocolate biscuits?'

My primary school principal asked me that when I joined Holycross primary school in 1994, after I moved there from London.
Meaning - are you Irish or English? Rascist? Yes obviously but also an amusing way to put the question.

Am I Irish? Or am I English?

I don't know. But I'm going to explore the idea of both.

Oh yeah - and I'll be using screenprint!

The End...

Well the end of electives anyways!
What can I say about painting? I didn't do my best this week and I know thats going to reflect in my marks that I get. But unfortunatly there wasn't much I could do about that as my home life was falling apart around me. Hopefully it will all be sorted this week and I'll be ready to jump into working again next week.
It would be quite ironic if my low marks in Painting brought down my grade so much that I didn't get into Print, seeing as Painting is my second choice thats where I would end up! Heres hoping that doesn't happen.

Heres a photo of my Freud, I found it very difficult but looking at it now I'm quite proud of it. Its a bad copy but an ok painting!

As usual Blogger has decided to upload it sideways but her hair is meant to be at the top of the picture.

I particularly like the way her nose turned out.

And I also realised that I hadn't put up photos of my last few prints that I did so here is one from the 'Clutter' project.

Again it's sideways so just tilt your head to the right!

And this is another one.

Oh for goodness sake! I'm just going to leave them the wrong way round from now on and maybe they will upload properly!!!
The idea, for me, behind this project was to look at the clutter we leave behind us when we're gone. I went to an abandoned house (the door was standing open, I didn't break in!!) and took some photos of the possessions that were still there. It was obvious that an older gentleman had been living alone in the house before it was abandoned and it made me really sad and upset to see his 'things' decaying with no-one to take care of them. It was as if the man himself was there decaying infront of me.
The photos that I ended up using were of a plug socket and of a plastic Holy Mary water font. The wallpaper was torn behind them and the concrete wall showing through. I made about 20ish prints from these two images and I really like them. I know we aren't meant to use the word 'like' when talking about work/art etc but these are the kinds of things that would appeal to me if I saw them on the wall in a gallery or exhibition.

So to sum up the electives - Ceramics was lovely fun, Print was inspiring and energetic, and Painting was enjoyable but terrifying.

Painting and other news

I have no images yet to put up from painting but I'll try remember to take some tomorrow when we're finished for the day.
So far we have been just using the primary colours to do 'blind drawing' with paint, then doing 'negative space' drawings and also (trying) to paint with plastic credit cards! My credit card one came out... well...we aren't meant to analyze them.....
So in other news.... I entered three pieces into the drawing awards exhibition and one of them was accepted. I'm really excited to see the rest of the exhibition now, so that will be on Tuesday.
Could really have done with a drink tonight after the highs and lows of the week so far but maybe hot chocolate in bed and an early night are for the best.