Aylish's OCA Printmaking 1 Learning Log: June 2018

Thursday 28 June 2018

Formative feedback

Overall Comments

Welcome back to printmaking clearly the break hasn’t hindered your creativity and professional approach to your course.

I do recommend labelling your prints in pencil on the back with your name and which assignment and task they are part of for assessment purposes.

Yes, sorry, that was a silly oversight on my part.

I’ve never heard of a bottle jack press and was astonished to see images of your press. It looks fantastic. I expect it has very powerful pressure. You’ll be able to use this for collagraph printmaking if the pressure is not too much. Can you vary the pressure at all? I think you have invented a new type of printmakers press!

The bottle jack press is working well. I can't take credit for the invention though! I found a design for it online after joining various social media groups concerned with relief printmaking. Here's a link to the site I used:
http://www.monoprints.com/techniques/bottlejackpress.pdf
This is where I got the basic design from but my husband modified it by making it out of welded steel. I'm very grateful to him for his expertise in construction.

The next bit is to focus on is your development of imagery. I would use drawing in your sketchbook for this.

You have the approach and potential to be a very good inventive printmaker this is a very good submission of work for assignment 2.

This feedback is much more positive than I had expected. I felt the submission was rather 'thin' especially o sketchbook work so you are absolutely right that I need to spend more time developing imagery in my sketchbook.

I understand you are working towards the Drawing Degree and that you plan to submit your work for assessment at the end of this course. From the work you have shown in this assignment, providing you commit yourself to the course, I believe you have the potential to pass at assessment. In order to meet all the assessment criteria, there are certain areas you will need to focus on, which I will outline in my feedback

Feedback on assignment

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

TASK 5

These experimental mark-making prints demonstrate extremely good technical ability with cutting and printing lino. These are well printed within the paper, square and straight with attention to detail. I like the scale of these prints – it often is easier to print an A3 sized image instead of A5 or A6, this can prove awkward and fiddly. One of the images is under inked but the other perfect. You have excellent registration and clean paper.

It is very easy to underestimate the skill required to make good quality lino prints. Getting evenly inked, accurate, well cut work is not easy – you have produced very good results here.

I couldn’t find any writing in your log or sketchbook about this task or your thoughts about it. Did I miss this accidently? apologies if I have.

Yes - here's the link http://aylishocap1.blogspot.com/2018/06/lino-cut-mark-making-project-5.html
It explains which tools I used and recounts the problems I had with getting a decent print, also why I chose to submit one of the under-inked prints as well as the good one.

Angela Cavalieri’s large scale lino work shows incredible skill at cutting and printing it’s worth watching this video to help with technique.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0oWrgfd9iE&nohtml5=False

Thank you for sharing the link. I had come across Cavalieri's work during my research but hadn't realised quite the scale of it from the pictures I found online. This video makes the whole process real and shows just how much work is involved and also the technical challenges associated with working on such a large scale. It's inspiring as it also shows some of the process she goes through when researching initially before creating her image.

TASK 6

There is something eerie and other worldly about these prints. Despite your misgivings of how strong easy cut lino is your mark making and cutting really is extremely well controlled and quite meticulously cut.

You are displaying great technical control of both your cutting and printing skills.

There is a resonance of landscape within the tree like images that remind me of Peter Doig’s work http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/peter-doig-2361

I enjoy Peter Doig's work. I particularly like the tension between figuration and abstraction and between realism and fantasy. This particular print was not consciously influenced by Peter Doig. I was more concerned with the somewhat architectural feel of the pillars of the papillary muscles - to me they recall a grotto or cave. However, I do find it interesting to observe the fact that microscopic structures in nature often seem to share design features with naturally occurring macroscopic structures such as trees and shells.

It is good to see you rejecting and reworking imagery as you develop a self critical approach and know when something isn’t good enough.

I recommend that you keep developing your ideas through drawing before taking them into print.

You are absolutely right. In the next section it is my intention to spend more time developing my ideas in my sketchbook before deciding which to take forward into print. I am guilty of rushing to print in this section. Part of the problem was that I was acutely conscious of the time pressure and just wanted to produce something to submit which fulfilled the brief. Unfortunately I have learned that rushing ahead before developing a solid idea or plan o action can result in wasting a lot of time carving Lino and not producing a satisfactory image in the end. I have learnt from this.

TASK 7

I was very interested to read the back story to your imagery. It’s good to see that your work has an underpinning message/ theory.

Breeding and selective breeding is an interesting approach to animal imagery.

There is a science and under the microscope theme running through this portfolio.

For development, I would include more research around your theme from academic sources.

Before I became ill I had read several texts around this theme including Art and Animals by Giovanni Aloi and An Introduction to animals and Visual Culture by Randy Malamud . My intention had been to include notes on these books in my learning log. Unfortunately, when I stopped working on the course I hadn't made the notes and I have subsequently forgotten most of what I learnt from these texts. I plan to revisit these texts and use them in the development of my ideas.

Your work is again extremely well cut and well presented. There is something Andy Warhol like about these images. They would look fantastic on a large scale, A2 or bigger!

It’s worth reflecting on could a viewer or audience understand from this image you are making a statement about Dogs and selective breeding? Does the image need to be more brutal or odd to emphasize this point?

Yes, I had already started reflecting on this in my learning log. I don't think my intention was conveyed at all by the image I produced. It looks like a jolly picture of a psychedelic pug but doesn't communicate anything of my negative emotions around this subject. The idea of the fingerprint is also not clearly conveyed and is too subtle in terms of communicating my intentions. What I would like to do is to produce an image which creates a feeling of discomfort in the viewer. Not necessarily by being overtly brutal but by somehow conveying that society's framing of these animals as things of beauty is out of kilter with the reality of their existence. However, I am also acutely aware that there is a strong temptation to become overtly illustrative, preachy or trite. Something which I would like to avoid. This is especially true in terms of my relationship to the treatment of animals. For this reason I would like to continue to develop the two threads of scientific/biological imagery as well as using animals in my work. I'd like to develop work along both routes before deciding which work is the most successful. My ability to do this, however will be constrained by the time limits.

These articles are interesting about animals in contemporary art

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/whats-behind-art-world-obsession-animals-767597

https://www.artspace.com/magazine/art_101/art_market/history-of-animals-in-art-52574

Thank you for the links - I will include these alongside my academic research.

Sketchbooks

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

Your sketchbooks continue to be genuine useful documents for you that inform your printmaking. You have submitted a number of books that are full of ideas, research, and visible thinking. It’s great to see you working out compositions through drawing from original sources rather than secondary imagery from the internet. I recommend you continue to develop your imagery from your source.

Keep asking yourself what is important for you to make work about? Make some notes in your books that suggest ideas for making work and the concepts you are reflecting upon.

Use this book as an experimental document that can then feed into your more formal refection in the log. There is always more than one way to represent an idea and multiple ways to deconstruct a composition. By this I mean you could push a drawing even further by using thumbnail sketches to push a composition as far as you can. Explore layout, shape, scale, line and media. You could use simple tracing paper to reconstruct compositions.

As you are working towards the drawing degree I recommend carrying a tiny pocket lightweight sketchbook with you to make notes and drawing where ever you go [A6 size]

I will try to resist the urge to jump ahead and spend more time on visual thinking in my sketchbook as I move forwards.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context

Your log is developing really well you understand its purpose.

Your log continues to be very well organised extensive and easy for the reader to follow. You remain diligent in all your research tasks and evidencing who is underpinning your process. Your writing is fluent and articulate. I recommend continuing building on this for your next assignment. Keep thinking about the context and intention in your work, making this more explicit in your writing. This should interweave backwards and forwards from your sketchbook. It is great to see an overt reflection to feedback and your personal voice echoing through your work.

I will be adding more detail about context and intention as I mover forwards.

Monday 11 June 2018

Assignment 2 : Reflection

The submission for assignment 2 doesn't contain nearly the volume nor the quality of work which I produced for assignment 1. I have been forced to ask for an extension to my course because of mitigating circumstances and have been out of action for a very long time. I clearly haven't hit my stride yet in terms of engaging with the tasks fully. However, although I am not satisfied with the work I have produced, I have decided to submit it at this point. If I don't send something in now there is the risk that I will never do so and will run out of time even with the extension I have been granted by the OCA.

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills:

I am still a beginner and maybe expect too much of myself at this point in my studies but there are clearly areas which require a great deal of improvement here. In particular, I made a major error in the production of the multi-block lino print. However, having made this error, I have learnt a great deal which will hopefully help me to overcome some of the technical challenges as I move towards assignment 3.

In terms of visual skills, I need to work on planning my compositions more. trying to be organic and spontaneous doesn't seem to lend itself well to working in lino. It takes a long time to carve the Lino and I can't afford the time to carve hundreds of blocks and pick the best (neither in terms of time nor the cost of the materials) - this might work for monotypes because they are quicker to produce, but with Lino I really do need to work out the problems in my sketchbook before I even look at my carving tools. My impatience to get printing has penalised me in this respect.

On the positive side, I have demonstrated an ability to carve a variety of marks in the Lino and also to carve carefully around small details.

Quality of Outcome:

As detailed above, the quality of outcome for these prints has been affected by my impetuousness and lack of planning. I have produced some clean prints using oil based ink and the bottle-jack press. However, the multiple-block print was a technical disaster owing to my failure to properly read and digest the instructions. I want to re-do this but may not realistically have the time to allow this.

The quality in terms of visual interest and composition is also lacking for the same reason of the lack of planning.

Demonstration of Creativity:

I have not demonstrated my creativity to as great an extent here as I did with assignment 1. I need to get back into the habit of using my sketchbook more extensively.

The prompt from my tutor has helped me move forward in terms of considering what I want my work to be about. The problem is I have lots and lots of ideas sloshing around in my head. I need to get them down on paper in order to work out which are good ideas to develop further and which are better discarded.

Research and Reflection:

I have started trying to place my work in context a bit more but this is not yet coming through into my final pieces of work in a helpful or recognisable way.

Before I became ill I had done a lot of research. I read numerous books and looked at numerous sources of information which were inspiring. My intention was to make notes on the best of these in my learning log. Unfortunately, I then stopped work altogether, the notes, summaries and reviews were never made and therefore a lot of the information I had gleaned got forgotten. I would like to remedy this by going over these sources and making notes as I go along. How far I manage to achieve this depends on how much time I can successfully put aside for my studies in the next few months.

The coursework research points are variable in their depth. I have also researched other artists suggested by my tutor and made notes in my sketchbook. I have tried to relate other artists' work to the work which I would like to do.

Unfortunately lacking in this submission are visits to galleries and exhibitions. I still need to write up my visit to the exhibitions at the British Museum and Bankside galleries last year but I haven't visited any other exhibitions since then owing to mitigating circumstances - this must be remedied during the next assignment.

In terms of overall performance against the level 4 HE requirements, this assignment is probably at a level D or E as follows:

Limited development of visual and technical skills, design and composition. E
Adequate realisation of ideas and satisfactory presentation of work D
Reasonable development of analytical and creative thinking, showing some independent judgements. Personal voice not evident. D
Awareness of a satisfactory breadth of contexts and debates supporting your growing personal and/or professional knowledge and understanding D

If my own assessment is accurate, given that demonstration of technical and visual skills is more heavily weighted in the assessment than the other parts, then I am at risk of failing the course. If that is the case, then I really do need to somehow find the time to repeat project 7. I will make a start on assignment 3 while I await my tutor's feedback and see if she agrees that I should re-do project 7.

Assignment 2: Submission

Task 1 (Project 5)

• two printed test cuts (mark making).

Task 2 (Project 6)

three single colour linocut prints

other single colour linocuts

Task 3 (Project 7)

three multi-block linoprints
one impression in a single colour of your individual lino block.

Research Point: Edward and Richard Bawden

Research point

Look at the work of Edward Bawden, and his son, contemporary printmaker Richard Bawden. Take a close look at the way they have worked with multiple blocks. What can you learn from them?

Edward Bawden (1903-1989)

Edward Bawden was a painter and illustrator as well as a printmaker and commercial graphic artist. He trained alongside Paul Nash and Eric Ravilious at the Royal College of Art.(1) (2). He also served as a war artist during WWII. This research point will confine itself to his linocuts the medium with which he is probably the most closely associated. I'll look at a few of his works as follows.

Bawden's large scale print of Brighton Pier is one of his most famous works. Click here to view the print on the V&A Museum website. (1) The composition is framed on either side by graphic representations of local architectural features in starkly contrasting black and white. The pier itself is placed such that we have a foreshortened view and our eyes a drawn along a strong diagonal to the structure at the end (the Palace Theatre).

The print was formed using two main blocks - one for the black and white detail work and one for the main areas of colour such as the sky and the sea. The block was large so was apparently printed by being laid on the studio floor where the artist used his feet to print it. (3)

The thing I find most interesting about this print, is the decorative detail that is included. There is a great deal of difference between the kids of marks the artist has made on the architectural structures and the natural elements like the sea and the beach. The inking appears to be be different in these areas too. Paler with lest stark contrast compared to the decorative details such as the ironwork on the pier. This dramatic difference in treatment of different elements of the composition seems to be quite common in Bawden's work.

Looking at Bawden's linocut of Liverpool Street station Click here ro view it on the Fry Gallery website (2)you can see some variety in the inking techniques he has used. The ironwork is printed in flat graphic black. The sky showing through the ironwork, however, has a different feel. It is pale and possibly translucent. It seems to fade away to nothing almost as though Bawden has only partially inked the roller - but I'm sure this is deliberate. On the right side of the image, he has printed translucent pale grey ink with a swirly pattern over the black iron work. The iron work shows through. This effectively represents the billowing translucency of steam. The use of these effects means that the edition would have been variable - more like a series of monotypes in fact (2).

Edward Bawden employed a wide variety of mark making techniques and his work is very decorative and illustrative with surface patterning being the most outstanding feature. When people appear in his prints, they are flat like cardboard cut outs. He also produced numerous linocuts of animals (especially cats). These are more humorous and cartoonish in nature.

Richard Bawden (Contemporary)

Richard studied painting, printmaking and graphic design at Chelsea, St Martin's and the Royal College of Art.

His work echoes some of his father's techniques. He also works in linocut as well as other printmaking techniques. He too, is concerned with surface decoration to a large extent. In some of his work there is a great proliferation of patterning. For example in 'Fizz' seen here on the Art Angels website, (reproduction) the majority of the surface is taken up with patterning of different types. Checks and lines on he sofa, geometric patterns on the cushions and two different layers, directions and colours of stripe on the cat. In the background there are prints within prints which are also covered in pattern. The background is translucent pink fading tho grey, much like in the Liverpool Street station sky of Edward Bawden's print. They both use the roller in this situation in a painterly way.

Richard Bawden will sometimes overlay one pattern over another. This can be seen in this image of mackerel on the art angels website. Here he has laid dark hatching over the bright geometric patterning of the tablecloth and over the various patterns and colours of the fish in order to create shadow and build three dimensional form to the bodies.

In 'Roses and Freesias' he exploits the translucency of the ink. Laying one colour over another to create a third colour.

The artist describes his approach in the book 'Printmakers' Secrets' by Antony Dyson (5):

"Excited by what I see, I am driven by a compulsion to draw and paint. Sometimes I am inspired by the sheer grandeur of a location and sometimes by its details, by the richness ad depth of colour and texture. I am not ashamed to admit that I love decoration. Yet I am also enraptured by monumental geometric simplicity and the satisfying tension of a straight line. As an artist, my starting points are many: people, places, open landscape, intricate interiors, things which are odd or, at first glance, even completely boring (although inviting transformation). For me, making a print is a way of extending an idea a stage further than drawing or painting. A spontaneous drawing is often the starting point for a considered design, frequently lurking in my mind in several forms'.

He goes on to describe how he works with the Lino, using a Stanley knife to make precise linear cuts and flat shapes.For him Lino is a very controlled medium in comparison with etching which he uses in a very free way using multiple proofs which he works into using watercolour and crayon. with lino, he plans everything meticulously in advance as, "This leaves nothing to chance; everything is carefully considered and thought out." (5)

In his linocut 'Fireside' click here to view the 'green man' version on Gwen Hughes -Fine Art site (6),the artist acknowledges the influence of his father on his work. This is self portrait, the artist is relaxing in an armchair. Above his head there is a picture of his father in an almost identical pose. Above the fireplace hangs one of his fathers linocuts of a cat while Richard's own cats play on the fireside rug. Everywhere there is the surface patterning that is a feature of both artists' work.

The work of both father and son is extremely accomplished and exploits the medium to its full extent. There is certainly a lot that I can learn from their work although personally it doesn't excite me or draw me in. It has certainly been a valuable exercise to look in more detail at how they have achieved their results.

What Can I Learn from These Artists?:

It is possible to combine very different techniques of patterning and mark-making in a single print
Less isn't always more when it comes to surface pattern and decoration - sometimes more can be more!
It is possible to ambitious with scale and subject matter
The block can be inked in different ways to create a variable series of prints.
Translucent ink and lighter ink can be used over dark ink to good effect
Colour mixing of overlaid layers of ink can be exploited to good effect
A Stanley knife is a good tool for cutting straight lines (although being a surgeon I'd prefer a scalpel)
Art and design are two parts of the same thing. Edward Bawden was both a designer and a fine artist
Multiple blocks can be used and they can be pieced together to form a design. (For example when printing wallpaper)

References:
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bawden
(2) https://www.scribd.com/document/35418461/Lecture-Notes-Edward-Bawden-Art-vs-Design-Kristian-Purcell
(3) https://artuk.org/discover/stories/edward-bawdens-tips-for-creating-a-great-linocut
(4) https://www.birchamgallery.co.uk/catalogue/artist/Richard:Bawden/biography/
(5) Printmakers' Secrets by Anthony Dyson. Bloomsbury Visual Arts, London 2009 - reprinted 2016

Image Sources:
(1) http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O123292/brighton-pier-linocut-bawden-edward/
(2)http://fryartgallery.org/the-collection/search-viewer/686/artist/6/Edward-Bawden-CBE-RA/241
(3) http://www.art-angels.co.uk/prod/fizz-593
(4) http://www.art-angels.co.uk/prod/2-mackerel-588
(5) http://www.art-angels.co.uk/prod/roses-freesia-583
(6) http://gwenhughesart.co.uk/artworks/richard-bawden-fireside-ii-the-green-man/

Sunday 10 June 2018

Project 7: Multi - block Lino print

For this print I decided to develop one of the ideas in my sketchbook. It is the image of a pug constructed using fingerprints to reflect the fact that humans have interfered with the conformation of these dogs by selective breeding. Stamping our human (cultural) identity on them by producing what our consumerist society wants without consideration of the welfare of the resulting animal. Our fingerprints are all over these animals:

Pen drawing from A5 sketchbook

I'm running low on Lino so I chose three approximately A5 blocks that I had. They weren't exactly the same size which meant I had to try to cut them to the same size using the guillotine (my first mistake - I didn't realise I hadn't successfully achieved this until the end of the project).

I decided to make one block for the detail and print this in the darkest colour (black). One block for the general colour of the face and body, and another for the tongue and some details around the eyes and nose.

I transferred the shapes I wanted to use onto each block by tracing from the sketchbook onto each separate block. (my second mistake: - I hadn't read the instructions in the course book properly. It was impossible to ensure that my blocks matched up correctly in this way.)

The carving process took some time because in the key block I had to carve away a lot of the line leaving very thin lines of black so it was necessary to be very careful with the carving. When carving away the lino, I was careful with the direction of the marks because I was aware that marks would show. I made directional marks extending outwards from the head in a kind of 'sunburst' effect on all three blocks. I did encounter a slight problem during the carving process: as I carved more of the blocks away the tendency for them to curve/curl up seemed to increase. I put some heavy textbooks on top of them between my working sessions to try to flatten them but it didn't really work.

Single colour print of the detail or 'key block'

In order to align the plates and paper when printing I used a combination of a jig made from cut up mount board and Ternes Burton (click here to see these on the handprinted website) registration pins. On previous lino courses I've tried just using a registration sheet prepared by drawing round the paper and the plate. However, I haven't found this particularly successful. I seem to be particularly bad at placing the paper - even if I align consistently to one corner - something always seems to shift at the last minute. The Ternes Burton system makes life so much easier. However, I did still have one problem with the registration system. Because the plates kept curving, I struggled to place them accurately within the jig. They tended to spring up which meant I was relying on the press to flatten them down and couldn't be completely sure that the registration would be spot on.

Registration system: The blocks are aligned to the
mount-board jig. Tabs are attached to the paper which
click onto the registration pins to allow the paper to be
repositioned accurately for each layer.

Combination of the two colour blocks

So far, it seemed to be going OK. It was only when I combined the colour blocks with the key block that I realised the errors I'd made:

The block for the tongue and nose (pink) was obviously smaller than the key block despite my efforts to cut the blocks to the same size.
There was quite a large discrepancy between the outlines of the head and body on the key block and those on the coloured (yellow) block.

The pink block is smaller than the black block - this is especially visible on the left side of the print

The carving on the yellow plate doesn't match the carving on the black block

Three block print

I was disappointed with the result so I reviewed the technique to see how to accurately align the images on three blocks. Obviously the problem of the different sized blocks was a separate issue. But my main question was how to transfer the image from one block to the others. I thought I'd been pretty accurate in tracing mu images in multiple layers but this was not the case. There must be a better way.

I found a You tube video which suggested carving the key block first and then transferring this to the other plates by printing onto non absorbent paper (tracing paper) and then placing this paper over the next block and transferring the ink from the paper to the second and subsequent block. When I re-read the course book I realised that this step was included in the instructions for this project but for some reason I had overlooked it.

I decided to do this retrospectively in order to try to improve the print:

Image transferred from the key block to the
next (yellow) block

I carved away areas that didn't match up but I decided against trying to cut the blocks to exactly the same size because I wasn't confident that I cut trim the two larger blocks while maintaining the alignment between the three block. To get around the problem of the smaller block, I carved away more lino from the 'white' areas so that hopefully the discrepancy in the edge of the plate wouldn't be so obvious. I also printed this plate I a paler colour so that the edge of the plate wouldn't be so obvious against the white. I also removed some of the details around the eyes which didn't seem to be working and were not well aligned.

The plates ended up line this:

Key block

Yellow block

Pink block

I re-printed the three blocks together using a pale pink and a tan colour:

Re-print after re-carving

The discrepancy in the carving has been resolved here, and the discrepancy in the plates is somewhat less obvious. However, the colour combination is not interesting. A more serious problem, is that, having carved away the coloured part of the body, it just looks like a head floating in space. It would have been a better approach to carve away the black outline of the body on the left side of the key block and leave the coloured part. I'd got tunnel vision about matching the other plates to the key block and hadn't considered that the reverse could have worked too. I could have carved a further block to print just the body but I wasn't generally happy with the image so I decided to move on instead.

So far I had printed with water-based ink on cartridge paper. My plan had been to eventually print with quality oil-based inks and to try a variety of papers. However, I was unhappy with the image I'd made and felt that this attempt didn't warrant going any further with. The image itself doesn't really communicate what I wanted it to anyway. It just looks like a stylised pug on drugs. The only thing I like is the texture on his nose.

This has been a very useful exercise, because the errors I made really helped me learn a great deal about creating multi-block prints. I would like to repeat this exercise from the beginning, but I have run out of time and must submit what I've done so far. I will have a second attempt if I am able to find an opportunity.

What I learnt:

ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU START !!!!!
It is of paramount importance that your blocks are of exactly the same size.
I learnt how to use a combination of a jig and the Ternes Burton registration system to align plates and paper.
Carve the most detailed block first and transfer this image to your subsequent blocks to ensure that the images coincide.

Aylish's OCA Printmaking 1 Learning Log

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