Aylish's OCA Printmaking 1 Learning Log: Assignment 2

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.

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.