print making

printmaking

for printmaking the theme is about accumulation and dispersion. I have tied this into my painting theme which is death, body and form. I have done a lot of prints to try to get the effect I want which is building layers on top of layers but still revealing layers beneath. its more of a personal response to the accumulation and dispersion theme. I have made loads of prints based on my feelings towards death its self.

I am using my theme of death in my lino prints. I have used a skull as the centre of the prints and built up only a few simple layers as an experiment into the technique. I liked how my prints have come out and the colours I used which were yellow, red and black. they never turned out perfect as I don't think I sanded down the tile well enough as there we gaps that wouldn't print properly. my 3rd layer smudged in to my 2nd layer as I don't think it was dried properly and I also didn't wipe the carved areas clean very well and left lines on my last layer. even tho I made these mistakes I actually think it turned out good with the white and black lines fading in around the skull area.

From the group crit I learn't that I needed to loose the skull as it was to symbolic and to explore how I can represent the theme death without actually making it obvious. I made some mono prints by using left over ink and sprinkling the orange zest stuff onto it then rolling strait over the patterns that the zest made and rolling it straight on to the page. It gave a very cloudy feel to it with different tones and black blending in with the zest. from the experiment with the left over zest I have produced a lot more prints from this idea but adding some earthy colours to the prints to give an earthy feel to it. these prints that you can see on the left are some of my most successful zest prints. I noticed they have an xray look to them which relate to my theme of death and anatomy. I used darker areas to shroud out the whiter areas to express the mystery that surrounds what we think of death. the one beneath this top left picture i layered up a monochrome theme of black, white and blue. the white area is representing what we think we know about death. Some believe we are born again and others believe we go to places where we meet every one we cared about in our present lives.

 this print I experimented with colours and used brighter colours and exploring different celebrations and occasions that celebrate death with in different cultures. the hand relates to identity and how we all have our own personal identity that not one other person on this earth has the same as. I looked into Mexico's big celebration called 'day of the dead' where they see death as a celebration of life. Each person celebrates it in their own way, celebrating the person who made and impact on their life. their symbol for this is the candy skull which they decorate with loads of different colours in different ways that related to the person who had died. I chose to use a skull symbol at first, but after the group crit and reviewing what people said it was best to get rid of the skull symbol as its too symbolic with the theme of death and is done by many other artists. So I explored theme of death through identity by using my hands as it is personal to me and no one has the same print and using colours that represent death like dark tones.






this image is a wood cutting by Holbien which is how he has portrayed  death using printmaking. these particular piece is one of a series of pieces called 'The dance of death'. these were based around the time of the black plague. it appears quite Gothic which was how they viewed death over 100 years ago it was something to be feared of as they didn't have very long life spans back then due to widespread illnesses.
I like the composition of these pieces of work. the areas of dark contrasting with the lighter areas work well as well. I like how the artists has used fine lines to draw out the image as well. http://www.mifami.org/EuroHist/Ass12.htm this is the link to where I got these images from.

This printmaking piece is from an artist called Alan Campbell. Its called 'Cosmic Death own' this seems to be the artists interpretation of how he views death. and his experiences through life. The skull symbol looks similar to Mexico's candy skulls with its simplicity. The moon that appears in the bottom of the work shows how he relates death to darkness The compass symbols might represent mystery as when we die there is no map telling us where to go or no directions as its a complete mystery as soon as we leave our body.

This is where i got my image from for this artist http://insidetherockposterframe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/alan-campbell-cosmic-death-owl-print-on.html


The printmaking on the Left <- is by Joshua Andrew Belanger it portraits death in a very dark was with the high contrasting in black and white tones which make it very bold. the image on the right -> is my way of exploring death in a similar way Joshua Belanger has with black and white contrasting areas. I kept my work non-symbolic and just experiment with layers and the zest to make the negative areas contrasting with the more positive areas. I got the image of the artists work from this site http://insidetherockposterframe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/alan-campbell-cosmic-death-owl-print-on.html

this printmaking by  Jessica Helfand on the left <-- looks similar to the zest prints that I have done. although her theme isn't to do with death I looked at her work to see techniques she used as they were similar to mine as u can see. my image of my work is on the right --> I got the artists work from this site http://www.mohawkconnects.com/feltandwire/2010/08/23/jessica-helfand-reflections-on-printmaking/

A quick list of images of artists work that have inspired my own work;

by Holbien

by Whoo Eezeet

by Jessica Helfand

by IVƎEVIL

David Hockney

Robert Rauschenberg

Stanley William Hayter

Norman Ackroyd

I found these artists interesting because of the techniques and (or) the way they portray death in different ways. most of the artist have all used symbolic items in there prints like skeletons which show a clear link to the death theme. 

to conclude this terms work is my assessment sheet 

formative Assessment 

Printmaking 

I chose to explore the theme of personal and anatomy before branching of into the theme of death and how it is portrayed in different cultures and which I see it as. I have created some rather dark images contrasting with lighter areas to show a sense of mystery which is how I view death, as a mystery. The prints I have created I used the mono-print technique but with out putting it through the print press. Portraying the theme of death and keeping it non-symbolic was tricky. I also introduced colours into my prints to show influences of how different cultures celebrate death.Artists that influenced my work are; Norman ackroyd, andrew mackenzie, robert Reichenberg, stanley williams hayter, david hockney, Holbien, Alan Campbell,  Joshua Andrew Belanger,  Jessica Helfand, Whoo Eezeet and‘IVEEVIL’.