Author: DemelzaB

Sketchbook update 14/06/22

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Most days I will do something in my sketchbook. I’m using an A4 ring-bound book from Amazon and I would rate it average-good. It isn’t the best for wet/heavier work, but felt-tips won’t bleed through which is a plus. It meets my current needs but I wouldn’t stick with it forever. I used to draw solely from life, a habit I was taught at college. While I see the benefits of this, it isn’t always practical. Therefore, I’ve been trying new ways.

First of all, I will show you some sketching I did do from life. A still-life to be specific.

A broccoli.

One I had already cut-up for lunch and had parts left-over.

(An incomplete broccoli.)

Ink & drawing

(top, blue fineliner, continuous line drawing) (bottom- right, biro drawing, ink applied afterwards)
fine liner pen on green card
Layer 1:
diluted India inks (Emerald and sunshine yellow)

Using the wet-on-wet technique to achieve the splotchy effect. Being in-experienced with inks, I went in boldly!

Layer 2:

It is possible to see the separate colours I used, as I didn’t blend everywhere. This makes the painting punchy and bright, but is not how I would have approached the study, had I been using watercolours. I began to pre-mix colours in the palette wells half way through the painting.

I like the mixture of opacity throughout the layers.

Acrylic painting

Painting from photographs 1

I took this photo on my phone, while walking through South Park. On my way to yoga class, for some reason I had decided to walk instead of taking the bus. I had just walked up the hill and enjoying my favourite view in Oxford. It was the start of a warm day and the start of June. This was at about 10am, before the clouds lifted. It looks moody but didn’t feel moody to me. Of course I wanted to paint it!

I don’t remember the last time I painted with acrylics, so I wanted to get back into it. I wanted to capture the mood rather than details. I began with this purple layer to establish the tones. (deep red and ultramarine from the cheap acrylic set I found under my bed).

I honestly felt like I didn’t know what I was doing. Just making it up as I go along, I added the shady areas.

As much as I love the view of the spires in the distance, I didn’t add them to this painting. The painting became a thing of its own and not very Oxford at all! The hills became mountains instead. I dotted some flowers in the grass using the end of the paintbrush.

Painting from photographs 2

Again, I wanted to do things my way. I wouldn’t be representing the street perfectly, but I don’t feel the need to.

This time, the reference photo was one I had taken last month in Portsmouth. I again chose purple for the first layer because this colour suits the overall theme I was going for. I wouldn’t always choose purple, if I felt a different colour was more appropriate for the mood.

(check out the purple nails and bed sheet, I couldn’t help including here and no it’s not my favourite colour actually!)

A bit more progress…

The painting without any outlines.
The finished painting with the addition of fineliner pen drawing over the dried paint.

Painting from photographs 3

This time, I needed to paint my sliders. A recent purchase I don’t regret!

I worked from a reference photo of me wearing the shoes, purely because I wanted this angle.

I began by drawing them with a felt-pen and using the continuous, blind line drawing technique. If you don’t know what that is, it’s where I avoid lifting the pen off the paper and don’t look at the paper in the process of drawing. It gives the work a fun style and helps my hand/ eye to loosen up:

I used washi tape for this painting. I have never used washi tape and wanted to try it out after watching a video by Minnie Small, who swears by it. (Minnie Small is an amazing illustrator who I’ve followed on social media for years, check out her work if you’re curious)

I mainly wanted to play with colour for this study. I therefore taped off 2 small areas of my sketchbook page, so I could try 2 different ‘themes’.

cold and hot?

I used a square brush (is there a proper name for these square ended brushes?)

I worked loosely and had fun with it instead of being precise/neat.

Of course, the best bit is removing the tape, which only tore the paper a bit. (There’s a few reasons why this could be: good standard washi tape, weak paper, not sticking it to a surface before applying it to the paper, maybe I pulled it off to fast, maybe it was the weather?)

Reduction lino: attempt II

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Oxford’s Bridge of Sighs

Mastering the art of printmaking means being able to produce several perfect prints in a row. (Perfect meaning identical and neat.) I think the reduction technique was a bit too challenging for a starting point, but here I am.

I am happy to share my mistakes in this blog, along with any successes. I want to learn from these mistakes and do something different next time. This is why I am including videos as well as photos of my process/progress. I will be uploading these videos onto my YouTube page.

For my second lino experiment, keeping with the Oxford theme, I chose to work with this image of the Bridge of Sighs, from Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cco-4ChIbKi/

In order to work with this photo, I flipped the image and posterised it using photoshop.

The Process

Tracing onto the lino, then cutting the design into the lino.

The first areas I removed would appear as the white of the paper:

First layer.

Second layer

For the second layer, I removed the areas of the image where I wanted the first layer to show through.

Using a cloth, I removed ink from the bridge area. This meant I could add red ink to print in a third layer later, (once the first 2 layers were dry). This left a blank area where the underside of the bridge is:

Third layer

I wanted to feature the red-orange of the underside of the bridge, as the colour looks striking in the photograph. I mixed yellow and red ink to achieve the bright colour:

Printing second layer with the orange ink as a test
I knew I wanted the bridge to be bright, so I masked the bride area of the print
After removing the tape, I had a neat area of red ink
I practiced on an imperfect print. The red bridge stands out but almost weakens the rest of the image.

WATCH Bridge of Sighs – applying ink

I then changed tactics. By applying ink to the bottom half of the lino plate, I was able to spread the bright colour across the print and therefore gives it more overall harmony.

These were the results:

As you see, there were:

  • some slight misalignments
  • inky fingerprints at the edge of the paper
  • ink not sticking to the flat area of the bridge
  • uneven prints
I like the gradient effect from warm to cool
Same print as (left), but with a pink 1st layer
misalignment, making the image disorientating
correct alignment, 1 layer black, 1 layer orange
Printing onto brown sugar-paper

I wouldn’t call any of the prints successful. I liked some more than others, but it was frustrating to end up with messy results and to have made some silly mistakes that could have been avoided. I know this is part of learning.

Is it OK to say I like imperfection?

Learning Linocut

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The last time I tried my hand at lino-printing, I was working on the FMP (final major project) of my Art & Design diploma. That was in summer 2021. One year later, I’m returning to lino. I missed the carving sensation and the satisfaction of building a work methodically- Something I only learnt to appreciate after working on screen-printing at Oxford Brookes.

My final piece for the exhibition ‘Metamorphosis’ at City of Oxford College, June 2021. I used lino-printing for the image of the fish. This method allowed me to reproduce many copies of the image.

First I needed a subject. This wasn’t hard, I’ve had my mind on buildings recently. I found this photo I took of Oxford castle (below). I Like the variety of elements: soft sky, crumbling brick castle, rushing river.

I reversed the image and posterised it using photoshop. Posterising the photo allowed me to view separate layers. Reversing it meant the print would end up the correct way around:

Then I got to work:

I printed the edited photo and used a biro pen to transfer the image onto the lino.

I chose the reduction technique to allow me to print more than one colour. I first carved the areas I wanted to stay white.

I then remembered to wash the lino with washing up liquid before printing with it.

I mixed a cold-toned green for the castle and river. I kept the colour paler at this stage. I am using water-based block printing inks.

My first print. I can see I did not apply enough ink to the printing plate.

I made up a few different backgrounds with watercolour paint. I wanted to see how the colour/texture would come through.

I left the first layers to dry for about 12 hours before printing the second layer.

(below) I did not align the 2 layers accurately.

I made a collaged background for this print, using pages from a novel.
After printing the first layer, I glued a scrap of yellow card onto the print.

I mixed green into the ink for the darker layer, instead of the plain black used in other prints. I still wasn’t getting the alignment spot-on, and I could see the paper was shifting as I laid it down.

Applying less pressure onto the roller helped when transferring the ink from the plate to the lino.

What worked and what didn’t?

  • I need more practice/ a different method for aligning the paper.
  • The colours expressed something earthly which I liked.
  • The cartridge paper worked well.
  • I don’t like the brick texture on the tower, I wasn’t careful enough with my mark-making.
  • The watercolour background worked well.
  • I could have glued the collage background a bit more carefully.
  • I could work on simplifying/ improvising the design instead of including every detail from the photo.

Some details from the novel-background print:

Printing onto brown sugar-paper.