Printmaking Activities first quarter of 2016

Printmaking Activities first quarter of 2016


Leicester Print Competition March 2016

Started the year off working on some mini prints for Big Print Small Impression which Leicester Print workshop host every few years.  I was in their last one so thought I would have another shot at it.

They also tour the exhibition around the UK a fair bit which is also good.  Last time I think I sold six prints - which is always welcome news.

Co incidentally they used the one I sold 6 of (image above) , in their "Call to Artists" - of course they should really have asked me if that was OK with me............. but I didn’t mind.
It was quite a small size - trying to remember now - it was 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches)







One of the images I was working on was about refugees............ Gawd I got so into it trying out various possibilities - like using carborundum ( no actually it was pastel ground)  on cut out figurative shapes to print on top of the three female figures apart from their faces and another possibility  I was considering was to try out having these Greek 'shrine-like'  artifacts to go above the children's heads (to give the sense of them thinking they were going to some kind of "promised land".

Of course there wasn't going to be one of these 'artifacts' on the mothers head because of course she was the person who was having to 'carry' them all to where ever they might find refuge........the horror and pain of it all ......

Here are 2 images from the countless possibilities involved in the creation process.

These were probably the best two and I will at some stage make these.  I have physically made the little plates for the 'shrine like hats'.    I have also made the little plates for the shroud like coverings (except the faces) for the 3 main figures.  By the way the newspaper text that can be seen in the image (above) refers to Bashar Al Asaads deeds to his own people.  


Here are some 'notes to self'............... regarding technical stuff and signification etc:

NOTES re Refugees and overhead Devices etc

Refugees Image..............desire for home.................different  for child than it is for adult.....................
.................dream of a new life, somewhere safe.....................idea of a shrine.........................................
 

TRY
A cut out polypropylene)  of the house overhead form shape.  The prep with gum Arabic and paint on a layer of see-through (transparent/translucent) white - ish blue watercolour.

OUTLINE the three female figures and cut these shapes  from sandpaper, then glue onto mount board. OMIT THE FACE SHAPES in these ...............................




Depending on how that turns out another possibility is to make the 

figure outlines onto polypropylene that has been scratched/sanded.  

Then fill in the black figure areas with carborundum.  I like the 

affiliation these forms  have of "shrouds" in relation to the plight of the refugees. (Similar to the effect I got when I did the BED PRINTS)


 

REGARDING RED STITCHES _ HORIZONTAL LINE etc

Could use  wool or thread sewn onto some paper  of the same size................ and then scan in to PS
 - I may need  print out a copy of the image to put stitching on before scanning it into layering process.
Having said that I do like the idea of having the stitching physically present in the finished art work.
it appeals to me aesthetically and metaphorically
another possibility:












 


Draw the house form in white/ pale blue chalk pastel onto black Somerset printmaking paper and scan in to Photoshop and then overlay it onto refugees.