MA Week 23 - re-starting

Term 3 – where now?

I can’t believe it is already term 3. I’d intended to do lots of reading over Easter, but of course I didn’t. I needed a break from it as the build-up to the hand-in of the last module had got quite intense. So, back to it, with a new module to think about. 

This is a long module, with the deadline in August, so there is plenty of time to do lots of things. That obviously includes doing nothing, so I need to keep myself up to my work.  The intention is to take the experimentation done last term, and to push forward some of the ideas, giving rise to a very practical module. So I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to do: 

• Prioritise the visual. Give myself permission to write less.
• Further printmaking research. Continue with drypoint. Monoprints? Etching?
• Experiment with ink/acrylic and smudgy materials e.g. charcoal.
• How do the drawn/painted/printed marks relate to each other and to what I am expressing?

I’ve already done a little bit of experimentation. The results are not earth shattering but they provide a potential basis for development. I drew the same view (from the famous Armley generative wandering) three times in different materials. Obviously it got easier to draw each time I did it. I liked the last one best, in ink and ink wash, as some of the marks were close to etched marks, and they were really nice and definite and black.

Armley in ink wash

I have also now taken some photos of cranes (latest obsession, replacing gasometers) and used the colours in the photos as a background, working them up in acrylic wash, then drawing the cranes (using variously graphite crayon/pencil, charcoal, and ink) and overpainting them with the wash. I thought this would give a more layered look than it did, but I think the wash was too thin. I usually use acrylic at tube consistency so this was a bit of a departure for me. Not too sure about the results, but still like the blackness of the ink.

Crazy colour cranes

I want to pull some of these ideas into printing now, so the next thing will probably be to sketch something to do in drypoint in the next week or so.