MA Week 33 - after the show, printing and planning

 

Reflection on the past two weeks – 27^th June 2016:

the show, printing and planning

 

I visited the end of year show a further three times with different people. I had quite a good look at a lot of the other pieces as well as the ones in the MA room. On reflection, our works are definitely works in progress. Mine didn’t have the finished quality or size you would expect from a final piece. I did feel that I definitely need to do some work on the quality. But that’s fine, it’s acknowledged that there’s still a long way to go.

I was sad to take the pieces off the wall, but then I needed a break, having been in college so much. I also felt like I needed to take things in a different direction. I wanted to get back to printing so I decided to spend the morning of Friday 17^th June doing some monoprinting using colours and stencils. I envisaged a very loose type of outcome but the first thing I did was cut some pylon-based geometric shapes from card. It made me laugh that even my free, “unplanned” work had to be controlled.

I inked an A4 etching plate in the blue and yellow colours of one of the pairs of boards from the show and I did let the work direct itself. Using and re-using the plate and the card shapes gave some almost ghostly images. I experimented a little bit with partial inking of the plate and felt that could give some interesting results but would need further work. I worked on bulky newsprint as one of my classmates had mentioned that this was a good paper for monoprinting. Wendy, the print room supervisor, also gave me some sheets of a Fabriano paper that is quite glossy. Evidently the first print is not so good but the second one is better. I wasn’t too sure, but I think I might have over-inked the plate. As I was just experimenting, I didn’t bother about this too much, but I need to take some notes about my processes and to vary the amount of ink I use. The turquoise blue I used was a bit too dark and it gave a dark green over the yellow, so the colour mixing on the paper also needs more thoughts.

 

Multiple monoprints

I ran out of time at two colours although I may go back and apply a third colour. There is also scope for working into the prints with acrylic or perhaps charcoal. As college was closed last week I haven’t worked on them further and really I need to have a look at them to see where next, either with them or with a new set.

 

The best-laid plans...

With college being closed it was time to take stock. The show represented the half-way point of the module so what now? Really there is such a lot I’d like to do; more mark-making with acrylics, explore the use of modelling paste and textures in the acrylics, think about building the paint off the board… monoprinting, both drawn and printed styles, lino cuts, more drypoints, try “proper” etching… I spent a couple of evenings planning and have decided that I need to prioritise one thing, so that will be printing. I can paint and draw outside of the MA but I need to make the most of being able to print whilst I’ve got access to the college facilities. I won’t pre-judge the outcome but it would be good to do a print that feels a little more finished.