Pages

Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Block printing on the Block

I have already said 'block' too many times and it sounds extremely odd as the letters roll around my head! I use the word block a fair amount in printmaking but it also reminds me of friends who call their patch of land in Australia 'the block', so this one is for Betty and Co!


Vegetables are good for printing with as they have a certain amount of 'give' but do retain their shape. Carrots, potatoes and onions here, but experiment away!



I forgot to take a regular veg cutting knife along so I have a stanly knife and a scalpel style craft knife. You may have done similar techniques in school but all techniques are worth revisiting, some of the 'point' of activity is to prompt your brain to engage in making ideas from actions. So you can of course cut star shapes, diamonds etc from the face of the vegetable, I have done this in the example but I prefer the shapes and textures you get from the carrot or potato surface. Straight edge shapes will be easier to cut than curves...be careful with the knives!

One idea I did have was to insert a dandelion and leaf into the potato, and print from those.








I tried both an ink pad (available from stationary shops) and some block printing ink, rolled out with a wine cork, you could use acrylic paint but it will dry fairly fast. I'm using water based mediums so they are easy to clean up. I preferred the ink pad to my surprise!





Another delve into the artists that I like, the shapes and textures reminded me of Victor Pasmore, who's work I came across in Tate Britain in London. (A great alternative to Tate Modern in my opinion)

Victor Pasmore1908–1998


The sun is sinking for today.





Wednesday, 1 April 2020

Wednesday Grey Skys and Graphite


Last weeks exceptional blue skies seem long gone, but its still great to get outside... when it feels like access to the sky is rationed.



Today is an exploration of mono printing using some basic equipment, graphite and wax pastel, first though an article on some basic drawing materials with a great illustration at the top...

The Pencils, Papers, and Erasers You Need to Start Drawing

The rosemary and radish strands, along with some forsythia (yellow flowers in the pictures) make a good mix of shapes to draw.

My idea today came out of scribbling some different drawing materials and trying to distress them with sellotape!





Sometimes you don't know where a drawing will go... The following pictures show building up some layers, a mono print from graphite to give some faint outlines, a wash of colour and then outlines using wax type crayon over the graphite for more defined lines.



6B Graphite stick or soft (4-6B) pencil


Drawing in pencil & biro
faint mono print


use scrap paper to rest your hand if you are working with something that will smudge

wax type pastel over graphite

second mono print over the top of the colour wash

Keep printing!

Tuesday, 31 March 2020

Tuesday Radish, Rosemary and Collections

When you grow stuff you get to harvest it from time to time, Tuesday was a harvest day, collecting some rosemary, and next to that in my flower bed is the remnants of last year radish crop. The seed heads are quite sculptural and they give me a few ideas.



I'll take my crop home to inspire the next instalment, just to add a link to some lovely ceramic work I saw a few years ago at Ruthin Craft Centre which is a great Gallery if you have never been!

http://ruthincraftcentre.org.uk/exhibitions/jane-perryman/

If you don't have time to draw you can always take a photograph to capture the idea!

...store them up, collect!


https://www.janeperryman.co.uk/containing-time-exhibition/


Monday is a Mint day

Haha!
I feel so funny to post stuff like this here but, got to start somewhere, lots of the creatives I follow online post video content so this is just me trying the idea out!

So my allotment...

This top bed is going to be flowers and herbs, I hope to start some herb cuttings to transport over to college when we all start back to start a college herb garden. A recent college trip to Barcelona included a visit to independent art school Metafora...
https://metafora-studio-arts.org/

Most of us were struck by the use of outdoor spaces and the communal feel of the studios...it would be nice to try and capture a small essence of this back at our college campus...lets see!

So... mint... gardening is supposed to be good to give you a sense of perspective - some things work out some don't, there are so many variables such as weather, pests and bugs etc. Last year one mint plant got infected with rust mould, but my pepper mint plant was great...will try and get cuttings of both started.

My other favourite herb at the moment is lemon balm, its great as a kind of tea substitute (- a tisane apparently!)
https://www.food.com/recipe/fresh-mint-and-melissa-lemon-balm-tea-tisane-infusion-479926

...onto activity of the day, I have a thing for circles at the moment so sat in the sun and made a variation on a daisy chain...I did some drawing from this and took some photographs.




Drawing inspired by Graham Southerland, an artist working around 1940's - 1960s (who's career was much longer but that is when my examples are from)...more on him later.

So this drawing is on some newspaper I brought back from Barcelona, the text broken up with some masking tape. It can be interesting working with found materials and making do with what you have, it can make you be inventive.






Keep making!
Mint!

Print Room Take over of Blog... PLOT 4 PRINT

Swapping this...



For this (and a blog)


So the college I work in is closed due to the corona virus.
Everyone is working at home.
I don't really know what that looks like for an Art technician...so this is my contribution, a thought for the day, somewhere to put ideas, work in progress and links to great stuff I find online.

This online space will now be substituted for the print room resource at college.

Much of the content will be inspired by my allotment as I resort to making use of the resources at my disposal and I am a great believer in stepping away form the computer.

Here goes Plot 4 Print!

Welcome!

Friday, 17 November 2017


Very satisfying to make a screen print in a day!

This is my next course at Hot Bed Press with the fabulous Mandy Tolley...
... a perfectly seasonal introduction to textile screen printing!

https://www.hotbedpress.org/courses/the-christmas-tea-towel/

Saturday, 23 July 2016

Day of Devore at Hot Bed Press Sunday 31st July

http://www.hotbedpress.org/courses/day-of-devore/