Jakk the Clown

Here is a painting of a porcelain clown which I own called Jakk, even though everyone finds him creepy, he still is my favourite, he can even dance. 

Lino Printing

Lino Plate

Final Print One

Above: Final Coloured Paper Prints

The final printing process which I decided to produce illustrations in was Lino Printing, this again is a similar technique to Drypoint and Collagraph printing. However instead of using mount board or metal as a base plate you use lino sheets, to create the image in the lino, specialised lino cutting tools are used to cut out the material and removing it. The areas which you remove will not catch the ink meaning, that these will be unprinted areas. (See photograph of plate above). Once the imagery is cut into the plate, ink is rolled over the plate until it is covered evenly, paper is then placed on top and the whole thing is put into a press to provide even pressure. Once pressure has been applied the paper can be pealed off the plate leaving the final print.

I started by printing black ink directly onto white paper, this created a mono-colour copy of the image, however instead of changing the colour of the ink, I decided to change the colour of the paper. This is an easy way to see if different type of colours and papers work well with the print that you are producing.

Screen Printing

 

The next printing process, which I have produced work in is Screen printing, this is a widely used printing process. To create a Screen printed image, you firstly has to cover a screen mesh in a light sensitive chemical, once on it is left to dry. Once the screen is completely dry, a dark heavy lined drawing or photograph is then exposed onto the screen. After the image is exposed the screen is then washed to remove the rest of the chemical and to show the image on the screen; this is again left to dry. Once the screen is dry it is now ready to print, ink is pulled through the screen mesh and the image is then transferred onto paper. 

When I was printing the image i used a large range of different colours to see that if by changing the colour, it would change the look of the image, however all of the colours created a bold style to the work.

Drypoint Printing

Drypoint Plate

Final Print One 

Final Print Two

The process of Drypoint printing is exactly the same as Collagraph printing, with only one difference being that the image which you wish to print is scratched into a aluminium metal plate. It is important when creating a plate in this way, that the scratches go deep into the metal, to allow the area to print clearly. Once the image is scratched in as you would like the plate is then ready to print, this is the same process as Collagraph (see previous posts). When choosing the colours for the final prints, I decided that stronger colours would contrast better with the imagery and make the prints stand out more. 

Collagraph Printing

Collagraph Plate

Final Print One

Final Print Two

Above are example of Collagraph printing, firstly you must create a plate, to do this I cut my portrait into a piece of mount board pealing back and removing the sections where detail or lines fall on the image. Any lines cut into the plate, will show when producing the final prints so this had to be done as carefully are possible to ensure the image would not be damaged or changed. Once the plate was cut, it was then sealed two coats of button polish and left to dry. Once dry I began by selecting the colour ink for the final print, this was layered onto the plate and then the excess was removed, next I used a scrim to take off any ink that was lying on the top of the plate. The plate was then laid flat on the press bed and paper was positioned over the top, the whole thing was then rolled through a printing press; this transferred the ink to the paper. 

Throughout all the printing process's that I'm going to explore, I have decided to keep all of the final prints cohesive by using one style of work, these are pet portraits. 

Alter Ego

This is a random doodle, created with indian ink, monotone with red colour accents. 

The Rorschach Theory

 

These images were created to resemble the Rorschach Test, commonly known as the ink-blot test, the concept behind this series of work is human psychopathy and if criminal behaviour is present in our genetics before we are even born. This begins to look at the theories between nature vs nurture, asking the question is anyone born evil or is evil created. The images all resemble scans of the human body and allow the audience to see different imagery in the work, depending on their own experiences and personality, the bright colours have been used to link the pieces together but also to add a stronger visual impact to the work. 

Out of harm's way

The loss of childhood innocents is evident in modern society, due to the large pressure on children to grow up before their time. This series of creatures, work to protect the innocents of children, by taking their imaginations to a place of safety, where it can not be corrupted by outer influences. However the taxidermy style to the work represents how the adults whose job it is to protect the children, are destroying childhoods and mounting their innocents like trophies from a hunt. 

Mixed media sculptures