Printing Tuesday!

Yesterday I was doing prints based on a photo I took (see it here). The route I've decided to go down is to explore the themes of suburbia and dullness - those boring houses and having nothing to do. After doing several thumbnails this was the image I decided to focus on. I was doing mono-prints again because this has been really working for me and I'm trying to refine my use of it further. I'm getting more complicated every time I try it, until I get really good at it. It's also because I've been looking at the work of print artist John Hinchcliffe, who uses one colour mono-printing to great effect (see below). I want to emulate his bold but detailed style using the same method, although I'll be trying out with both one and two colour prints.

Months of the Year, John Hinchcliffe.

Mono-printing also suits the bold, graphic, flat style I'm trying to achieve, inspired by the work of Sheffield printmakers Jonathan Wilkinson and James Green. 

Doing the stencil was super fiddly! Here's the stencil I made. I think it looks really good in itself. I like the mix of block colour and line. I'm definitely going to do some proper work with this in mind, using collage and pencil or fineliner.

Here's the first one-colour print. I think it looks good as it is as a really simple striking design.

I added an extra dimension to it by collaging with brown paper. The original plan was going to be to just print this on but I decided to try this out as well. It gives a nice muted effect. I'm now going to experiment with adding more colour to it, probably with the oil painting method.

Here's the printed version. I think it works really well because it's very bold and the limited colours contrast with each other well. However I decided to try it with a different colour palette to see how it turned out. 

So I did a different version of the original stencil in orange. Because the stencil already had black ink on it this made an interesting effect. It's good how it adds texture and depth to the image in a subtle way.

I then added pink to the orange base. I think this colour scheme also works really nicely. It's more vibrant and cheerful than the black and orange. It doesn't have the same level of contrast though, which I suppose can either be a good or bad thing depending on the situation.

I now want to experiment with adding text to my prints, to add to the design and also the concept.

Printing Development

Following on from the printing work I did on Tuesday and the text workshop on Friday morning, on Friday afternoon I worked on developing my print work by adding text.

I collaged work from two different prints together because I felt they weren't working on their own. I then added some text with masking tape like I had experimented with in the morning. I think the different mix of textures is interesting. I still don't think there is enough contrast in the colours though, despite adding the blue to try and solve this. It needs some black or dark colour to focus the image. As it is it's very boring. So I decided to add black to one of my other prints.

You can see the original here. I think the addition of black really improves the image because it adds contrast and detail. It's bolder and looks better. This was inspired by a print of James Green's that I saw in the Printing Sheffield exhibition at the Millenium Galleries, ie. the two colours and simple shapes. I then took a photocopy of this to add text to.

I used black ink and used fonts and words I'd used earlier in the day. I really think the text adds something to the image. 

I then added text to one of my other prints. I don't think this one works quite as well because it's a bit too busy. It seems better to keep it simple and clean looking.

Printmaking based on contrasting houses photography

Yesterday it was Tuesday so printing day! I wanted to work on developing some of the images from the photography of houses in my area from the other day. I started with some thumbnails. I decided to use mono-printing again because I wanted to develop my skills with it. Some of them came out better than others because I'm not always great at inking my plate properly. But I think this has advantages as it brings variation.

This was the first image I tried. I liked how simple it was but I wanted to add some contrast and detail (you'll see it in a minute.

I also used the template cut outs to create another, inverted version of the image. I quite like it but I think the first works marginally better for what I was aiming for.

I then printed over the top in black to add contrast. I think this works really well. It just brings out the image more and makes it easier to interpret.

I then did a print with the black plate but no original print underneath. I really like the effect it brings. It's very simple and a little abstract but also illustrative and atmospheric. The black and white look clean and classic together.

I decided to take the paper cut outs off the printing plate and try printing like that. I think it gave an interesting effect but I don't hugely like it visually because there is no negative space to contrast with the grey areas. 

This was trying to contrast the silhouettes of two houses, using collage and print to distinguish. I don't think it worked hugely well as it doesn't look that clear. The house in collage doesn't really stand out at all. I think the coloured outside and then the non-printed area in the centre looks nice though.

I decided then to use blue paper to contrast and stand out more from the orange print. I like this combination of colours together. I then tried some letter press printing in black underneath. I think the addition of black really helped the image by adding interest. I still think it lacks impact though. I think I'll probably work back into it with ink of sewing or paint or something.

I then tried a next design based on one of my thumbnails but with only the top area cut out to try out if it would work. It did work so I later added in another house at the bottom. However I really love the simplicity of this version and the large expanse of blank colour at the bottom area. In a lot of ways I think it actually works better than the amended version.

This is the adapted version with the extra house. I like how it gives the impression of distance and perspective. I think perhaps it needs some black for contrast though, because everyone said the earlier image with black in it worked well due to the contrast. I'll work into it with black or dark blue ink on Friday.

Here's the same print but with a little bit of collage underneath. I think the dark blue, delicate aspects contrast well with the flat orange. It adds more interest to the image. 

The same print faintly over a ground and with some letter press printing. I don't think this works at all as the orange is too weak to have impact. Moral of story - ink plate better.

On Friday I'm going to work into some of these with acetate, sewing, ink and anything else I think of.