Issue #7

Welcome back to print central!

First up we have my mono-print which I neglected to include an image of in my last post;

As an actual piece of art, I don't think this was all that great, but it was good to go into mono-printing with a cohesive image to work at as opposed to just messing about like before. Good preparation for further stuff then, particularly my nerve map thing.

Here's the three woodblock prints I made t'other day;

Honestly, I'm quite happy with these prints. They're the first woodblocks I've done, and I really found this medium much more easy and enjoyable to work through than lino-printing. I actually found the wood (fakey kinda glue-and-sawdust stuff I know, but y'know) way easier to carve than the lino, and also the fact it's not in any way warped or liable to bend all over the shop was a bonus.

Though it's hard to see with the lighting in these shots, there are slight grain marks from the wood. Initially I was pretty unhappy with this, but after the black was printed the look of 'em really improved. Particularly on the last one; the orange really stands out and I really like the slight static-like graininess; it gives it a weird, slightly creepy feel which is always a good thing!

Anyways, returning to where I think I left off last post, updates on the Jim-Sized Nerve Thing (working title)!

Since I drew in the nerves the other day, I've been looking at a lot of stuff by Alex Grey. He's rather awesome by the way, and applies to my project in a seriously big way. Examples? Of course:

This is some of the best artistic imagery I've seen or at least been able to find depicting the anatomy of the human body, particularly within a setting of some kind of 'space'; in this case mainly the spiritual or personal space. 

After seeing Alex Grey's works, I had a bit of a spurt of creativity; I went back to and have begun developing a brief idea I had a couple of weeks ago of drawing the nerves of whatever body parts (hands at the time) extending out of the body, into the physical space the body is occupying. Literally sensing your space. So yesterday I marked up and carved out a fresh woodblock of a head with the nerves flying out the top, hopefully not like in The Thing....

                        

...and also sorted out Jim-Sized Nerves Thing Mk. II in this vein of thought. I think it looks way cooler now.

It's strange, I've tried to move a bit away from the whole nerves being like tree thing a bit since Michael Canning voiced his cautions about it last week, but to be honest it just seems to occur naturally; the two things are undeniably similar, especially when you go outside the restrictions of the natural layout of nerves and start putting them wherever the feck you like.

So yeah, I started doing the mono-prints for this today, and managed to get the head and shoulders done; images next post when they're dry!

Issue #6

Lots more printing has been had over the past few days;

I've been doing a lot of work with the nerves of the hand, and the imagery thereof, going a tad more surrealist than expected ever since someone pointed out how tree-like they looked. As Michael Canning said to me, this is in danger of being a tad straightforward and simple, so I'm going to try and be a bit more abstract from now on with the whole nerve thing. A challenge with such a precise, scientific subject matter but a challenge is nowt but good!

Anyway, I made a mono-print and lino-print based on this, and only today I made three different woodblock prints which are presently ensconced in the print rooms drying.

It came out a tad patchy, but sure for a fairly large lino done up in the studio without the press or good ink I'm happy enough with how it turned out. 

That's the wood itself for the woodcut prints I made earlier today. I quite like the whole nerve grass, nerve hand-tree and nervey roots images, but I suppose it could be a bit simplistic.

I made a start today on my life-size nerves mono-print. First I pulled a Caravaggio and used this dead Jim I found in the studio so I'd definitely have the right proportions etc.

I then drew in a load of nerves from various images;

So the plan is to make a load of small mono-prints on Thursday, then piece them together and form the whole Jim Nerves image!

Issue #5

This week's unfortunately not been quite as productive as others, time for some self-inflicted arse-kicking!

But it's been interesting; I recently went to Des' print workshop which, being very interested in pursuing print next year, I found highly interesting. The next day I went down to the print rooms and began experimenting with mono-printing. This I found highly enjoyable as before coming to LSAD I had only made lino-prints, and with the water-based inks of school.

To start off with, I made a couple of mono-prints using the method of just marking the paper over the acetate, leaving the mirrored ink image on the other side;

Obviously, being the first mono-prints I've ever attempted, these didn't exactly come out as masterpieces, but it was an enjoyable, interesting experiment in the practise.

After this, because I had momentarily forgotten how to make proper mono-prints, I made a couple in which I, like with the proper method, removed the ink on the acetate in whatever design I chose. I then simply laid a piece of paper onto the acetate and used a roller to print it.

Though the image each time came out slightly indistinct depending on what kind of line I had marked, I really like how these look. I think the marks of the roller provide an interesting background pattern, almost giving the images a bit of a cubist feel. 

Thankfully Des then entered the room with another group doing a workshop so we were quickly reminded how to properly make a mono-print. I made another fairly simple face image just as a way of toe-dipping the whole Proper Mono-Print thing.

 



I quite liked how these came out, especially the coloured one; I love how much better these oil-based inks look compared to water-based ones!

These basic starting off prints have really taught me a lot about mono-printing, and I think once I start making these kinds of prints with a bit more thought and care into them I should get some better results.