Lithography
There was a definite excitement walking back into Litho, both here and screenprint have always been where I feel most able to express my creativity. Maybe it's the way the process enables you to work in layers while keeping a strong sense of colour and form, two important factors in my work. I also find that the processes complement each other, I worked between both processes on the same prints when finishing my degree, I liked the softness of the oil based ink in contrast to the flat matt finish of the water based acrylic.
In the Litho workshop we familiarised ourselves with how to make the different marks with the different crayons and inks and the techniques between working on the Litho stone and an aluminium plate on the off-set press. Contrasting the textural differences of the finished prints, the stone giving a softer grainer aesthetic. I have been using some of the shapes from the objects I have inherited as at present these are what I intend to use as part of my study.
Screenprint
I thought that I would try and bring to fruition some teardrop drawings based around the theme of identity I have been working on for screenprint, but as of yet had not managed to print. They are very much tied up with my personal history, my adoption and the emotional consequence I have been examining over the last couple of years. However, the workshop induction talk demonstrating the different ways of mark making, together with another workshop talk in a textiles course I assist with at Spike Print, inspired me to experiment with ink and methylated spirits on mark resist. I wanted to try and create a cell like effect to possibly add to the screenprint's to represent the shadow of a mother.
Teardrop drawings for screenprint.
The first thing that is apparent with this method is that the beautiful organic shapes that emerge as the two substances collide, in most cases, expand and disappear to almost nothing. I had to work really hard to try and keep some of the elements I liked. Below you can see the contrast between the process and the dried finished mark resist.
When it came to printing the images, a couple were printed as a duo-tone prints to experiment with mixing the colours in layers. On one of the mark resist I drew back into the ink which gave a lovely contrast and texture against the background ink. I am pleased with the results, a couple of the abstracts I want to print in Litho as a duo-tone, I think they would work better with the oil based inks, and can envisage how parts of these images will work with the teardrop circles.
I decided to play with mono printing in screenprint and explore what might be achieved, or might not! You have to work very fast making sure the paint does not dry on the screen, placing stencils under the screen & adding a layer in gold on some added to that pressure, but I quite like the intensity of focus and quick decision making that is needed.