Seed Heads

I've been thinking some more about 'Where the dead live'.

Initially, for people, I think it's in the memory of those that knew them. But, when they've also gone, it has to be in something tangible that has been left behind. Something that anyone could come across that might provoke thoughts about this person..

This could be a gravestone, an inscription, a line in a document, an artifact, anything that makes you think about this person, reminds someone who never knew them that they were once here.

But I've also been looking at the stuff on the top of my plan chest. Amongst the junk there's a collection of seed heads, some of which are still loosing little black seeds every time they get knocked. The idea of latent life in the dead plants also intrugues me.

 Looking closer at the Honesty. Most of the ovals are the shiny inner section of the pod but there are a few remaining intact heads. A couple of these are begining to split. The way the two outer layers peel away from the silky inner layer reminds me of a book. I'd like to explore this further.

Decisions made

Rapunzel is almost there!

Having experimented with incorporating photographed paint textures and colours with the illustration design in Photoshop I have decided that the best way forwards is to use a digital solution.

I have printed out the protoype, and some extra textures, and have even worked out the binding and cover. I now have a mock up that I think works. Production will need to wait until I go back to work as I need access to an A3 scanner to get a good copy of the textures for the final version but it is a relief to know how this is going to look.

Time now to start to work on 'Where the dead live'. I have some ideas but I'm not sure yet how to tie them together

Printing Rapunzel

I've been experimenting with gum arabic transfer to see if it is a viable way to produce the images for the book.

I prefer the brown prints to the black. Where the ink has laid a wash over the white space the black looks grubby whereas the brown seems to work as a tint.

But even though these are printed from a smaller version of the final image they are still A3 sized (in width). This is the largest my press will go. To construct the book as I want to I'd need to make the image out of two A3 prints and join them. I think it's beyond my skills using this method to reliably print the two halves at the same density of ink so that the join is not immediately obvious.

So I've been experimenting using photoshop and painted textures to try and get a simillar feel to the brown gum arabic print. 

The colour isn't quite right yet but with a bit of tweaking I think this may be the practical option.

Weave

This is the book that I made for 'pay it forward'. It's not exactly typical of my work but I was having a tantrum after drying and paper problems and I decided to try somthing inkless!

 

Summer Holidays!

It's the first day of the summer holidays. Six whole weeks to draw, print, play, go see friends and exhibitions. I can't wait to get started (though I think to finish everything I've got planned I'm going to need to be off work until Christmas).

 I've finished the illustration for Rapunzel (I may have said that before!). It needed redrawing, rescanning and re-fiddling with in photoshop. When I'd done this and printed/constructed a rough I realised that how you 'read' the image depended on how you folded it. This meant I needed to reconsider the binding. Which meant I needed to add yet another panel. However, the drawing, with extra panel, is finally complete.

Now to work out if it is feasable to hand print an entire edition using xerox litho. Because of the size of the image it would need printing in two halves and then joining. I'm not sure if my printing skills are good enough to make that join invisible. More experiments needed I think.

Finally

I’ve finally finished my ‘pay it forward’ piece.

This has been pending since March when I answered  Robyn’s post. She sent me a beautiful book (see blog entry for March 27th). Now I am sending my work onto Penny.

More pictures to follow when it arrives down under.

Catch up

I can’t believe it has been so long since I posted anything.  This is going to be longer than normal just to catch up.

I put my name down to do two titiles for the 4th edition of BOA. I had originally intended to try and do each edition in 6 months. I think I overestimated what I could achieve whilst working full time hours, but next academic year it looks like I’ll be going back to part time so I’m giving myself an extension on the first book (my ‘deadline’ is now the end of August) and aiming to finish the second one by the end of  December! 

Rapunzel

This is ticking over but I decided that the image wasn’t balanced and needed expanding. The separation between the prince and the girl wasn’t large enough but putting in an extra piece here means adding one elsewhere. (I want to have a part of the image visible when the cover is opened so this means an odd number of panels to concertina into the binding) 

I also decided that I wanted a visible difference between the opulence of the inside of the tower and the woods/brambles outside. Making the extra panel here meant that the window could be bigger (I wasn’t happy with the size of small arched shape I had before) and I could experiment with ‘wallpaper’ patterns. I wanted a Victorian medieval feel, influenced by the design of Burgess at Castel Coch but it also need to be simple enough not to overpower the rest of the image. I decided on a repeat based on the bramble structure from the forest, taming the wildness of the outside to emphasise the safety of the inside.

I’ve also decided to go back to my original idea of using photocopy litho printing for the image. Having tried lino, considered wood, having looked at the earlier experiments I’ve decided that I prefer the older worn look of the dark areas in this method to the solid blocks of the relief print. Also the fine lines are just too much for my cutting skills; on the trial piece they look too crude. Having added the two panels the image has now grown to the point that it will have to be made out of two blocks because of the limitations of my press size. I think I’ve convinced myself that making a join from a scanned master may be easier in the long run than carving it.

These changes have been stitched together on Photoshop and I am happier with the overall composition but whilst Photoshop and scanners are ok for working out the composition the joins between the old and the new are too apparent to use it as the master for the photocopies. This means back to the drawing board (or light box) and drawing up a new master with ink not digits– more scope to change my mind again! 

‘Paying it forward’

In response to the ink drying issues I’m trying new techniques but it is progressing slowly and I’m hoping to get this finished in the next two weeks. I’ll post images of it then.

Holidays

Last week was half term and we’ve just returned from a week in the Orkneys (a small group of islands ninety minutes sail away from the top of Scotland).

We stayed in a place called Harbour View, and it really was. Any closer and we’d have been in the water.

See the view from the window!

There’s a fantastic small gallery less than a minutes’ walk away, The Pier Arts Centre, that just happened to have a print exhibition on.  I spent several happy hours over the course of the week with my nose against the glass trying to work out ‘how did they do that?’

The weather wasn’t good enough to sit out and draw, although in the main it was better than most of the rest of the country but I’ve got loads of photos and a whole stack of ideas to be going on with.

Re: Pay it forward

I thought I'd take advantage of the bank holiday Monday to finally put together the prints for the 'Pay it forward' books I had planned. I had printed the images arround the begining of April so I had envisaged a quiet few hours sewing, folding and binding.
No such luck. I'd been experimenting with Akua-Kolor inks on various transparent papers. These are soy based inks that dry by absorption not evaporation. Some of the tissues I'd used obviously weren't absorbent enough! Next time I'll experiment (and read the product info more thoroughly) before trying to edition. Even if it is only a set of five.
So for 'Pay it forward' I'm trying a new idea and technique. One that won't involve drying time! (Pictures to follow when it goes in the post)

Moving forward

I have made a set of test prints from the lino trying out some different weight papers and using both the press and hand printing. On the heavier weight paper, which I think I’ll need to use to give the book substance, the press works best.

Apart from the halos left by bits of lino stuck in the ink, the offset print from the first block is interesting, and has future possibilities but not for an edition!

The composition isn’t finished yet. I need a compromise between the plain wall between the women and the fussy wallpaper. I also need to make the back of the prince’s head visible.

There are also some things I need to resolve with the carving. I think the trees should use some of the carving marks for texture so these need enhancing in future. The faces will need to be clear of marks unless I can use some on the witch to suggest wrinkles. I also need to work out how to cut some of the smaller more delicate details.

I went to a Japanese woodcut workshop last weekend at the Hot Bed Press. Very interesting. I’m not posting images – I learned a lot for future reference but nothing I’d want to show.  I could carve finer detail though using wood.....

Did I say I wasn’t going to do Rapunzel as a wood cut? I’m sure I’ve got some small bits of plywood somewhere.

A Productive Easter Holiday

Its time to go back to work but this has been a productive Easter holiday.

I’ve rescued a chair (It was a 21^st birthday present to my mum which makes it nearly 60 years old and it looked very much the worse for wear) and upholstered my rag box (which was inherited from my mother in law) to match.

I’ve started to learn to weave (sounds very grand but I’m only using a simple frame loom) and had another go at trying to learn to knit.  No pictures of either of these. I’ve not produced anything worth sharing. Tapestry weaving  is something I’ll continue with. I’m really enjoying playing with colour and texture without having to ‘make something’. But knitting!  It’s one of those basic skills that I feel I ought to be able to master and every now and then I have another go. I think its back to the bottom of the cupboard for now for the needles.

 On the book front Rapunzel has moved again (I wouldn’t say it’s made progress, more gone sideways, but I’ve been busy with it). I decided to push the long thin concertina format for the time being which meant looking at the composition again. Not only did it have to fit the format but it also had to make sense as separate panels as well as one large image.

The collagraph plate still didn’t work for this so I started to play with extending the composition. In the meantime it has changed from simple silhouettes to a more detailed image. It started to make me think of a cross between woodcut chapbooks and Victorian illustration, especially Morris and Beardsley. 

The Victorian influence fitted in well with the inspiration from Castell Coch and I enjoyed bringing in references to that type of painted imitation wall tile decoration in the space between the two women. The motif is based on hawthorn – a plant that is said to have protective qualities and comes in a variety with seven petals. Seven being a magic number I thought this was apt for the witch’s interior decoration. 

The strong white dark contrast should also make it easy for Xerox lithography, or so I thought. 

Problem number one – Staples have changed their photocopier. The copies from this one aren’t as good to print from as the old one.  Problem solved by using the ancient (if expensive) machine at the corner shop.

Problem number two – the large areas of black just aren’t printing well and though I like the worn look for other purposes they make it difficult to read this image. I think It may also be difficult to produce a uniform edition with such large photocopies. 

Problem number three – although the copies are large for this process (and my press) they are only A3. This is making the size of the book, when the image is folded into eleven panels, feel a little on the mean side

On the positive side with the Xerox litho, I did print copies of the collagraph plate. I don’t want to use it for Rapunzel but I think there are possibilities here that I want to explore for ‘Where the dead live’

I have decided to try working in relief print for Rapunzel, lino rather than wood, which means I can scale up the block. I'll have to loose the hawthorne motif - far too complcated for my cutting skills, but on reflection when I've seen it printed it looks a bit too busy for the rest of the image anyway. So far I’ve only tried a test cutting piece and still have to print it.

Printing may have to wait a while. Next weekend I’m off to the Hot Bed Press in Salford to a  Japanese Woodcut Course - a much appreciated Christmas present from my kids.