Chesse

The theme for the art society this month was ‘Contrast’. I decided to go with monoprinting, black and white and return to the idea of the chess board for my motifs.

I made a series of stencils and foam stamps and dug out my drawings of the Lewis chessmen. I also culled a few more quotes from The Game and Playe of the Chesse  (a book printed by Caxton – you can find the transcript on the web)

I started with black and white. 

 Then added red,and then green as a complementary contrast.

 But soon other colours joined in.

 I eventually ended up with a set of about 30 prints so decided to make a book out of them. I was limited by the fact that the prints were all on pieces of thin paper only half a centimetre larger than the gelli late and I didn’t want to cut into the images. After some experimentation I decided to stick them back to back and add a piece of florists wire at one edge that I could use to wrap the stitching round. 

 Now for the next months theme (and more Magellan.)

Meandering

Having had a dabble with some paint I went back to the Chessmen.

I decided that part of the problem was the binding I was trying to use.

I liked the square motif that the binding strips left but was struggling with the way they cut into the text. So rethink, keep the squares and ditch the binding.

I used text I'd already written out and the charcoal drawings to make a tiny mock up of a meander book.

I think this works so much better than the original book structure. I've already redone the extra lettering I need, resized and cropped the images and have made printing plates on the laser printer.

I'm going to try using acrylic and see if I can apply some of the colour mixing from last week.

More Monoprints

Just a small selection of the results from the experiments I've been trying this week.

I've been doing some more with acrylics

And with printing ink, using gum arabic transfer for the details.

These are a bit gaudy. The strong colour and the mis alignment in registration reminds me of old school readers from the 1960's.

I rather like the more subtle colours that offset onto the laser print which I used for the liner work

Not sure where I'm going next.

Acrylic monoprints

Book making and monoprinting, I'm finding my way into this at last

I scanned and laser printed some of the tonal drawings and had a go at printing them in acrylic using a gelli plate. It worked. This time I made sure I wrote notes on how to do it.

I kept the paint covered laser prints to use for collage but decided to make a book with them instead. I re did the Claire van Vliet binding from a few weeks ago. I thought the squares that the binding strips make echoed the chess board.

I liked it so much I decided to make another one using the monoprints.

This time, to make them a different weight, I used thin card to make the covers.

I don't know if I'll stick with this structure but it works well to bind the experiments.

A start

I had a set of photos of the Lewis Chessmen that I'd taken several years ago and meant to do something with. I thought they would work as a starting point.

I've been drawing individual pieces trying to get a feel for the style and detail (I've noticed I do tend to gravitate towards linear work) and have started experimenting with mixed media,trying to get away from a single figure suspended in space.

I'm taking words from Caxton's 'The game and playe of chesse'.

It's moving slowly, I'm going through a phase where I'm finding it difficult to get motivated, but it is progressing.