The more
scanned drawings I added to the text the more it reminded me of old kitsch
wallpaper (the sort with views of Tuscany interspersed with peppers and Chianti
bottles). Time for Plan C
The object
of the exercise was to experiment with the printer so I decided to see how I
could use it to add text to pre-prepared papers. I made
several different coloured surfaces using watercolour and water-soluble crayons
on cartridge paper, and when dry I ironed them flat.
Some work
better than others, the salt is too busy
but the cling film is really effective
as a background.
I also
revived the artwork from an old idea for a book. ‘Twelve Dancing Princesses’ is meant
to have the feel of traditional fairy story imagery, princesses and delicate
colours, but if you look at the text that makes up the pattern on their dresses it
picks out the qualities that seem to apply to the ‘heroines‘ of many fairy
stories (eldest, youngest-the middle child never seems to do anything
remarkable, kind, meek, dutiful-nothing wrong with them as qualities on their
own but put together its a depressing role model for girls)
I printed
some in black only to hand colour later....
and some in
blue and pink as well.
The Barbie colours fit the subject matter. The colour is
miss registered which I quite like. It fits the disparity between the feel of
the artwork and its commentary.
The printer
uses soy ink which will take a while to dry completely before I can start to
cut and assemble the books.
