Print and Photgraphy
I was really looking forward to this block. The techniques on offer are intriguing but the structure of the three weeks has been a little frustrating. Essentially we have three thursdays worth of facilities available to us. Trying to take advantage of these outside of the allocated times has proved to be nigh on impossile. I understand the reasoning behind, for example, restricting access to the print room to supervised sessions only, but I wish that there were some open sessions that I could access around my own commitments. I could make better use of my time this way and my learning would benefit - I need time to explore techniques that I cannot access at home.
We have also had a number of relatively passive demonstration sessions. These add to the feeling of inactivity and a sense of lack of achievement.
Developed Flash images in monoprinting. Found out that newsprint paper offers really interesting line quality - feathers in a way that other papers don't. Painting over the oil based inks using water colour and acrylic creates strong illustrative effects.
Would like to experiment with dry point in future because the scratchy etched quality is an interesting feature that I would like to incorporate into my work.
I think my screen printing sub-consciously referenced Picasso and Matisse - bird motif. As part of the whole process found out how to make photographic stencils and how to use different registration techniques. Using dark coloured papers and card make this process more difficult because of their opaqueness. This is an important consideration particularly if you are applying other components to print over e.g. pieces of cut and torn paper. Found it interesting how printing colour over a similarly coloured ground darkens it substantially and gives it a subtle textural difference.
In future I need to consider maintaining a margin around the printable area and the appropriate application of the process over others e.g. digital printing. Screen printing comes into its own where large areas of flat colour are required or for printing directly onto 'unusual' surfaces e.g. glass, clay, wood, plastic etc.
In the photography studio I learnt the difference between low-key, high-key and contra jour lighting and how to set up lights accordingly. Made to feel very welcome by Colin. Enjoyed the protraiture work.
Colour assignment was tricky because it feels difficult to walk straight onto good photographs on demand. Tried to resist the temptation to use macro close ups to fulfil the whole brief. It would have been a bit too easy and wanted the collection to have variety.
Referenced Henri Cartier-Bresson and Bill Brandt when considering the monochromatic shots.
Learning how to look for rhythm and structure in compositions. This includes judicious use of cropping.
Used my own compact digital to take all shots. Would like to learn more about setting up still life studio shots and make use of digital SLR to gain greater control over images.
