Woodcut

For these 3 weeks I am doing woodblock with Sercan. As my take on the brief is very personal, I wanted the image itself to be personal so I drew a comic book style self portrait. I was thinking about how I felt when I did make a mistake in my words, and I almost felt as if I was being choked. I then drew an image of a mans muscely hand coming in from the right hand side and choking me. Even though I really liked the image, It would confuse others as it didnt emphasis the meaning of image. I then drew in some lichtenstein-like "pop" word bubbles, with words like my stutters. So for when I got a mental block i chose to put in a silence - "..." and when I stuttered I just put in fragmented words - "ch-ch-ch". I decided that this picture was still quite dark with the choking hand and the scared expression. I decided to think about what I'm scared about in relation to my speech. I'm very very scared of public speaking and speaking in social situations. This idea also ties in nicely with the protest title as public speaking would be a big part of this. I then replaced the image of the hand with myself clutching a microphone with the terrified expression on my face. Im using 5 colours in this woodcut (including black and white) using a light blue, a dark blue and a deep red.

Protest and Humour

We got the 2 projects titles last week - "Protest" and "Humour", we must pick one however we can combine them if we want. I think I will be picking the title "Protest". I began to do a mindmap, wanting my project to be a personal one as the last one I did was rather general.
I grew up with many speech impediments when I was younger. I had a lisp, stutter, couldn't pronouce "ch"'s, couldnt pronouce "p"'s, got stuck on words,i.e, I got a mental block in which I would have to change words around in my head before I could say them out loud. I went to speech therapy for many years and successfully managed to get rid of my lisp and the most part of my stutter. I can now pronouce "ch's" and "p's". However I still have the odd stutter and, experience a mental block at least once a day. As a result, I am not that confident speaking out loud with people who I dont know that well at all. I also get embarrassed and ashamed rather easily when someone comments on my speech.
Thats where I bring in the theme protest. Its feels as if my body is in protest against my mind. I can say anything I want in my mind but somehow my body restricts me..

Digital media for Etching

I began playing around with the photographs I had taken of my prints and the photographs I initally took. I super imposed my black and white etching of the pipe on top of the photograph of the mossy wall and rusty pipe. I think that this combination work and brings the etching to life as it was a little flat on its own.




In this version I took a photograph of a grimy red brick wall and super imposed it on top of my print. I changed the opacity settings so it was only barely visible on top of it. I then used the cutout option in the filter gallery which I think gives a more stronger line, similar to a woodcut.



In the last one I took a photograph of one of my prints that didnt work out that well. I had stuck a piece of brown paper over the pipe, but it slipped in the press and it wasnt very absorbant with the ink. I photoshopped in a transparent green over the leaves and and then photoshopped a detailed coloured version of the pipe from a more successful print on top of the brown paper. I really liked this effect of the diffent layers.

                

Etching Experimentation.

I started to experiment with my etchings on Thursday. I began experimenting with different colour roll ups, monoprinting, drypoint, various papers etc.

Etchings. B&W

These are my black and white etchings, I was quite happy with them but I didnt quite achieve the tonal qualities that I had in my drawings so I think next week I will re-etch my plate with a darker tonal quality and hopefully it will work out

Sketchs in preparation for etching

I began sketching ideas from the photographs I took, I settled on a composition I really liked and then had to get the tonal qualities right as I had a lot of detail and crosshatching in my image. I decided on the 3rd sketch, with the varied tonal qualities in the background.  Then I started to draw this onto my plate.

Photography in preparation for etching.