It is a bit strange to think that the only way to continue printmaking will be by my own effort… I think I benefit a lot from the framework of a course which guides me forwards. I do have some ideas I’d like to explore further, for example working with collagraphs. I’d also like to experiment with non-toxic alternatives to stone lithography I discovered while working on the course.

Unfortunately, I’m on a tight schedule if I want to complete my final level 1 module (painting) within the OCA time limit for level 1. With OCA studies on top of a full time job, I’m not sure whether I can afford the time for anything extra. But I strongly feel it would be a shame if I didn’t continue making prints or trying to combine printing and painting for a mixed media approach.

The printmaking course actually changed my way of working, or I should say, I guess it was my tutor, with his feedback. I am so thankful he suggested Google Hangouts for course feedback. I was reluctant initially, because I find videoconferencing intimidating. But it made all the difference of the world to speak to a real person, compared to receiving only written feedback and exchanging an occasional e-mail.

My tutor introduced me to a seemingly simple, but eye-opening concept of busy versus quiet with respect to visual properties of an image. Very early he pointed out that my prints looked very busy, implying that there were not enough quiet areas which would provide the eyes with a rest and balance the composition. I’m still in the process of integrating the concept into my practice, but it pops up again and again when I look at my own works as well as those of others. The influence may be subtle but it was like some light in the dark when it came to reflecting and trying to improve an image. It’s also finding its way into my work for the painting module, which I’ve just started.

I did not always agree with tutor feedback. For example, he found my experimental monoprinting shoe series in Part 1 a way of going sideways, and that I should try more interesting subjects. But for me, the shoe series was a very intense, almost overwhelming learning experience. With every print, I tried something new – colour combinations and their effectiveness, texturing, overprinting, the effect of backdrawings. It gave me a lot of hands-on experience on which I could build subsequently.

And for the subject – I loved the simple shapes in the same way I liked the tulip shapes in my final series of prints. I acknowledge my tutor may not have been able to see any interest in a pair of shoes, and agree that it was more a vehicle for trying out printing techniques than interesting in itself. But the core of the problem would have been that I did not bring out the interesting features of the object, rather than the object not being interesting. In fact, the comment had a slightly destructive effect in that I began to judge objects whether they might be interesting in his eyes – rather than just giving it a try and see if I can discover something interesting for myself. But I think towards the end of the course I had assimilated his comment and became attentive to exactly this, how could I personally relate to my subject.

This showed me that even if I did not like something he said, I nevertheless took it on board and tried to find a solution that worked for me. His feedback also made me aware that all the seemingly irrelevant thoughts and associations I had while working on a print, or while researching a topic, were important and that I should make a not to keep track of things that had the potential to spark further ideas. In fact, I realize that my work process has changed to accomodate this and it also shows up in how I’m approaching the first projects of the painting module.

Overall, I’d rate this course as the one I liked best from all my OCA courses so far, and the first time that I occasionally had the feeling of following my inclinations rather than doing coursework. Really glad I signed up, really glad I completed, and (in all honesty) glad being able to move on to something new now!

Digital submission, student lives in USA

Summary of video feedback 8 May 2015

• An abundant submission demonstrating hard work

• Visual outcomes improving

• You have achieved a good understanding of a range of printmaking techniques and are able to apply them

• Sketchbook supports your work but needs greater breadth of exploration before engaging with a subject in depth

• Your log is a valuable and well-written resource. Reflection your personal journey will assist your artistic development

Feedback on assignment

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Quality of Outcome, Demonstration of Creativity

Project 13. Combination mono and linoprint:

Appropriate research and interesting Klee/Haring visual connection. Some lovely mark-making and strong drawing in sketchbook. Greater exploration of preliminary ideas needed.

Prints themselves appear competently printed, but have not really picked up on possibilities inherent in artist research in terms of attractive colour usage or organisational systems e.g. multi-colour dab printing (Klee) or a formal, coloured, grid structure (Mondrian). Also would have been interesting to see prints using a varied line thickness, like your brush drawing of the staircase.

But you have worked hard and your engagement with follow-up work demonstrates this.

Project 14. Combination prints and chine collé:

Good research – Warhol’s Jagger prints.

A productive body of work.

I enjoy the bold, German expressionist-like cutting, although because the centre-line does not pass correctly through the face, the image appears distorted.

As you note, Set 2 are an improvement over Set 1 due to the stronger use of colour. I really like the expressive white lines in the face where you have wiped your monoprint – adds visual interest, and yes, ‘broken hero’ indeed.

Preparation of Set 3: The abstract image in your sketchbook is a super thing, a lovely balanced interplay of shapes, lines and colours.

Your monoprint under-layers call to mind the Turin Shroud. In future, if you notice such connections, make brief references to them in sketchbook or blog.

Set 3 make a good conclusion to your chine collé print-run. You are effectively combining the layers and the collage element. Technically, the blacks could have been more solid (although personally I like the comic-book print quality caused by the white spotting).

For me, image 3 works best. Elvis looks like he is illuminated by a stage light.

Further experimentation in sketchbook is interesting, and yes, could be a way to engage with the developmental pyramid idea we discussed last time. But tie it to some visual research, currently it has no context.

Project 15. Series of four combination and experimental prints :

Sketchbook exploration of themes, subjects and ideas not carried out in the broad intention of the brief.

However, you have researched your chosen theme of tulips and found appropriate artworks demonstrating a range of approaches.

Your developmental print surfaces, tests, explorations etc. have yielded a broad variety of images. Naturally, your productivity has produced varied results, but broadly speaking, the tonal work has caught my attention:

Such images allow us to enjoy the strength of your composition: the rhythmic deployment of the flower heads and use of negative space, the linear elements contrasting with the tonal masses.

The less successful pieces lack clarity of intention. Not a criticism, but to help your understanding:

The colour work has yielded some pleasing images demonstrating interesting combinations of approach with subtle interplays of tone and technique:

Four prints: Your final selection continues the rich subtlety. There is a good rendering of forms through tone and contour; the activation of the background helps bond the image into a coherent whole; and the subdued colour adds a slightly mysterious and unsettling air to things.

Technically, a broad and successful engagement with a range of materials and techniques.

Overall, an impressive and abundant body of work.

Supporting statement: Good. You acknowledge ups and downs, shortcomings and successes. Overall, a clearly growth-full and positive experience.

Your review of the course itself seems to me to be a very fair summary and you are aware of things to take forward.

Sketchbooks

Demonstration of technical and Visual Skills, Demonstration of Creativity

Sketchbook and a multitude of exploratory prints support your studies. You continue to demonstrate strength in drawing, too.

But to better exploit the book as a working tool, I reiterate the need for linkage to artist research (including explorations from this) and also the pyramid of ideas/development we discussed last time.

Learning Logs or Blogs/Critical essays

Context

As always, you take your blog seriously. You have made it into a very useful resource for yourself. Artist references, lots of information about materials and techniques, and very well illustrated.

Going forward, do explore and reflect on your own motivations as discussed previously.

Suggested reading/viewing

Context

You are now at the end of the Level 1 print course. Carry learning and understanding from this course into all your other studies.

Pointers for the next assignment

Use editorial judgement and discernment when submitting work for assessment, but seek to maintain the narrative flow of the work.

Make sure loose work is neatly trimmed. When mounting work, have deeper margin at bottom. Mount onto thin card. Stick to black or white mount colours.

As a general rule, when mounting multiple images on a single sheet, keep the internal margins smaller than the external margins.

Link to OCA assessment guidance:

http://www.oca-student.com/sites/default/files/oca-content/key-resources/res-files/printmaking_210514.pdf

For this project, I chose a view downwards a stairway located close to the UN building in Midtown Manhattan. I was fascinated by the shadow pattern of the handrail on the stone pavement, and by the curvy outline of the stairway. The result was a line-dominated linoprint focusing on that visual pattern and excluding the rest of the setting. I had the association of a “Stairway to heaven”, the Led Zeppeling rock ballad from the 1970s, and this inspired the first set of prints in blue tones where I tried to create an ethereal background with the monoprint layer, so the stairway would look like floating freely in the atmosphere.

Preparing for the assignment though, I realized that I had achieved not enough variation in approach and outcome in that first set. Therefore I created a second set of prints taking up colour ideas I had previously tried out in the sketchbook, and also experimented with integrating a different subject, an imagined Manhattan cityscape, into the composition.

The second print takes up the “Spring time” topic by adding some greenery with yellow and red colour spots for flowers, adding a positive feeling and some liveliness to the somewhat austere linocut design. The third print reflects my ongoing preoccupation with living in the huge city. It’s kind of a hate-love and I’m not sure whether I’m truly happy with the choices I’ve made and the path I took, which I see symbolized in this print, as if I posed the question to myself.

The first set of prints was made on heavyweight printmaking paper, the second on Bristol vellum with a smooth surface. The margins of the prints will be adjusted for assessment presentation.

Blog post, first set: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1685
Blog post, second set: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=2102

Task 2 (Project 14): Combination printmaking with chine collé

The topic of this project was inspired by my accidental re-discovery of Elvis Presley as a singer and entertainer. Over the course of a few weeks I became a real fan and “Elvis Expert”, studying his musical career and personal life, including the sad ending of the story. Of course I felt a bit silly for the devotion, but couldn’t help being swept away by the quality of his singing. Choosing to make an Elvis portrait as a printmaking project thus was quite a personal thing. But in the research point on chine collé I had come across Andy Warhol’s celebrity screenprints, which sort of legitimized the topic choice, besides providing visual input.

One of the problems I encountered was that apparently the only pictures of Elvis in the public domain were taken at the occasion of his visit to U.S. President Nixon in 1971. None of these photos I liked, so instead, I chose a very attractive picture posted anonymously on the www as my image source. I hoped that using it for strictly educational purposes only would be acceptable. It taught me that digital rights issues can become complex when an artist is not able to use his or her own photos.

The project developed from more realistic colour schemes towards “odd choices” which worked surprisingly well conveying my impression of him as a “broken hero” and the discrepancy between the public and the private person of Elvis Presley. In the later prints, I began texturing and wiping into the inked monoprint plate to give depth to the facial area. I used chine collé only as an accent for his scarf.

With hindsight, I think that I was somewhat intimidated by the devotion I felt, and therefore reluctant to be more experimental with my subject. It was as if I permitted myself only to do “a beautiful portrait” and treat the image with respect. I think the subsequent experimentation in the sketchbook with collage and watercolour underpaintings shows that I let off steam at least a bit afterwards.

I chose a different set of prints for assignment 5 than what I thought were the best prints when I completed the series. I think the four I present here better reflect the variation in colour choices. In particular, I think the slightly misaligned second print was an important one because it made me see that I could convey my perception of Elvis’ personality by making unrealistic colour choices.

To summarize, I’m pleased with the actual outcome of the project, but I’m also aware that assessors might have expected more experimentation and greater variety in the use of chine collé. I guess it’s up to me to develop this further in future work with a variety of different subjects.

Blog post, Project 14: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1720Chine collé research point: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1707

Task 3 (Project 15): Four combination and experimental prints

In this project, I chose a simple flower still life with tulips as my subject. I loved the elegant shapes and the colours of my model, and this was what I focused on during project work. I started with a broad approach for the experimental phase, with 3 different collagraph plates plus a cardboard plate for textures and a hot glue relief plate as an alternative to backdrawing. I combined these with various monotype techniques, including texturing, wiping, painting and rejection effects from different ink types. I also worked with masks and assessed the effects of backdrawing. During that phase, I made prints on almost all types of paper I had in stock: Smooth drawing paper, thin Thai Kozo, plus various medium-weight printmaking colours in different hues of white. I tried out hand burnishing versus printing with the press as well.

In the end, I settled on the one technique I liked best: Painted monotype combined with a collagraph plate inked intaglio style, printed with the press in two consecutive runs on damp Canson Edition paper. Print size is 57 x 40 cm, with a printed area of 45 x 35 cm.

The colour choices represent warm vs cool colours, with two coloured backgrounds inspired by earlier prints I particularly liked (a transparent black and a yellow one). The selection of prints for the assignment was informed by my intention to produce a coherent series of prints, not just a collection of the most interesting prints that had come out of the experimentation phase. Therefore, the selected prints are the outcome of an analysis and consolidation phase where I tried to identify the most interesting elements of the experimental prints and combine them selectively for the final series.

I do see the potential for further development of the idea, for example by combining different views of the tulips, not just different colour schemes. If I had more time, I’d work out more designs and create the collagraph plates for more variation. I’m a bit sad that chine collé did not make its way into the final prints, but I tried it and found it did not work well with the subtle collagraph inking, because the paper soaked up the ink to invisibility. I could have tried different papers, but I found that I was able to achieve my desired colour effects with the monoprints and did not want to include the technique just for the sake of it. Likewise, I did not find a reason to add a chine collé element elsewhere on the print, and so did not do it. Now I realize that I might have tried using it for structuring the background.

I’ll take this as learning point for future printmaking: Rarely is the potential of a subject developed in a single printmaking session. I don’t seem to be the person who uses the sketchbook very much for ideas, I’m more comfortable doing the experiments directly in the form of prints, which makes me see what I get from different approaches and techniques. So my method might be to plan for several consecutive sessons with reflective pauses in between.

The printmaking process in project 15 is documented in 4 separate blog posts, plus a fifth for the supportive statement. I’m using the blog extensively because it provides a valuable resource which enables me to get back later to the technical steps I made and how I achieved certain effects. In its detail, it is not directed at assessors who merely have an hour to assess student work produced over the course of a year or longer.

I’m not quite sure how to resolve the discrepancy. It might help to include summary articles that are short on process details and emphasize reflection on my journey. I guess this is what my tutor suggests as well, by pointing out in his feedback that he doesn’t see what I like or where I’m going. Maybe the reflective parts are underdeveloped because I’m busy learning techniques.

Sketchbook work and printing plates: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1869
Monochrome printing experiments: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1902
Combination and multicolour printing: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1936
The final series: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1970
Supporting statement: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1987

Research and reflection

As in the other course parts, I alternated research with project work, and wrote up in chronological order. The respective blog posts can be accessed by clicking on the ‘research and reflection’ side menu, or via the drop down menu in the context of each project. For ease of reference, I’m including links here as well:

Paul Klee, Keith Haring, Piet Mondrian: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1611
Research point: Chine collé examples http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1707
Sasha Barker http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1778
Juan Sebastián Carnero http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1801
Reviewing my blog and personal journey http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1811
Linocuts by Jacques Moiroud http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1819
Inspirations: Tulips in print http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1842

During part 5 I also got back to collagraph and I guess that research encouraged me to make another attempt in the final project. I categorized the research as follow-up to part 4, but now realize its effect on part 5.
Collagraph printmakers: http://ocaprintmaking1.blueconcretemoon.com/?p=1637

I now see that my research was based on what I come across in social media, in particular the facebook groups and sites I’m associated with. I followed up images I found particularly interesting. On the one hand, I appreciate how this broadens my horizon and gives me pointers to contemporary printmakers and artists I wouldn’t have known otherwise. On the other hand, I think I should also learn to do more self-directed research, for example artists employing particular techniques or art movements reflected in printmaking. That’s an area I wish to develop in the future.

Final check-up against the assessment criteria

Demonstration of Technical and Visual Skills – materials, techniques, observational skills,
visual awareness, design and compositional skills

I think technically, I made good progress in part 5. I worked with quite an array of techniques and tried to analyse what worked and what not, for example when using the press vs printing by hand. Unfortunately I didn’t find the time to do course-independent sketchbook work, but I think the tulip drawings in Project 15 are quite good. I also think that I began building up technical expertise and made use of experiences to produce quality outcomes.

Quality of Outcome – content, application of knowledge, presentation of work in a coherent
manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas

The blog seems to be my primary means for communicating ideas, thoughts and the prints themselves, and I think it’s quite coherent as a whole. I do see the problem that the blog contains too much information to be digested in the time available for tutors and assessors, and am trying to alleviate this by providing pointers and summaries of relevant content.

The blog served to partially replace sending in physical work, and I don’t maintain a physical learning log, so I found it important to present a complete picture of my progress through the course to permit adequate feedback. Maybe tutors and assessors would have needed to see less, but then the blog wouldn’t represent the actual journey, including wrong avenues and items that appear irrelevant at first but later might turn out to be pivotal. As it is, the blog  represents my personal dictionary of printmaking techniques, applications and errors.

Application of knowledge in terms of setting printmaking techniques into practice works well, I think. I can be quite stubborn and keep trying to make things work.

Demonstration of Creativity – imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a
personal voice

The creative part seems to be the hardest for me. As much as I’m at ease with trying out technical variations, I think I could have done a lot more experimentation. I guess it has to do with my tight schedule, which makes me focus on producing acceptable outcomes and doesn’t leave enough time to play around and try new and unconventional things. I do see some progress with respect to personal voice in the way I personally related to the chosen printmaking topics. But to be honest, I don’t feel as an artist yet. I produced a lot of prints, but the creative, experimental aspects are still a bit underdeveloped.

Context – reflection, research, critical thinking (learning log)

Hopefully my work for part 5 demonstrate that I took tutor feedback on board. I included a good deal of notes on my inspirations and tried to incorporate more reflective elements everywhere in the writeup. What still needs improvement is drawing connections between artists’ works and my own stuff. I guess it has to do with my work ethic of ‘no cheating’, always having been proud to do my homework without copying from my classmates… Making prints “in the style of …” has that negative connotation of not being original and stealing from others, which I find difficult to overcome. As much as I like looking at other’s works, and am ready to appropriate the technical aspects, I don’t want to copy any other artist’s style. I’ve not yet found a way to resolve the conflict between what the course seems to encourage and what I personally strive for. Put briefly, “it’s against my religion”, and I’m not sure what to do about it, so for now I try to take it easy and see how things develop without forcing me into any particular direction.