A couple of months ago I started a drawing course with Aberystwyth University. The first section which was traditional drawing skills finished a couple of weeks ago and we're now into a 12 week section where the emphasis is drawing from the imagination. This week we had to draw a huge stack of chairs which everyone (except me) hated. I have found a love of drawing detailed, complicated things with lots of negative spaces. I'm not saying I am any good at it.... but I enjoy it! Similarly I also enjoy abstract stuff too and this week's homework required cropping our chair drawing and using other mediums to display it. I decided to make some collagraph plates as part of my response. I made five plates and today I have spent about 5 hours in my shed printing them. Of the five, only two work in a way I am happy with. The image above shows one of them, inked up with three different colours of varying viscosity.
In the summer I did a short term consultancy project for an old employer and I used some of the money I earned to treat myself to some good quality rollers. My friend Sue gave me the right advice of which ones to buy in order to be able to do viscosity inking successfully and today was my first try 'at home' of the technique. As I put out too much ink I decided to ink up a couple of older plates to use it up. There is a limit to how many plates I need for my 'homework' so I produced the prints above and below. The colour combination is a favourite one.
I must have pulled over 20 odd prints today and some should never see the light of day but that's the whole point of proofing plates and trying things out. You can think a plate will be wonderful until you pull that paper away from it and realise it leaves a lot to be desired! If there's a downside to a full day's printing though it must be my inky hands.... and backache....
10 comments:
Wonderful prints!
I love everything about them, their strong composition, colour, texture, drama! Very well done!!!
xox
Very dramatic! You must have been exhausted at the end of the creative day, not just physically, but mentally. (A good exhaustion though!).
A great job! This work is looking fab, does this mean the press is working? XXX
What a great course to do - I really like what's going on in the second image.
Celia
Sounds like a great course. Love the colour combination.
How good to see some of your work Lesley. I love the rusty colour/texture combination. I can just hear that lovely sound as a roller runs over high viscosity ink.
What a great drawing course, taking you into work from the imagination. I love many abstract images but it takes confidence to apply them to your work.
More please.
Lesley these are just fabulous. I really like the strength of colours and the images themselves. Must have felt great to have pulled a few that made you smile! Please do more!
These are so interesting, Lesley. I hope you'll show us more of them and also, some of the work from your class. Best...Gloria
This one seems to have slipped through the net so sorry to be so late in visiting. Hope you are continuing to enjoy the course and this all looks intriguing. I'd love to see more of the process.
Jane x
How wonderful Lesley... really strong images. Love the fact you're working with the negative spaces... and all this experimentation.
Post a Comment