Intentions- print development

For a few prints I wanted to make them look hand drawn I decided to use mono print so painted a blank screen and printed on to heavy weight cotton. 

The prints are slightly bluer than I wanted but I'm going to print grey over using my screen. I painted the screen too thick (not watered down enough) so when I pulled the manutex through, some of the dye came off and was left with a peeling affect. The contrast between this and my screen designs will hopefully work out well. 

I manged to get my grounds down in lighter colours so I can go ahead and add my other screen designs over in brighter shades of pigment. 

Screen designs

Design ideas for the print room is essential, I find it easier to go in with a rough coloured copy so I know exactly what I'm printing and means I'm not wasting time. Various fabric samples and my gouache colour strip.

For my screens I wanted to have two which complimented but also contrasted each other. As my work is layered I wanted one with simple block designs which I designed on illustrator with a few illustrator 'hand drawn' designs. The other I used an opaque pen to draw the hand drawn designs using my previous drawing as inspiration. 

I want to try heavy weight fabric such as linen for a few of my prints. Rather than have a fully white plain background I thought it would be good to re-create the sponge from my hand drawn designs, so used sheets of foam to paint pigment on and then print onto fabric. 

I placed a sheet of paper underneath the fabric while I was printing, and realised it had made this pattern which is quite interesting. It shows the weave of the fabric. 

Intentions-inspiration and colour

Lucienne day is a 1950's printer, the prints are bold and abstract showing how I want my prints to look. They are minimal and simple.
 

Colour palette...

Using some of my images from the summer project and visual research from Manchester.

My colour palette involves teals, blues, greys, mustards and greens reflecting my summer and the city. Most of it reflects the weather.

I wanted a few hand drawn designs in my collection to look different to my screen prints. I used my previous drawings from the city to the re-draw and select which ones work best. I wanted these to look layered so started with a sponge print and added over the top using brushes, pens and graphite. Lucienne day inspired me greatly for this. Using block water colour shapes I think the other media on top works well and shows a layered composition with contrast in colour and texture. 

Using fabric samples to pick up my colour palette...

I ordered some samples as close to my colour palette as possible, they turned out to be perfect.

Intentions- visual research

Amy and I sat outside one morning, I feel that the mornings are a great time to draw as they are quite busy and have a fresh feel. 

I tried to capture the texture of the bricks and the arches, the buildings in the distance we're quite difficult to draw but once again I wasn't trying to draw perfect, I was just getting the feel of the scene. I enjoy working with graphite and using other softer pencils to create darker lines. 

Drawing blind by looking at the building I tried to get things drawn in an abstract way. I like the teal writing and think because I wears only looking at the sign I capture the font well.

I thought of manchester museum as the building is amazing so thought the inside would have interesting shapes. Carrying on with the rectangle theme I seem to have going on, the stairs and cabinets we're perfect to draw.

I wanted to change the way I was drawing so played around with this one. I had different media in both hands and looked at the stairs whilst I drew them. It creates a kind of semetrical look but doesn't really look like the stairs. I could improve this on photoshop by repeating the print.

Standing in the glass hall way of the museum to look out to the city worked well. The contrast of buildings abled me to use different media to get the feel of them, as they all we're different especially the museum as it's an old building. I already had the wash on the background and reflected the mood quite well as the day was dull anyway. I like to work quite abstract and picking up the different block colours from the scaffolding and the drain pipes adds a splash of colour. I enjoyed drawing this and could improve by drawing it on a bigger scale to get more detail of the different buildings. As I'm specialising into print I think my work will consist of rectangular shapes with repeats and layers. My colour palette is mainly blues, greys and tones of greens with splashes of colour. This I think reflects the mood of Manchester as during visual research it's been quite gloomy and rainy (no surprise there).  

During the summer I visited Amsterdam, the place is stunning and the buildings are beautiful. The structure and linear qualities are perfect for this project. I like how the windows are repeated and some are different to others with little separated windows in each.

Intentions- city drawing

A group of us decided to get on the tram and get off at random places to draw, as I waited for the girls to meet me I sat in a cafe and drew the scene I saw looking out the window. 

I wanted to reflect the feel and business of the city at this time (10am) by drawing the building Infront of me. The repetition of the windows is interesting and I find the arches a lovely shape. I like to draw in a quick messy style as I feel that when I try to draw in preportion and 'properly' I end up with an outcome I don't like so I prefer to draw in a sketchy way. 

I don't think this is a good drawing but I go what I wanted from it. Sitting and drawing on my own was quite dawning but I perciveered and learnt not to be too precious with drawing and to just go for it. The thing I like about this are the darker likes I used for the street posts and signs creating a different mark. The drawing isn't really in preportion or to scale at all but the whole point in drawing this scene was trying to get the feel of the city. 

Urging the tram journey I found it interesting to photograph the buildings behind the metal structures showing layers.

We travelled to New Islington (not knowing where we we're really going) we came across the locks. The mill in the background, wall in the middle and the canal in the foreground creates layers also. Most of my drawings this day we're quick, blind and continuous. I enjoy working on white backgrounds with different media. As we travelled around I didn't take inks out so planned to at to my drawings when I returned home. 

I was looking at the building whilst drawing this (blind drawing) using continuous line I drew different rows of windows. I like how it's messy and the different media shows a different row of windows. I like to use colour in little bits so it pops and makes the darker colours stand out and give it energy. I know it looks very childish but my aim was to look more at the building and get the repeated windows.

We moved along the canal and near to the northern quarter. Still sticking with my blind drawing and focussing on windows as shapes I ended up drawing this. Looking at it, it doesn't look like a window but I like the shape. I filled the colour in afterwards. 

We went to media city later on and sat to look out at the modern buildings. The buildings are very ontemporary and have vast amount of glass. I wanted to show the volume of windows by repeating squares (still blind drawing) I love layering starting with a soft pencil and finishing with a sharp felt tip pen. The colours reflect the colours of the buildings without being too obvious. To improve this I could add thicker media. 

This wasn't one of my strongest drawings as I was drawing out it was only the grey part and when I got home I added the organic ink shapes with inspiration from Anya Carlson. I could do more drawings by adding more linear shaped ink over the top.