Monday 15 December 2014

Week 4: Printing workshop and taxidermy

Printing workshop 

During our second week we had the chance to take part in a printing workshop, to practice 'etching' for the first time. We each took a sketchbook of our animal work down to the printing room and chose an image to etch. This was very fun and enjoyable for me. I chose to work from a study I had done previously of my neighbors dog, because I thought that this could potentially make quite an interesting print when considering the mark making I used in the original drawing. We were given small sheets of card which on one side had a waxy coating, which looked glossy and similar to photo paper. We then had to scratch our study into this using a sharp utensil, and we were taught that we could create many different marks by doing this, like dotty ones for example. We were also able to tear parts of the waxy coating off with our hands which would later create big bold inky marks when put through the printing press. The marks that we made created an area that the ink was able to absorb into. We carefully applied the ink to the cards with rubber squeegees, and then rubbing the excess away with paper towels. This ensured that the ink had filled into the scratches and tears comfortably. The next step was putting the card through the press which a sheet of damp paper covering it, for the inked image to transfer onto. Unfortunately, I used the wrong type of paper on my first attempt and so my first print was not successful, however my second one was, which I was pleased about. Here is my result:


This was my finished result, after the second attempt! I was quite pleased with it and really enjoyed the workshop. I quite like the different effects that the varied marks have made in the study, and I would definitely like to experiment in the print room again to learn more and develop my skills. I am quite excited to try this again in the future to practice mark making more, I think it would have been good to have been able to create a few different prints so I could create different scaled pieces.
The right paper I used on the second attempt
The wrong paper I used (You can see that the ink hasn't
properly wiped off)
































Taxidermy workshop
Also in our fourth week, we visited a taxidermy where we were able to illustrate the range of stuffed animals they had. This was a good chance to draw real animals that were still for us to study them and their details closely. At the workshop there were many animals like rabbits, hares, foxes, owls, otters etc, as well as many different insects. I very much enjoyed drawing the hare that they had, finding it fun to capture the details of the fur in a study. Here is what I created: 
 

I simply used pencil to draw out this animal finding that using the various types of pencil allowed me to create harsher and softer marks for the fur, helping to build up regular textures. I like how the hare looks as though it has been caught being very aware of itself and surroundings, as though it has frozen in a moment before racing off. 
 I think that the above drawing was my most successful from the workshop, however here are some of my others:

I used pencil to illustrate the otter but was very unhappy with it
I used bolder lines with graphite to draw the back of the bird, I was also quite unhappy with this study.
I experimented with pencil and fine liner when drawing the butterflies
I also attempted one in colour pencil to try to express the vibrant patterns on the butterfly, but am unsure as to how this looked overall.




























































































 I think that I may have been more pleased with my studies if I had allowed myself to experiment further with colour and media during this task. However, I found that this workshop was very beneficial towards my practice, it further enabled me to discover new animals and insects that I liked drawing, which in this case above the others was the hare. Therefore I would like to further experiment drawing hares and rabbits and see where this takes me.

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