Personal Investigation work

 This is a series of lino prints I made continuing with work similar to German Expressionism. I experimented with different colours so they're more interesting and it creates more variety. I used darker shades of colours to stick to my theme of emotions during lockdown as brighter shades wouldn't carry the same tone.

After printing only on white paper I needed to make my backings more interesting, as while the work doesn't look bad its a bit plain. First I used tissue paper against a sheet of paper. I thought it'd be fitting to create darker tones for the tissue paper, so I put some black tissue paper behind to create this. To keep to expressing emotions, I decided to rip the paper as I felt it expresses feeling frustrated and disjointed. I didn't choose my colours very well for this work however, I made the tissue paper too dark which led to the prints being hard to see.

Continuing with making better backings I added newspaper onto the next one so no matter what colour the tissue paper was my prints should be visible. I used newspaper that we had in the classroom, and I tried to make my tissue paper colours complement or be similar to what was in the newspaper. This worked out well as my prints could be seen clearly and it looks much more interesting than on plain paper.

The next background I created was using the same idea as before. This time I had to self-isolate and was at home and so since there were more recent newspapers there I felt it'd be better to be more topical. I looked through the newspapers mostly looking for news relating to the pandemic. I also used parts of page headlines for some negative words to emphasise the feelings I'm conveying.

I created another lino print, this time as a close up. I wanted to create a more detailed close up while retaining the aesthetic, and I think I achieved that here by making proportions more accurate but keeping the sketchy, line based way of shading. I also wanted to make the posing a little more dynamic with the angle, how I tried to have my hair overlapping with my hand a bit, and the shadow that made

I then moved onto more realistic drawings. This was just to build up more work, so I made quick sketches with pencil and charcoal. I used them to still keep my inspiration from the German Expressionism work I looked at, since I still needed to convey the dark emotions.

After creating the sketches I worked on more solid and proper drawings. I drew these on A3 paper to just scale up my work a bit more, and kept on using charcoal to create them. One of the things I find interesting about charcoal is how you create tone through smudging, and also how, similar to using a brush, the strokes of the charcoal can be seen. I used that to draw out the hair but also to create some rough looking textures on the darker areas. My first drawing of these (bottom left) was a little off in the proportions of the face and hair but I think it was mostly successful in the shading. I think I was a little better with the proportions on the second drawing. 

I wanted to make the drawings more interesting to look at, and so I incorporated some of what I did with my print backgrounds. I tore the image and some tissue paper apart for the same feelings of frustration. While I don't think this ended up with a great result it was an idea that I could refine. I just tore the paper and laid it without much thought or purpose as to why, so when creating more I kept that in mind. It also felt a little barren and I felt something other than the tissue paper would be necessary.

These drawings were much more successful as the proportion is much better than before, and while that isn't perfectly accurate to the original image it still looks right. I think in both of these drawings the hair looks much better than before as the many directions of the hair are more visible and the shape is just generally better. I had trouble at first with the proportion of the first drawing here but I later fixed that by drawing more on top. A difficult part of the second drawing was where the hair bounces up a bit as the direction had to look just right, and it was also hard to show that through the highlights.
 

I continued working on the backgrounds and they turned out much better I feel. I added text so the backings weren't just blank. At first this was just done by writing with some charcoal but I also used some paint, and made use of manipulating text in Photoshop in the second image. The text I chose was because its very negative, suppressive and doubtful. I was a little limited in the colour I could use for the tissue paper, which is why I painted a part of the second image. 

       

I photocopied a drawing to A1 size, and used ink over it . This created much darker colours but also created a drip effect from the ink, which made the angsty tone much more effective in my opinion. It was a little difficult to make the ink drip at first but by using quick swings and flicks of the brush when making a line the drips were more common.

I worked on Photoshop again to make another background. This time I did more to distort the text, mostly by using the smudge tool. I also changed brush tool styles to create everything behind the text so it wasn't blank.

I experimented with trying to make a background also using ink. I thought it would be more interesting for the colour to fade into another to make it feel less static. At first I wanted to join up the backgrounds as they are on the wall but the gaps in the paper would make it look unnatural when its actually behind the whole image. I had some difficulty trying to get the right colours for everything to fade correctly which probably also contributed to this.

Rather than using a few smaller pieces of paper together I just started to use larger paper that fits with the work. I used paper towels to spread the ink instead of brushes as this creates different textures than just using a brush. This was just a test to see what it would be like to do this. When doing this, I was on the floor which imprinted the floor's texture onto the paper.

          

This was the result I got from the method above. I tried to make some words clear so it wasn't solely the ink moving up, along with using the background I'd already printed out earlier. The paper I used was quite thin, which caused it to easily crumple and rip accidentally but luckily this fits in with some work I'd already made.

After making a new drawing I needed a new background, so I used the same method as earlier. This work was created during lockdown and so I worked with a smaller scale at home. This made everything I wanted to fit onto it become a lot more condensed than before, which made it a little more difficult than before despite the smaller size.

I photocopied the orignal drawing to use ink with it. I got a few copies in case something went wrong with it, but I realised I could use those copies in a different way. I decided to use different colours of ink for them so that I could have 3 images together, which I thought would make for an interesting visual, and to represent the repetetiveness of the days during lockdown. I used blue and purple aside from the black to keep to the same colour scheme as the background I created. I didn't put ink over the whole images when making the copies, since I figured that  they'd be overlapping and it wasn't necessary to do where they'd be covered over.

I used a craft knife to remove the white spaces in the drawings as well as tearing them a bit.

This was the outcome, which I'm happy with. My biggest gripe with it though is that the backround isn't very visible. To help with this I intentionally didn't stick part of the work down, so that it could be moved to see at least a bit more of whats behind. I kept in mind that if I wanted to have my background more visible, it'll better for next time to make it larger.

I started some more drawings to use for later, this time I went for a much different kind of pose than before so that a lot more of my body is visible.

I wanted to experiment a little bit with showing some kind of movement in the drawings. I looked at the artist Jenny Saville as a source of inspiration, specifically searching for work to do with movement. I noticed that there was a sort of overlap of features in her drawings which I tried to do in my own way. When I finished drawing I also smudged the work by dragging the charcoal to create a blur to simulate movement. The drawing on the far left above was drawn from a blurred photo I took which gave some difficulty in actually working from it.

I moved on to creating a background to put my work onto. Its on A1 paper and I created it by getting some paper towel and dipping it into some ink and using that. Rather than just creating strokes I thought I could get more interesting effects and textures if I used the paper towel differently. I shook it after dipping so that the ink would splatter around the paper, and I lightly bounced it on the paper which made the scratchy looking parts at the top of the paper.

For another aspect of my background I decided to work on text in Photoshop again. I tried out some new techniques since I last worked this way. I made use of the channels tab in Photoshop to drag out the colour layers of the text, which was to create the distorted and repeated effect at the top. I thought it would be a good idea to take a screenshot of a dictionary definition, I was thinking it would work along the same lines as using newspaper cutouts would. For the word 'boring' I used the liquify tool to drag the bottoms of the text, duplicated it as two different colours, then in an empty layer above I used the Mixer Brush tool and dragged down to blend the colours. The blur that created wasn't actually intentional but I think it worked out better than way to emphasise the sense of distortion.

I put my work together to get this layout. This wasn't the final outcome as first I needed to work out where I'd place everything beforehand, so I just ripped the drawings out instead of using a craft knife to just get it done.

I created more text, this time again trying out some new and different techniques in Photoshop. I used different fonts, used a splatter brush, created selections and dragged them to misshape the text and mixed a few filters. A theme I wanted to get across to convey my theme was distortion and chaos, to reflect a breaking down of the mind in such a heavy and moody atmosphere, which is why I created the text the way I did.

Before actually creating the next piece of work I wanted to first plan it out so that there was more purpose to the placements. I sketched up some layouts and decided on what I thought would be the best one.

This was the result I came to. I'm happy with the layout here, though an issue with using photocopied drawings here is the cut off which may take away from the overall piece.

Then I used this same layout to try working on it as a singular piece, rather than putting a few together. This removes the issue with the drawings cutting off and in this case specifically it gives the middle drawing a bigger presence as it can lay over the others. The hardest part about making this for me was probably getting the text to look as good as it does when I made in in Photoshop, however I also think that using physical inks can allow for much more natural splatters and drips.

Artist Research

Before moving onto my final piece I wanted to look at some artists just to see if I could get any other ideas and inspiration.

Henry Moore

I looked at Henry Moore's war drawings. They perfectly capture some of the emotion that I'm trying to with the expressions and dark colours. One thing that I hadn't really considered that is in his art here that I like is the use of small amounts of colour in the drawings. It helps to give a little bit of pop and distinction to parts of the drawing, however because there's only a little it doesn't take over and change the overall tone. I also really like the messy effects of the drawings, which are likely results of his method.

Kurt Schwitters

Schwitters' collage work could tie in to the way I layer drawings. While I wouldn't use collage like this its interesting to look at other uses and how it can contribute to a drawing. He used a lot of broken items and garbage which I wouldn't use but I can give more consideration to using different kinds of materials.

Vik Muniz

Vik Muniz is another artist that I looked at. He uses unconventional things to work with, such as soil and straw which can give some unique textures to a piece. Much like with Kurt Schwitters it gives another perspective for what I can use. I like the textures that he's been able to create, and I can use them in my own ways. I can use a scratchy texture to capture pain or frustration for example. Similarly to German Expressionism I like the use of blank space against other colours in some of his artwork.

Final Piece

These were some initial sketches for the idea I had for my final piece. I wanted to have a large drawing that you could pull back, and see more smaller drawings beneath. This would be to convey that we have many different feelings within us at a time, and how we may try to cover them.

I made these drawings initially as parts of my final piece, however I didn't end up using them as I didn't think they would really add to it as I first thought they might. They did serve as prep to help me practice for the larger drawing I'd end up doing so they weren't worthless in the end. In these drawings I had small bits of colour as inspired from my look at Henry Moore's art. I put the colours into certain parts so that it'd help them pop. To do this I first just drew in charcoal and then went over parts with some coloured chalk, so that it would look natural with the rest in charcoal. I tried to use a variety of poses so everything was distinct and could carry a different emotion.

After the drawings I started to work on the background I needed. I got a wooden board and used blue ink. Initially I used blue because I thought it would work as a colour to represent sadness, however after feedback I went over it in red so it could become more purple so that it looked less calm. This was a good decision as I think after going over it, it looked far more angsty and chaotic.

One of the biggest aspects of creating this final piece was figuring out how pulling back one big drawing would be able to work. I couldn't just glue part of the bottom down as the top would simply fall down, so I needed to think of something sturdy. I contemplated using magnets in some way which would let the drawing stick and peel off, but this could've been hard to set up magnets and the metal they'd attract to. Another idea was simply having tears in the large drawing that you'd instead look through to see the smaller ones beneath. However, I settled on something much different. Using a hoodie beneath the drawing, so you could unzip and open it up. While it meant I had to cut this big drawing in half I really liked how this would work, and it could tie in to what I could wear in the large drawing over it. As well as this, using an unorthodox material here tied into my research of Kurt Schwitters as even if it wasn't garbage like he used, it was the consideration of a different and unusual material.

I made the large drawing at A1 size mostly from charcoal, and then some black ink over it to achieve the drip affect that I had earlier. I had some difficulty first adjusting to the scale as it took me about two or three hours to just get the general shape just right and the details near enough in place, however after this I took much better to the shading of the drawing. I wanted quite a regular pose here, as I wanted to further the express the idea that I mentioned earlier in that we may hide our emotions. I thought that by using a more standard pose, it would act as a sort of mask for the more different and angsty drawings beneath. The ink drippings also act as a small way of letting you know that something more is off here.

This was the text that I included on the inside of the hoodie.  I used many of the methods I had beforehand to create this, such as dragging colour channels, using splatter brushes, filters, the mixer brush tool, etc. I made the top three words to represent the initial three drawings that I made, as even if I didn't end up using them I thought I could reference them at least. These were the emotions I thought of for them, and I also used the colours of the chalk I used in the drawings. I created the word "Trapped" the way I did, as I thought that by being in a corner it would be as if it was stuck in a box. For "Tiring" I thought of how everything feels quite drifty, and that the sort of after images represented this idea well. For "Hope", I added "When?" with it as when mixed with the definition it represents the "desire for a particular thing to happen".

When making this text I tried to make the same word interesting here in spite of using it repeatedly. By including the word not in bracekets and placing it in the space of "I'm fine" I thought it was something that was extremely simple, yet effective and decided to keep it that way. After this I wanted to have a blood drip to juxtapose the word fine as a way to represent hiding darker emotions. I made it look so that the blood came from behind to emphasise this and fit in line with the entire concept of the final piece. Finally, I just wanted to make the word fine more distorted. I used a ransom note style font, made a red copy beneath, moved and pulled out parts of the text, used a splatter brush, and finally used a TV static filter in order to create a very chaotic look.

After completing my drawings I needed to properly figure out my layout before sticking it all down properly. I thought of how the drawings I made should overlap and where the text could fit around them. I needed to have the drawing reaching out to be very visible because of the text it reaches out to, which was signifying reaching out to hope, as well as having the lying drawing on the bottom so it was in a place that would make sense with lying down and metaphorically being at a low point. Since I felt the distorted drawing is quite vague in its emotions, I wanted to include a range of text that would go with it as it shows the mix that we can experience at times. I included the word fine repeatedly to be visible with the large drawing, as I think the insistance of something as simple as "I'm fine" can be a way that we hide behind our true, darker emotions. To make sure that the hoodie fit on here properly, I got the arms cut off which made the background more visible, or the inside more smooth if I hadn't otherwise.

To make the hoodie far more sturdy and som the top wouldn't droop down, I used this sheet to hold it up. I thought that by making it black, it would be more effective as it would blend in more with the hooide, so I went over it with black ink. Then once I had it right where I wanted it, I used a staple gun to stick the hoodie firmly into the board. Luckily none of the material wasn't too thick for the staple to get through. After this I stuck my drawings into it properly, using the layout I was satisfied with.

It was time for the large drawing and other text to go on. However I wasn't comfortable cutting it in half first, so I got the drawing photocopied so I could cut it before properly doing it. I positioned the text saying "I'm (not) fine" so that the not was more readable, and the blood dripping text somewhat with how the strokes of the ink moved. Once happy with the positioning, I lay half of the cut photocopy over the original, and then aligned it under a paper guillotine to get a clean cut. While nervous about doing this in case something went wrong, it worked just as I'd hoped. I then took each half of my drawing and used an adhesive spray on the back so that it would stick onto the hoodie.