Working into the images

I now have a studio full of prints of varying quality. If I have learnt anything it is to be more fussy about the colour that I mix before using it. I have decided to work into some of the images so as to extend the pictorial possibilities of each one. I am using oil paint and, inevitably, collage. This is my first attempt and as it is still too wet to be glued, the collage is pinned. However, I am rather pleased with this one and have started another.

A learning curve

I am still enjoying the relief printing project though it has not been plain sailing. There are so many small but important technical details to iron out still. I am hand embellishing in preference to using the press because the prints slipped forwards. I was told that I should rather be using a simple letter press which applies pressure downwards evenly over the whole surface. I have still to try this.Instead, I am rubbing with a spoon and it works well enough. Inking up with just the right amount of paint and block printing medium is still a bit hit and miss though there is an improvement on my first prints. I love the multiple image but simultaneously want to work into each one separately. The studio is full of prints.

Dante's Inferno

I am surprised to see that it is almost a month since I last added a post. I have been busy with an enormous amount of clearing. This involved throwing out and burning and was quite a harrowing experience. However, I also found things that had been temporarily "lost" and I am pleased to say I have resuscitated an old project that has been "on the back burner" for too many years. I am once again approaching Dante's "Inferno". This time I hope to complete the task and bring together a body of work  in the form of either a portfolio or even a book.

Ideas for the print

I find that I am quite anxious about the first print. I know I should simply "go for it" and have done but still I want to get the most out of this first attempt and so there is pressure. I have completed two preparatory sketches. I am aware that once I start working on the block, the image and the process will take over and I will be carried along. Nevertheless I need to do all this preparation. I think it is a subconscious means of creating courage and at the same time I am storing ideas that will be there when I need them. Probably I am just putting off the first cut.

Here is the finished piece. I call it "Stepping back".

Well, here it is. I added some acrylic paint to mask a few of the black lines because I felt that they were leading the viewer out of the picture. People always want to know the exact location of my landscapes. I have to explain that my pictures are the direct result of many drawings and that I absorb views and store them in my memory and in my sketch books. However, the final work is an abstraction in which I bring together my visual and emotional response to an area. It is never an exact copy of a scene. The marks that I make and the colours that I use are partly drawn from reality and partly from my experience of life and of the creative process.

A new collage from start to finish



This is about to be glued but the final image is not yet "fixed".



This is how it works. I start with collage papers scattered over my work surface. Sometimes I begin  the picture by placing a few pieces of cut or torn paper and sometimes I make marks before I try the papers. Either way, the papers are only pinned into place and can be taken off or moved as the design progresses. When I am happy with the image I glue every piece of paper carefully into position. It is a painstaking procedure and quite the opposite of the original creative process. When it is glued, I leave the design on my studio wall for a day or two and I look at it and I think about it. When necessary, further alterations are made. Finally it is "ready".

Sketch books

carolayton.com

I am making my own sketch books now. That way I get to choose the paper on which to work and by the time it is sewn and glued together, it is all so familiar and "used" that I have no fear of spoiling it. In a sense, I have already made each page my own and so I can't possibly feel intimidated.
I found on the market, some Irish linen thread intended for carpets. It is ideal for sewing the bundles together. I like to draw across the page, crossing over the join.