Project 5 Printing and painting Stage 2/3

Selecting design ideas

I've spent ages trying to decide what to select and the list has come down to these four.

1.

This was developed from bleach painted onto red tissue paper and in a previous exercise I created this tile.  It also comes in black.  I can imagine making a stencil for the more prominent lines and hand painting the dynamic lines which radiate from the centre.  A glance over at my fabric selection makes me panic because I can't see anything that fits the bill.  I could dye or I could reverse things and have the design coloured maybe on canvas.

Making my stencil

Previously I've thought that card stencils are prone to wear and tear and as I might want to use this several times I decided to cut it out of a plastic milk carton in the hope that it would be more robust.  I've chosen a piece of quite rough, rustic calico for this and imagine it might be sewn on to a shopping bag.

With the benefit of hindsight and as anyone with half an eye can see this was never going to work. I ended  up with two shapes and trying to hold them both was next door to impossible. I got in a real muddle with positive and negative to the point where I had to walk away from it.  There wasn't enough room for a suitable margin so when I printed I went over the edge. Phew!

The top left stencil was done with a brush and has lost some clarity.  For the others I used a sponge and it was much better. Although I'm far from happy with the outcome the plus is that the shape retained its dynamic feel.  I think I will leave this particular piece and try again maybe by carving a balsa block.

After several days....

Now that I'm over sulking because my red stencil idea didn't work I decided to return to it and see what I could do to make it better.  I hand painted the splashy marks that I couldn't get on a stencil and repaired some of the omisions.  I feel much more positive about it now.

My starting point

Living out in the sticks with lots of snow on the ground is not the best way to buy balsa and my husband came up with the idea of using something called wedi board that he had used when he installed our wet room.  To carve it I tried a knife but it crumbled so I used a soldering iron and it was better.

It looked like it might work but I'd already used my calico so I had to find an alternative.  I picked a white crinkle cotton simply because it offered a very different surface.  I was mindful that I'm encouraged to make one sample that doesn't rely too heavily on colour so I decided on black paint and I was hopeful.  The result disappointed me.  The print was very variable and there wasn't the clarity I'd wanted, probably because of the crinkle cloth.  I've usually been quite successful with getting a consistent print so maybe the surface of the block isn't right.  The first red attempt compares favourably.  I'm not really wanting to pursue this any more as I'm becoming disspirited with it.

Having met with some success in retrieving the red stencil sample I thought I'd better have another look at this.  I want to retain the smooth interior of the shape and try to accentuate the jagged outer.  I'll try hand painting again.

It feels a bit like cheating to paint things in but it does look so much better.  The crinkle cotton means that the black is rarely absolute.  I feel a bit better about these than I did a day or two ago.

2.

This is from an image that scribbled in felt tip then blurred on the computer and I think it may lend itself to silk painting. Whether I have that sort of skill I doubt but I'll have a go. 

The blurred image

My silk interpretation

This worked better than I hoped.  I used damp silk and ordered the colours deliberately leaving stripes of white fabric showing.  Slowly the colours merged but like the original some white remained.  I would like to get the diagonal variations more pronounced but I find the results very unpredictable.  The gutta held this time.  I think I can get finer nibs because this looks very clunky but I was anxious to make a proper resist.  The tension on the silk wasn't as good as that I got on my embroidery frame.  This shows in the distortion of the gutta on the top.  There's no way round it; I need lots more experience. 

I've had an idea that I could repeat this and use the same random movements that I applied in the original drawing on paper.  I'll prepare my frame and have a try.

Immediately after painting

I went from corner to corner in fast sweeping movements disregarding the order of the colours.   It doesn't fill the gutta frame because of the movement I used.  As time went on the colours muted and blended.  Whilst it doesn't look like the original drawing it feels like it.  It has more energy than the first silk one.

After a couple of hours

3

This image is an extract from a larger piece of work.  Looking at it now when the snow is on the ground and there are icicles makes me think how well this picture represents such weather.  There is a  haziness about the work and I think using my Markal paint sticks and blurring them might give me the same effect on fabric.  I only have 3 paint sticks so I'll have to improvise but really it's the effect I'm after.

I used some of the acrylic felt I bought to line my printing board because it's soft looking and it gave me the opportunity to leave the white untouched but encourage the blue to stray in.  I do wish I'd had more appropriate colours because this has real possibilities. The purple really needs the addition of some red and the brown detracts by looking far too heavy.  However there is the beginning of the mistiness I'd wanted and I'll try again if I get some more paint sticks but they are very expensive for only occasional use.

4

This was a reinterpretation of the piece I used for number 3 above.  I want to use it because I like it but at the moment I'm unsure quite what I'll do.

If I can I want to keep the sharpness of the picture and for me the silver makes this happen.  Unfortunately I haven't any silver paint so I'll need to re think.

I do have gold (although it is by no means a good substitute) and a grey which isn't sparkly.  I've looked at my fabrics and decided to go the gold route because a I have a piece of shiny, silky fabric which might make the sparkle with gold paint.

I masked areas off and sponged gold paint on.  Then I masked the edges of the circle.

I mixed some cerise and turquoise batik paint with some white fabric paint from another range and hoped it would work.  I've not used batik paint before and I wasn't sure how it would work on a synthetic fabric or how it would mix.


Oh dear!  My masking didn't make a good enough seal and there has been signifucant leakage.

Surprisingly though it seems to do wonders for the sponged on gold paint.  I'm not sure where I go from here.

Next day...

I've decided to leave this and try something else.  I've got some fabric a bit like J cloth in purple.  I've also found some elderly silver paint that I've previously used on cards.  I noticed that I can use it on fabric so I'll see if I can call it into service as well.

The fabric is quite see through so I've used different layers in the hope that varying densities will show.  Because the colours will not be well differentiated I'm going to try creating textures instead.

This piece feels a bit forced.  It wasn't driven by inspiration but by necessity. I''m not sure how I feel about it.

I'm pleased this is over; of all the work I've done so far I've enjoyed this exercise the least.  There are one or two reasons.  Firstly I haven't felt really happy with what I've been doing.  Trying to apply all that I've learnt has sometimes seemed a real burden.  Also the length of Part 2 has really started to tell and I'm ready for a change.  I'm sure there's a huge psychological impact of so long without tutor feedback and I feel as though I'm running out of steam.  One comfort is reading blogs where I see that other students experience similar feelings.