17022016

The day started out in the print room. I am trying to really experiment with the idea of space within a composition and how this can be created with dark space and shape. My morning in the print room was nor very successful as the first print I made resembled more of a ghost print. The background was not dark enough and the features of the pattern did not stand out. There was no differentiation between the subjects of the piece and the background. 

After speaking to Bianca I learnt that this has not been successful because the ink on the background had not been rolled out thickly enough onto the plate. I re-inked the plate and this time was more successful in what I wanted to achieve. However this time the collage elements were not as successful. When I do these prints again I need to take more consideration with how I am inking up each section. I also want to try and play around with composition more and print these mono-types on larger pieces of paper. 

In the afternoon I met with Millie who is a first year on the photography degree. Her work is an influence in my own practice at the moment because of how she uses colour and lighting. This collage piece was the result of a spontaneous collaboration in the Library where I worked into her image with salvaged paper.

Falmouth School of art lectures: Graham Gussin. Graham's work is beautiful in how he plays on the idea of space. His video and drawing pieces were really inspiring. How he pushes the boundaries of drawing and writing has sparked an interest and something I want to research further.

16022016

This morning I met up with Illustration Lecturer Nick Mott. I have met some lovely people on the illustration course at Falmouth and when we've spoken about our ways of working they said that Nick would be very interested in my work. Since seeing the work of Falmouth graduate Sophie Eliza Chadwick I have been doing collage more and more. I am now pushing this into print by combining found imagery with spontaneous mark making and exploring this idea of narrative through collage.

Talking to Nick I was really influenced by his way of keeping sketchbooks and the idea that keeping them is a way to document collage. There was something very clear and organised about his way of working which has motivated me to try and organise my collage this way. On my foundation I kept artists books and it was good because the work was always in one place. However now I am more disorganised so I think keeping work like this might be a good thing for me. 

Over the last few days I have been finding old plates which I want to introduce into new work and give new meaning to. The idea of spotntaneous mark making is still very relevant in my practice however I want to experiment more with found imagery and geometric shape. 

 These were some of the outcomes from being in the print room today. They were not very successful because the spacing between the imagery and the plate is too fragmented and the image does not sit right. I was pleased at how some of the colours worked together. I just need to think about the placement of the imagery and how this reads to the viewer. I was also pushing this work in a new direction by printing on large sheets of white Fabriano paper. I did this because space is a very interesting thing to consider within work and what this can mean and add to the piece.

I dug out some old photographic plates which had been etched and are exploring the idea of fragmentation and distortion of image. Photographic etching is something I want to try and progress my collage ideas into as I think it will mean I can work on a larger scale but also push the idea of fragmentation further.

15022016

Isolde showed us her work today and it was really motivating to see how we could use her working process to create some interesting drawings. It was great to gain an insight into the way my tutor works and what I could learn from this to apply to my own practice. How she worked with just one medium in such an expressive way was great because she used the media to its fullest potential varying mark and tone to create a dramatic piece of work. 

The idea behind her work focusses on the idea of process and finding shapes within the composition to create a narrative. She has made of 400 of these drawings and over the last couple of years has made them late at night. I pointed out that this actually reflected in how the work looked as it has dreamlike qualities and also with how the imagery is created it is working with the subconscious and how imagery is stored. 

She said the process of creating this work is obsessive and I relate to that with the way I make work. In her work unreal spaces emerge from a tangled surface, it is this which draws the viewer in and makes them question the narrative and use of mark. 

Today I created an A1 drawing which was daunting to begin with because I tend to work small because I like my work to have an intimate quality. However it is always good to challenge yourself and I still managed to keep my quality of line and idea of expression despite working on a larger scale. I decided to do this drawing as a line drawing to capture the essence of the subjects of I was looking at. Being inspired by Isolde's use of shape and quality of line I am thinking about making a larger series of drawings focussing on how I use the medium and minimal use of colour. 

The finished drawing and video which shows the process from start to finish//