Print Pathway Aesops' Fables

These are a couple of layouts I'll be using for the elderly/sheep victims. I want to use aged looking, dark wallpaper and then the image is sort of has a frame around them. So you think are they pictures on a wall? have they been under the wallpaper? are they looking through a gap? The viewer can have their own interpretation. I just feel the wallpaper gives a sense of who the person is and makes the images much more interesting.    

Print Pathway Aesops' Fables

For lesson 30/11/2010

How many prints did you make this week?

Lots this week. I kept etching and lino printing until I got the results I wanted.

How many of these taught me something new?

None, I'm on to making final pieces so I'm using techniques that were successful in the past.

How many hours did you spend in the workshop?

All day. 

Competence in the practical printmaking technique 80-89 - I now know exactly what I am doing and how, which is why I got so many prints done.

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking 70-79 - A lot of the prints I did were not turning out as I had imagined them to, so I had to be imaginative in order to make them work.

Visual sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas 70-79 - I feel what I made really got my ideas across. 

Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work N/A 

Print Pathway Aesops' Fables

Paul Hickey/ For lesson 23/11/2010

How many prints did you make this week?

I made quite a few. The image above is of a lino cut (the town image) and an etching (wolves) which I have put together in Photoshop. my aim was to complete this image, so I made lots of alternatives.

How many of these taught you something new?

The only new thing I learnt was that if I printed my lino print and then moved it slightly and printed again and so on, it gradually fades out and gives the image more depth.

How many hours did you spend in the Print making workshop?

I was in there all day. 

Competence in the practical printmaking technique 70-79 - I now think I am very confident in my techniques, and I'm creating successful pieces much quicker. 

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking 60-69 - Recently I have been really considering composition, which I'm trying to keep up and Photoshop is making this much easier. 

Visual sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas 60-69 - During printing I am trying to express ideas in ways I have been using in previous weeks, but it is Photoshop which is making the difference. 

Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work 0 - I haven't done any research this week. Now I am coming to the last few weeks of the project I just really need to concentrate on creating prints for the final images.   

Print Pathway Aesop's Fables

Paul Hickey/ For lesson 16/11/2010

How many prints did you make this week?

This week was more about putting my prints together to create compositions, and making more mock ups of the final book.

How many of these taught you something new?

With each mock book I made I came up with alternative ideas of compositions, and ways of neatening the book so that all of the pages are of the same thickness once all has been folded.

How many hours did you spend in the Print making workshop?

Not many this week. I didn't really need to be in there to do these things.

Competence in the practical printmaking technique 0 - I didn't do any printmaking this week, but I concentrated on what I had already done, so I am more focussed on what I need to do in the remaining lessons I have in the workshop.

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking 60-69 - I feel I was quite imaginative with what I was doing. I began layering my prints on Photoshop, and adjusting the effects and colourful to further suit the mood and atmosphere in the story.

Visual sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas 60-69 - I think I showed this in using photoshop, where I could further increase the prints' relevance.

Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work 50-59 - As can be seen from a previous blog entry I visited the Tate modern to see the Chapman Brothers' etchings as well as having a talk from Katherina Manolessou, made me realise that for print to be effective, it doesn't necessarily need to be heavily detailed or full of colour, but just a few appropriately selected. So this is what I am aiming for.

Print Artist Research - The Chapman Brothers

I saw these in the Tate Modern and thought they were great! They are etchings which have been kept simple in terms of there method of working. I seem to have been over complicating my ideas for my Aesop's Fables book, wanting to do more than just etch, but as you can see from these, etching is very effective on its own. Its been really useful studying these and interesting as they're so weird!.

Reinventing Illustration T-Shirt Designs

These are some of my T-Shirt designs on the human impact of nature. I have layered my drawings on photoshop, something I have not done before and something I am still learning. I am really pleased with the results though.  

Print Pathway Aesops' Fables

Paul Hickey / for lesson on 09/11/2010

How many prints did you make this week? 

I made eight prints this week of two different images which will almost certainly be used in the final book. 

How many of these taught you something new?

None of them. I've learnt what works for me in terms of printing so I continued to work in that successful way. 

How many hours did you spend in the Printmaking workshop?

I was in there all day. 

Competence in the practical printmaking technique 60-69 - This is getting much better with every week. Especially with etching, I feel very pleased with what I can now achieve. 

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking 50-59 - I already had planned what I wanted to create in that print lesson, but the way I used the ink in and around the images changed with each print to get as many different outcomes as possible. This meant using different things to 'clean' areas of the etching plate to create tone, such as different textured cloths, a knife, pencils etc. 

Visual sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas 60-69 - When I was using the ink in different ways I was thinking of what mood I wanted to create. 

Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work - 30-39 - I haven't used any new research for my work from the last time. I feel I am focussed on an idea, and I am quite far into the project, so I don't need any more research, unless something really does capture my attention or I get stuck.       

Reinventing Illustration Artist Research - Bast

An artist I found recently. I really like the way he has layered his work. A different way to Conor Harrington, but still as interesting. I need to learn from artists such as Bast and Harrington to create more interesting work - try something new.  

Reinventing Illustration Artist Research - Conor Harrington

One of my favourite artists. He started off as a graffiti artists and then adapted it to a more fine art look. Its so heavily layered and it doesn't matter how many times you look at a piece of his work, it is always fascinating, and you always find new bits you missed before. 

Print Pathway Aesops' Fables

Paul Hickey / for lesson 02/10/2010

How many prints did you make this week? 

Not too many. The prints I was planning to work on top of were still wet, so I began to create new etching plates, as well as speaking to my group and Caroline about each others work which took a large amount of the day up.

How many of these taught you something new?

The one etching I did work on did make me realise that my ideas need to be tweaked a bit. Maybe less detail is needed. The important aspects of the image began to get lost. 

How many hours did you spend in the printmaking workshop?

I spent the whole day in there. 

Competence in the practical printmaking techniques - 50-59 - This could have been better. I could have worked faster and achieved a little bit more. 

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking - 50-59 - I have been working with etching again, and still seeing what is achievable with it, attempting to layer my etchings. 

Visual sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas - 60-69 - I have been working on one particular image over the week, changing how I am creating it, to try and get the best result possible. 

Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work -  50-59 - I do keep referring to my sketchbook for research, trying to work out how they have achieved their images. 

Reinventing Illustration Sketchbook

These are some drawings I did to show the human side of natural disasters. The top one is of a photograph taken in Hawaii in the 1940's when a Tsunami hit the island, and the second is of a victim of the recent Pakistan Floods. I am creating some prints to put onto T-shirts and raincoats about nature. It is something which really interests me and something humans are increasingly having an impact on - event natural disasters. We are not necessarily causing them, but contributing to their often unpredictability. I need to now concentrate on showing the natural side of these disasters such as the interpretation of water, and earthquakes actually occurring.

Print Pathway Aesops' Fables More Printing

These are a couple of prints I created this week. I feel like I'm really getting the hang of etching now, but I still need to develop a good working style in mono printing.

Paul Hickey/ Date 20/10/2010

How many prints did you make this week?

I made quite a few this week. Not all of them worked but I'm still experimenting. I feel like I'm getting quicker at doing them now I know exactly what I'm doing, so I'm not scared to experiment. Before I feel like I held back a bit, because it took me a long time to prepare the etching plate, I knew that if it didn't work, I would have wasted a whole day of print.

How many of these taught you something new?

The etchings was basically carrying on from last time, but the mono printing aught me a lot. Its a very fast way of printing and really gets across my style of working quickly, so I'll definitely be doing it again. 

How many hours did you spend in the print making workshop? 

I spent all day in there. I felt more prepared going in this week so I could start printing straight away.

Competence in practical printmaking techniques - 60-69 - I'm starting to get really confident with printing now. Especially as now I have some really clear ideas down in my sketchbook I really have something to work towards.

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking - 50-59 - Could have done better here. Etching was the same as last time. i could have applied paper etc on the surface to make it a bit more interesting. Mono printing is still new to me though so I was pleased with what I did. 

Visual Sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas in images - 50-59 - The etchings that I did showed my ideas much better this time. They look more like sheep (although could be better) and the detail on the face shows an elderly element to them. The mono prints are slightly blurred which brings my idea across well. I still want the original animals in it but added in a subtle way so it was perfect. 

 Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work - 50-59- I have looked at a further two artists - Ceri Amphlett and Dave Mckean. Amphlett's work is new to me and perfect for this project, and I think it shows in the printing that I have done.  

 

Print Pathway Aesops' Fables

For this project I have chosen to re-tell the fable 'The Wolf In The Sheeps' Clothing' using the story of Harold Shipman. The moral to the story is that 'appearances can be deceiving' so I think Shipman's story is perfect. I want to keep elements of the original animals, so for example, the elderly ladies will be the sheep. The animals in the fable portray the characters brilliantly...sheep/elderly - innocent, defenceless and the wolf/Shipman - cunning/deadly.

I want to include dark imagery, with very limited colour. I took these images while watching archive footage of the NHS and shows just the kind of style I want to adopt.

 

I will be taking some more images like this soon to work on. I need some of elderly people. I find this still of working is much better than simply finding internet photos as I need some that are a bit more natural and not 'posey' to fit the story. 

Paul Hickey/ Date 13/10/2010

How many Prints did you make this week?

I made a some etchings this week of sheep and elderly people and then combined the two. It seemed to work really well for the sheep as it seems to be a really effective way of creating fur. It also has the potential of making some really dark, sinister work which is good. 

How many of these taught you something new?

I have never done etching before so pretty much everything I did was new to me, but I think the main thing I learnt was just how many different types of mark making is possible with it. I felt I was developing with the style quickly, so I'll be ready to do more next week. 

How many hours did you spend in the Printmaking Workshop?

I spent about five hours in there.

Competence in practical printmaking techniques - 50-59 - I was a bit reluctant at first, but mainly because I didn't really know what I was doing. Once I started I was fine.

Thoughtful and imaginative use of printmaking -50-59 - Although the images I was printing were the same, I was trying to experiment with negative space and mark making. I feel it was a good basis for next week.

Visual Sensibility; understanding and expressing ideas in images- 40-49 - I don't feel like I did this as well as I could have. I was simply concentrating on actually doing the printing process right. I need to get my confidence up in this first.

 Using research to expand knowledge, enrich thinking and affect your work - 60-69 - I feel like I did this really well. I've been reading up a lot on the subject, going through the BBC archive looking at related articles, watching old news footage on it and researching the town it occurred in - Hyde. 

Alex Lucas

Alex Lucas is an amazing artist I found in a magazine. He concentrates on drawing and painting disaster scenes. This is perfect for my project. He takes a strange approach to illustrating these events. He shows the after affect of them (which is quite normal) but they seem empty of people. They seem calm and placid - not what you would imagine!! He uses screen printing and watercolours on book pages. I like using old book pages in my work but I've never seen them like this before!  

T-Shirt Ideas - Reinventing Illustration

Some T-Shirt designs already in the shops I've found. It's this kind of illustration I want on my raincoats and T-shirts I'm designing for the Reinventing Illustration project. They have a faded effect on them which I find interesting. I'm aiming to print them so they fade or distort over time. Hopefully I can find a method of printing which doesn't take to water well, so the illustration will be affected. 

Kon Trubkovich

Trubkovich is a brilliant artist that I recently came across in 'Elephant' magazine. He creates art which visually documents history and the public domain. He records his own footage on a camcorder, then plays it back and paints the outcomes, including the TV disturbance. I find his work incredibly interesting and admire its accuracy. By using the same colours as those found on a television screen and the disturbance, he seems to create a whole new level of mark making for me.

This kind of style is perfect for my 'Reinventing Illustration' project. By distorting my illustrations of natural disasters, it would give it an urgency, and a sense of speed and panic.

Image from http://www.marianneboeskygallery.com/artists/kon-trubkovich/

Human Intervention

These are photos that I took while watching news videos and uploaded footage on YouTube of the 2004 Tsunami and and the recent Pakistan floods. This is for my current project, 'Reinventing Illustration'. I've recently been watching 'Nature Shock' documentaries and various others about the natural world and natural disasters. I find it amazing how so many of these disasters' causes stem back to human activity. Droughts, floods and imbalances in food chains, to name a few, always seem to be our fault. I now find it difficult to call them natural disasters!

I'll be making T-shirts and raincoats illustrating what we are doing to our world. My intention is to distort the illustrations when they get wet. So the more you wear them, the more distorted they will become. I think this resembles our ideas of these disasters well. It is not such a simple and easy explanation to understand anymore. Its much more complicated than that. We used to have models of why these things happen within the natural world, but we have distorted our understanding of this with our own contributions.     

BP Oil Spill Final Editorial Pieces

I wanted to create illustrations to accompany The Guardian's brilliant articles on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill which they seem to publish daily. I want others to read them, so they see just what BP have done, but I don't think the photographs The Guardian use are doing the job of creating intrigue and drawing readers in. I think illustrations would be much more effective.

CD Cover Project

The final cover for my 'mixtape' project. 'Sleeps to pop music' is for the back of the booklet insert for the CD. It is a quote from my baby book. 

Me

An idea for the 'mixtape' project. I took an image from my previous blog post, drew it, then used photoshop to adjust the colour numerous times and then put the image back together in a collage style. White ink and bleach was further added to disguise and distort certain areas.

Distorted Photography

Some photographs of myself taken from home videos. The aims was to simply distort and blur the images to create something a bit more interesting.

Ian Francis Influenced Experiments

I have recently been inspired by Ian Francis' experimental work on his blog. He experiments with distortion in photography and then draws the outcome so I thought I'd try it myself.
Materials: white pencil, charcoal, pencil and Photoshop (on the top one).

New York Inspired

Some New york inspired drawings from my sketchbook. The final outcome of this project will be a CD cover.

Sketchbook

A couple more pages from my sketchbook.

BP Oil Spill

A couple of ideas for a project on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Recently, most images of the local beaches are of people wearing masks because of the fumes from the burning oil and the smell of not only the water butn the animals being washed up too. So I thought of children playing on or near the beach with their masks.

Blue Planet

I've suddenly really got into watching 'Blue Planet' and stuff like that, and I've started to draw some quick stuff while I'm watching it practicing getting the shape and form right etc. I think this may become a big part of my most recent project 'Use your brain' in which I'm focussing on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. And there's also drawings of children diving (thats obviously not from Blue Planet, just an interesting photograph from the newspaper).