Screen Printing and Lino Cuts
The brief for part one of the When World's Collide project was to make a collaborative screen print. This part of the project didn't go very well, as me and my partner didn't communicate well and ended up making two separate screen prints, and then tried to just layer the two very different images on top of each other without any planning. I definitely need to improve the way I work collaboratively for future projects, even if I find my partner difficult to work with.
Because we also had little time to actually work in our pairs for the collaborative part, I also made my own screen print to try to experiment with the medium as I haven't really done screen printing before. These weren't very successful either. Because there weren't many screen printing beds the time I could spend on them was very limited. I made the mistake of designing and cutting out the screen print on the day that I could use the printing bed, so it was all quite rushed. This didn't allow me the time I needed to figure out how to make a stencil for screen printing, so I ended up making a stencil as I have in the past when doing normal stencil printing by hand. This is why in the final products there are gaps between every piece of colour, and one of the positives of screen printing as a medium is that there doesn't need to be gaps like in hand printing, because you can layer easily. I really want to try screen printing again, as I don't feel like I really understood how to use this process well in this project.
I did really like the design I'd made for the screen printing, so I decided to translate it into lino prints because there weren't enough screen printing beds for me to experiment with that process further. I think the lino prints turned out really well, as I was able to spend my time cutting and printing. Also because I'd already screen printed the same design I changed and refined parts of it for the lino cuts, so the design looks less clunky. For example the shape of the braided hair is more round, and looks more like braided hair. In this way I improved the communication of the piece, so it is more obvious to the viewer what it actually is. Whilst lino printing I used up excess ink by printing a sheet of texture, and I then printed the design on top of some of these. This is very effective and are my favourite prints from this project because the textured background makes it more interesting visually. It also gives a very DIY aesthetic, which matches the medium of lino printing.
I am proud of how far I pushed this idea, that I didn't stop using the design after the failed screen printing. It helped me come to the conclusion that I could improve upon the design, that I didn't think the design was a worthy final piece. This then resulted in more experimentation of the motifs within my sketchbook, and as a result I think I produced better work in the end.
Because we also had little time to actually work in our pairs for the collaborative part, I also made my own screen print to try to experiment with the medium as I haven't really done screen printing before. These weren't very successful either. Because there weren't many screen printing beds the time I could spend on them was very limited. I made the mistake of designing and cutting out the screen print on the day that I could use the printing bed, so it was all quite rushed. This didn't allow me the time I needed to figure out how to make a stencil for screen printing, so I ended up making a stencil as I have in the past when doing normal stencil printing by hand. This is why in the final products there are gaps between every piece of colour, and one of the positives of screen printing as a medium is that there doesn't need to be gaps like in hand printing, because you can layer easily. I really want to try screen printing again, as I don't feel like I really understood how to use this process well in this project.
I did really like the design I'd made for the screen printing, so I decided to translate it into lino prints because there weren't enough screen printing beds for me to experiment with that process further. I think the lino prints turned out really well, as I was able to spend my time cutting and printing. Also because I'd already screen printed the same design I changed and refined parts of it for the lino cuts, so the design looks less clunky. For example the shape of the braided hair is more round, and looks more like braided hair. In this way I improved the communication of the piece, so it is more obvious to the viewer what it actually is. Whilst lino printing I used up excess ink by printing a sheet of texture, and I then printed the design on top of some of these. This is very effective and are my favourite prints from this project because the textured background makes it more interesting visually. It also gives a very DIY aesthetic, which matches the medium of lino printing.
I am proud of how far I pushed this idea, that I didn't stop using the design after the failed screen printing. It helped me come to the conclusion that I could improve upon the design, that I didn't think the design was a worthy final piece. This then resulted in more experimentation of the motifs within my sketchbook, and as a result I think I produced better work in the end.
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