New paintings and regular art updates.
Painting of a seascape done at a Jo Watson workshop. It’s not finished but I ran out of time. The top photo was taken in bright sunshine, the second at home in a darker space. Interesting how the second one has warmer tones, but it’s exactly the same painting. I went a bit Bob Ross, but I’m after more of a Turner feeling. Acrylic, ink, emulsion on canvas. Using brushes, palette knife and scraper card. Although I might have added orange later.?
The obligatory post on Facebook was asking if you knew what these were to prove you were a child of the 90’s. Why? I knew what these were before the 90’s!
Most people answered these were from fountain pens, but I disagreed, these were from cartridge pens.
A real fountain pen was one with a bulb in it that you squeezed to suck the ink up, or a lever on the side that squashed the inner bulb flat and when it was released pulled the ink in. I always used quink ink.
The cartridges were from cartridge pens, you just unscrewed the back half of the pen and swapped them out when they were empty… The only risk was if the cartridge leaked, the top end of the pen had a bit of metal that pierced the cartridge to allow the ink into the pen and nib. Sometimes you would end up with a pocket or pencil case full of ink if they leaked.
College piece of printing from about 1979? When I was learning to do engraving I think. I remember using a powder to give a texture, and having to paint it with a varnish to resist the acid bath but it would take a refresher course to remember how to do it now.
Lino cut print. I completed an illustration course last year and I dabbled in printing for a couple of projects.
I was careful not to gouge holes in my fingers doing this, the tools to cut out the lino are extremely sharp. I ordered the kit over the Internet and it came with the tools, an inking tray, a roller, a hand tool to push the ink onto the paper and several cutting tools.
Of course I drew a cat, it’s my default setting. I tried to make it into a tabby cat although the print is black and white.
A nice idea. A piece of thick paper with wild flower seeds pressed into it. My friend ladybird Su had a workshop stall today at Etruria festival today. I used a black ink stamp of a tree and then I coloured it in with felt pens. The wildflowers will be wending their way by post to my sister. I hope she likes it. The card and envelope are so small that the stamp is almost too big for it.
Something to do while I try and get over a sore throat. I haven’t done much today. I walked upstairs once, felt dizzy and came back down again. I think the bug I have has got into my inner ears. I’ve had plenty to drink and I’m taking paracetamol.
Have you ever tried spraying biro with hairspray? Sometimes it makes the ink run I used to use the technique many years ago, it might not work these days if the ingredients in the biro ink have changed. I will experiment.
I must do more ‘real’ or analogue art. I mean physical art, not digital drawing or photography. I loved doing these lino cuts as part of my MA final major project. I liked trying to learn a new skill. I could also create cards for sale by doing this. I would maybe use acrylic paints instead of ink? Then I could play with the colours. And by using a lino cut twice but by offsetting the print slightly I could get interesting fringes of colour around the images. Lots of ideas. I just need to do them.
This is the sheet of lino that I carved out a dragon from for part of my MA final major project. I inked it up and got a reasonable result. I would like to try again and see if I can increase the complexity of the work. Its always good to learn new skills (without causing injury to myself). I don’t know if you can tell but it’s a dragon in flight. There is a girl riding it, the story is she helps it find it’s way home.
I could not sleep last night. Various things kept me awake so I decided to experiment with linocutting and printing till dawn. I tried different paper, adding felt pen under the ink and even printing onto a layer of post-it notes. Not too bad for a novice, I even managed curves and didn’t cut my hand!
One thing I forgot, the print reverses the image, hence my initials are backwards! Duh!
Ink bleeds through paper and shows up on the back of the page. I usually try and use pens that don’t do this, but sometimes you can see something, and create something new. I used to draw round different areas of colours in the past and I’ve done something similar here. Two cats…
Mallaband-Brown