14th November – 27th November
After researching into traditional printing techniques to
practice, I came across a paper printing technique I thought would communicate
my botanical shrub theme appropriately. Folding thick cartridge paper in different
shapes and sizes I created paper fans. After painting acrylic paint onto a
sheet of plastic, I used these fans to continuously stamp through the paint to
create textured leaf-like motifs. Once I was happy with the composition and lay
out of them, I layered different qualities of paper whether it be cartridge, acetate,
newsprint or tracing paper over the top and pulled the print off the plastic
onto the paper. Greens and pinks were the main colours I was experimenting with
initially printing on to black and white paper, however I realised the colours seemed
dull and appeared washed out on the black paper as you can see in figure 1.
Fig.1
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| Initial Paper Prints |
After realising I had to take a different approach to
working on black backgrounds, I painted my own black backgrounds for the prints
with acrylic paint and ink. After printing on top of these painted backgrounds,
I could see the different effect the backgrounds had on the colours of the
prints. When working on a black acrylic painted background, the colours of the
prints seemed to liven up, on the other hand when working on a black ink
painted background, the colours of the prints would darken and developed a
shadowed texture. Acrylic painted black backgrounds worked a lot better as the
colour from the prints sat on top of the black background colour rather than
absorbed it. This livened the colours and consequently brightened the prints.
Fig.2
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| Ink Acrylic |
The paper prints started to become similar to one another
and so I painted textured backgrounds to work onto and started to explore the
diverse outcomes, which were different each time. Figure 3 shows the layering
of textures and prints on top of one another which produced more refined, in
depth prints. These layered prints communicate the wild botanical theme more
appropriately as a certain chaotic jungle feel is conveyed. The colours also
seemed more striking and energetic which is something I wanted to achieve in
relation to a beach wear range/context.
Fig.3
However, whilst using acrylic paint, I don’t believe I am able
to create the right colours for my prints. Therefore, I will take the idea of this
paper printing technique and develop it with layering screen printing
techniques to build on designs as well as start to refine my colour palette.
