Fake Love
Dry Point 13cm x 18cm September 2017 |
Exhibition Text Fake Love is inspired by the work of Edmund Blampied, Utagawa Sadahide, and Geogia O'Keeffe. This piece was made through the drypoint printing process and is representing the theme of relationships and conveys the message of how people you think you love and trust cannot be trusted. |
(click to enlarge)
|
Planning
Planning Sketches
Planning Sketches
I wanted my final piece to include a great deal of symbolism. I chose to have a snake being the focus for this piece because snakes represent deceit and lies. I was inspired to texture my scales this way based on the pattern Sadahide uses in Dragon and Tigers. This is fitting with my theme of relationships, because in this piece my goal is to convey how someone you love and trust can turn on you and hurt you in the end of things. I drew the snake to appear angry and ready to attack to further emphasize my topic of how this person, (through their lies) can come back and hurt you. Initially I was very pleased with this concept but felt I could include more to this piece to further make my theme more obvious. ,
In this sketch, I took my previous sketch and stepped it up a notch. In addition to using Sadahide as an influence I as well incorporated Blampied's techniques of cross hatching. I still chose to incorporate the snake as a symbol of lies and deceit but I also chose to add a mockingjay as a symbol for innocence. This sketch depicts the snake ready to attack the mockingjay. I felt this addition made the message behind my piece much more obvious and I was set on this sketch for a while until I began to develop new ideas. For this sketch, I decided on scrapping the symbolism of innocence that a mockingjay represents and replacing it with a rose- a symbol of love. For the final print I plan on using a cross hatching technique, similar to Blampied's work, a scale pattern representitive of Sadahide, and a rose using similar style to O'Keeffe. It was because of this that I began to feel extremely confident that the message of my piece would be easily understood- In a seemingly loving relationship there can also be untrustworthiness and lies. |
Inspiration
Process
Sketching Process/ Experimentation
Carving/Printing Process
|
The materials I used in this project were oil based ink, a pallet knife, carving tool, paper, water color paper and plastic carving sheet. The first step of this process was to carve my sketch into the plastic. I did this by setting the plastic over the drawing and carving over the design. I found this somewhat difficult because the carving tool was more difficult to control than I was anticipating. I had to adjust the pressure I used for better accuracy. After this, I covered oil based ink over the carving using a pallet knife. I learned that a little goes a long way and applied a small amount of ink and thinly spread it so the etching was evenly coated. Using paper I wiped off the ink from the plastic. When only the ink in the etchings remained, I placed a piece of watercolor paper that had been soaking for 5 minutes on top of the carving. To help get some of the remaining water out of the paper, I placed a towel on top of the paper and applied pressure with my hands and was able to soak up some of the water. Lastly, I printed by piece through the process of placing it in between a board and EZcut and made sure the press was applying enough pressure and rolled the print through then lastly set the print to dry.
|
Experimentation
During printing I experimented with a lot of different printing approaches. The first thing I thought that would make me the most successful was to wipe the print clean of ink so the lines would be more thin and precise. However, doing this resulted in the lines being very dull and barely visible. As I continued printing I held back on how much ink I removed and hence my prints got better. Another thing I experimented with was the dampness of the paper. I found that when I dried out the paper too much my print came out duller and patchy in some areas, as well as being splotchy in other areas where the paper was too wet. It took some trial and error but I was eventually able to get the right combination of the amount of ink I used and the paper's dampness to create a good print.
Reflection
Fake Love is similar to those of Edmund Blampied's, Utagawa Sadahide, and Geogria O'Keffee. Blampied's etching techniques are the same I used which involved using cross hatching and lines to create dimension value. A difference between his work and mine is that the lines in his pieces tend to be more compacted and close together. My second source of inspiration was Utagawa Sadahide. The style of the patterns of scales he used in his work in similar to the pattern in my work. Our work differs due to the fact that in his piece he adds more texture to the scales. My work is similar to Georgia O'Keeffe's because we both have a detailed close up flower in our work. I used her techniques of shading to achieve accuracy within my art. A difference between my work and her's would be that her highlights and shadows are blended differently- not through the use of lines. Overall, this piece represents a person in a relationship being misleading and deceptive. I used symbolism of a rose to represent love and symbolism of a snake to represent deceit. I think I excelled in the process of etching my piece in and using the proper techniques of cross hatching to shade. Something I could have improved on was the printing process. I had difficulty with removing all the ink from the etching board and struggled with getting a decent print. To improve this in the future I will invest in a cloth used for drypoint that removes ink easier. This way my success rate for printing will increase. Despite this, I loved learning how to print in this medium and am excited to make more drypoint pieces in the future because I have come to really appreciate it.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
My first source of inspiration came from the style Blampied uses in his etchings. I used the techniques of cross hatching and stark lines he used to create dimension. Secondly, I took inspiration from Utagawa Sadahide's Dragon and Tigers and a similar scale pattern as in the piece. Lastly, Georgia O'Keeffe's Red Poppy and Abstraction White Rose inspired the detail I put into the petals in my work.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I was inspired by Blampied's, Sadahide, and O'Keeffe's approaches. I was influenced Blampied and O'Keeffe and carried over the shading and drawing techniques into my own artwork. I was also inspired by Sadahide because his approach to drawing scales was different than any other ancient Japanese artist I had seen and I used his technique.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned that so much detail can be determined from line drawing- it just depends on if you use the correct techniques. I also learned that Sadahide's piece, Dragaon and Tigers, represents a battle between the earth and the sky. It was this that got me very interested in the symbolism and themes behind Japanese art and I plan to have it inspire me as I continue to create.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted my theme to be expressed through the symbolism I used. I wanted it to be centered around relationships and also wanted the message of the piece to be apparent.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
After looking at the different styles and techniques used in the art pieces I researched I was able to invision how my final piece was going to turn out.
My first source of inspiration came from the style Blampied uses in his etchings. I used the techniques of cross hatching and stark lines he used to create dimension. Secondly, I took inspiration from Utagawa Sadahide's Dragon and Tigers and a similar scale pattern as in the piece. Lastly, Georgia O'Keeffe's Red Poppy and Abstraction White Rose inspired the detail I put into the petals in my work.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I was inspired by Blampied's, Sadahide, and O'Keeffe's approaches. I was influenced Blampied and O'Keeffe and carried over the shading and drawing techniques into my own artwork. I was also inspired by Sadahide because his approach to drawing scales was different than any other ancient Japanese artist I had seen and I used his technique.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned that so much detail can be determined from line drawing- it just depends on if you use the correct techniques. I also learned that Sadahide's piece, Dragaon and Tigers, represents a battle between the earth and the sky. It was this that got me very interested in the symbolism and themes behind Japanese art and I plan to have it inspire me as I continue to create.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted my theme to be expressed through the symbolism I used. I wanted it to be centered around relationships and also wanted the message of the piece to be apparent.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
After looking at the different styles and techniques used in the art pieces I researched I was able to invision how my final piece was going to turn out.