The original Idea was to showcase heritage through the seeds of a dandelion departing from the head, symbolizing lineage and heritage. I first visualized a hand holding a shaven dandelion head with the dandelion seeds being carried away by the air. But once I finished sketching my idea I realized that there needed revaluate the idea. I thoroughly enjoyed the idea of the dandelion seeds flying through the air but I wasn't a fan of the design so i was going to adjust their design. I also didn't like the aesthetic of the hand and the scale of the hand to dandelion seeds was questionable, I was either going to have to remove it or make it better
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In this rendition of my idea I made some great strides in the design of the dandelion seeds, I made the fluffy white part look more visually like a flower and made the stems a little thicker. I removed the hand and replaced it with a falling dandelion stem. Which I didn't like much either for the same reasons, them being the design and scale. But an addition I did enjoy is the wind visuals added, as the shape harmonizes with the dandelion seeds making the piece feel whole.
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This was the final rendition of my Idea, I can say that I perfected the design of the white puffy top of dandelions as now they're more clean and equally distributed among the head of the seed.I also changed the style of the head in the dandelion seed.As it is now white surrounded by a dark rim which is pleasantly aesthetic. I arranged the placement of the dandelions to form a more cohesive piece. I also integrated more meticulously placed wind designs to make the piece feel less empty, oh and i removed the stem and hand.
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Once I had the main design done, I faced the challenge of tracing my image directly unto my printing block. Rather than trying to replicate my image unto the board, I used a technique I learned in 10th grade called transfering. This technique consists of shading the backside of an image, then placing it on top of object you wish to transfer the image, and lastly tracing all the stuff of the image. This technique allows for the complete transfer of an image into another surface.
Once I finished transferring my image into my printing block I then began to carve my image into my printing block. The way I'll be carving differs greatly from my inspiration, as Reading Aloud was initially carved in a wood block, as opposed to me as I will be using a rubber printing block. To carve into my printing block I used a carving tool with three different kind of blades. One blade is wide and curved which is used to carve large marks by carving away from your body. Another is wide and straight which is used to carve out large marks by carving towards your body. Another is narrow and straight which is used to carve out small marks by carving away from your body. The first time carving into my block print resulted in complete failure. Having no idea how deep my marks had to be which resulted with a big hole being created in my printing block. That's when I realized that there is a point where the carvings can get too deep. But trying to make the best out of my situation I used the ruined printing blok to get a better understanding on how to use the different types of blades. From this I was able to understand that the wide and curved blade is best when trying to carve out big chunks. The wide and straight blade is best when trying for precisely carve out large strips. While the narrow and straight blade is best when trying to carve out as much detail as possible. With my new found knowledge I went back with confidence in the search for triumph. After translating my image unto my printing block I began to carve out my image. This time I found myself using my tools and experience which resulted in a perfectly carved out image. During this process I found myself using the wide and straight blade as opposed to the first time in which I used the wide and curved blade more than any other. Now that I had my printing stencil done it was time to print my image. |
The printing process consisted of grabbing an ink tray and adding some water based ink to the top of the tray. Then I would cover a paint roller with the ink, by covering the whole tray with the paint roller, this results in no excess ink in the paint roller. Then with the paint roller I would cover my stencil in a nice even coat of ink. Lastly I placed a sheet of drawing paper on top of the stencil and with a brayer I would press and glide the paper on top of my stencil resulting in a print of my piece. This is where I did most of my experimentation as a couple of misprints resulted in trying out new things. For the first print I made I followed the process above and the result was an even balance of a solid print and white spots around the edges of my piece. Setting out to fix this, for the second print I added more ink to my stencil and applied more force when printing my image, the end result was white spots surrounding the dandelion designs within my piece. Thinking that I perhaps applied too much ink, I didn’t apply a new coat of ink to my stencil and used the same amount of force when printing. Thus my third print was a patchy print as white spots filled my entire print. I then realized that Ink wasn’t the problem, so for my forth print I decided to add a new coat of ink to my stencil and utilize less force when printing my image. This resulted was big spots of whiteness around the bottom and right border of my image. Having tried everything I decided to again print without adding any paint, the end result was my fifth print coming out as choppy as the one before. At this point I began to get frustrated so I decided to wash my template and begin with a fresh new coat of ink. Which resulted with my 6th print coming out almost perfect as there were still some patchy white spots. Having my spirits lifted I would continue to apply more ink the result was print 7, an almost perfect copy. I then added more ink resulting in the semi perfect print 8. I then went to my art teacher for guidance he suggested I wash both the ink tray and the stencil and to start again. The result from that was my end product.
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