Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Designing something?

Every now and again I get completely distracted by an image.

I saw a photograph of a series of paintings hung gallery style on a wall.  I loved the arrangement of the rectangles and turned them into black and white in my brain.

I wondered about the quietness and calm of the grid and what it made me feel. I wondered why I responded to it. I wondered what I could do with it!

So I went away and drew some black and white type rectangles. In rows. In squares.





They made me happy. So I thought about how to colour them in bit and make things a bit more defined somehow. Scrappy scratching, but I liked them even more.



But honestly, what to do with them?  How could I use them? What could I make of them?  I wasn't sure I simply wanted to draw them by hand and colour them in and so I thought about how to reproduce them.

I pondered etched aluminium; but the sunny days then made me think some more about photopolymer plates.

And the process has begun. I found some old transparency film and used a sharpie pen to trace and colour in one of the images.


If all goes well I will be able to expose it, and then see if the plate works. Then hopefully print it. I think.

I am still not really sure what I am doing here, but I am following along with the notion...

14 comments:

  1. I love that you say, you're not sure what you're doing, but just follow along ... Thanks for sharing! Eli

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  2. Thanks Eli - so often I feel like I have no idea what I am doing; but remain hopefult that the work will lead me somewhere...

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  3. How an image can grab you and make you see another way ...

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    1. So true Liz - something clicked somewhere in the back of my brain and I saw something else so lovely...

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  4. look forward to seeing the plate and the prints!

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    1. Fingers crossed Mo! Waiting for those sunshine days to return...

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  5. These are really fun. I could see printing and cut outs and windows through many layers. I took a class from Mare Blocker some time ago where we exposed photopolymer with transparencies with a light box, then went to using just sunlight. The sunlight works so quickly --30 seconds to 1 minute. The plates worked really well. Enjoy seeing the play process. https://umarket.utah.edu/um2/marriottlibbookarts/product.php?product=32

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    1. Thanks Dana - it s really quite good fun isn't it and all bit magic really! I have now got a light box but am a bit old fashioned and want to use the sun; but I should really try to learn the light box too! My images are not as detailed as the photos in the link, but fingers crossed they give me something.

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  6. I love watching the process from the birth of inspiration to the artistic conclusion. It will be fun to see where this imagery goes Fiona.

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    1. Thanks S - I have no idea at all, but its funny when something grabs you and says pay attention! We shall see, but it has been fun to try and figure it out as I go along.

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  7. Its the best way, just play. I recently filled a page with tiny touching squares and rectangles. So satisfying. Love all the images you have produced, can’t wait for more.

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  8. Love the image of tiny squares and rectangles touching Beverley...and I agree - so very very satisfying! Go well.

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  9. I can't wait to see what you'll do with them ! The images are already very nice on their own...

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    1. So interesting aren't they Annick? They will definitely go somewhere...

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I appreciate your thoughts and comments; thanks for taking the time.