Reflecting back on China Shipping Collaboration, other prints and the Now.
With my collaboration project drawing very near by January 2014, I had to think of at least two or three companies in mind that I can work with that would specialise closely with Chinese culture. These companies that I had in mind were Chinese restaurants, Chinese supermarkets, Chinese university in China or maybe China shipping which was closer to my home and also the biggest company than the other ones mentioned. I thought what would be really great would be to give China Shipping a call because to me they seem a very large company with billions in revenue and so much to offer me as part of my work in my university.
My plan of action!
Before I decided to go on my travels again to china on January 5th I wanted to grab the chance quickly as I had to sort this project out soon before I leave. So I arranged an appointment with Mr Wang to see whether or not he would be willing to discuss what I want to collaborate with him and the company. It was very nerve racking at first having the meeting with one of their managers and we got talking about the work that I get involved with and the prints that I do, I even showed them one of my special scenery prints which I named Chinese Venice.
I would rather gather at that point he seemed quite interested in seeing the prints i done recently so he decided to take this idea more seriously by contacting the general manager Robert Hughes about this collaboration. It may seem a bit intimidating at this point to have the discussion in front of two managers but actually I felt rather calm and also felt to myself I needed to pull something out that was straight forward and professional. I discussed to both of them that if they would be willing to accept my offer in going to china and taking some good photos of some scenery and then let them choose the right one for me to etch and print.
The agreement
We discussed finances after the initial ideas and agreed that he would just pay for the cost of materials first to see how well I done with this new print and he said if I am good enough then he will pay me a higher commision for the next one i do for him, at this point everything was confirmed and i knew what to do and where i was going with this project now. When I was in China I did in fact find some nice old style sceneries with the pagoda tower and old china to take photos of some scenery and let them choose the right one to print with. When I was in China I did in fact find some nice old style sceneries with the pagoda tower and old house roofs but at this time of year, just seemed too misty or foggy to use.
I sent the general manager Robert Hughes the photos and he was not rather convinced these would be clear enough to etch and print so in the end he gave me one of his clear summer photos taken from a tranquil garden in the Forbidden City. This case was solved as the photo looked very detailed and a nice challenge for me to take on, the dry-point etching of the garden had taken me one month to etch out and two weeks to try print a perfect one out. The materials I used for this process was water colour paper as it was easy to absorb the water and hold the ink and the ink I used was the French 88 Black ink which gave it that dark crisp clean finish to it.
After it was dry I then decided to give it some colour as the manager explained previously that he wanted some colour painted on the etching. I used some good quality water colours so that I can blend the colours of the skies and water of the garden easily to make the different warm colours. After about 3 months of making and framing I was ready to present the printed image to the manager so I arranged an appointment to see him one Friday and see what he thought about it.
The final outcome
When he saw the final finished piece he looked by my eyes a bit lost for words and blown away by the amount of detail and work that was involved making it, it seemed he was satisfied enough with the work I produced and given me a little commission towards the cost of materials and time making it. This first ever collaboration has made me more aware of the art world that we live in today and was just such an exciting feeling when you’re working for someone that you don’t know too much and have to produce an art work in good time.
The Now – New Printing Ideas.
This has to be the best experience that I have tasted so far and would be happy to do that again any time with another company that is eager for a new print in their work place. I will carry on producing new prints and other Media of art work to enable myself to be better than the last company I worked for. I will try my best to continue doing these kind of prints because I very much enjoy seeing a lot of Chinese sceneries and I just want to copy these nice scenes by scratching out lots of detail on Drypoint plastic.
Its nice seeing what the result will be when it comes to the printing process and just seeing the magic come out onto water colour paper. But Because of the time this year doing other stuff like Degree show, Website and Blog, I wont be doing any etchings at all this year as my etchings take roughly one month to create but will try to start an etching in the summer time once everything is finished. Right now I will be just doing the interesting stencil prints instead as they take less time but also to me, they are just as intricate looking as the Dry-point etching prints.
