University Campus Suffolk

Another review of work earlier on this year.

This piece was another layered spraypaint image which had been inspired by the works of Snik. I was going to make this piece about the angel who let the sun scorch people and set them alight. I had taken an image of a girl, photoshopped the image and merged it with a pattern of a flame. This final image which was created is seen here as the first picture. I had turned the image into black and white, getting three different shades which I was going to use to attempt and recreate this image as a stencilled spray print. This was an experiment to try and test what could or couldnt be done with the skills I currently posses with spraying layers.

So I cut the three layers out, and sprayed them. I couldnt find paper at the time so decided to spray it onto a piece of acrylic, something which I have learnt not to use again, in the future I will stick to wood or canvas, materials where to paint will stay on better and not scratch off so easily.

By the end of spraying, I was left with the final outcome of what is seen here as the second picture. I was not impressed with what was created, and was dissapointed in how it turned out. there was no detail at all that I can see in the picture, with only a rough outline being visable so it can still be seen what I was trying to create. I think in the future I will stick to layers which arent so much block patches of colour, but more finer lines that will give finer detail.

Yet again I have had the problem of aligning eachlayer perfectly, with gaps where no paint had touched, and gaps where it had overlapped. This is something which I must learn to correct in the future otherwise I will never be happy with the outcome. so out of this i have learnt:

Dont spray onto acrylic as it will scratch off with the paint I am using.

Thinner lines, more detail can be achieved that way – less block colours.

Start with a better image, in hindsight I could have seen that there wasnt much detail in the figure and that it would come out as wavey patches.

Next time, more planning is needed before creating a print, I shoudn’t just hope itll all turn out alright in the end!

After looking at Sniks work in more detail, researching how he makes his work from layered stencils, I decided to attempt my own stencils onto canvas. In the past I had created a paper stencil and stencils for silkscreens with just one colour. These were easy enough to create but they had no depth in the image, I wanted to create a layered stencil, pushing what I had previously created before by using three layers instead of one.

Before I had started the stencil I had created a background for the image, this was ripped up pages of the bible collaged together creating a text background with words which are seen to be holy. This worked as its own piece, without the need of a stencil print ontop, however I had already been set on making a print ontop of it so I decided to carry on with it nether the less. The figure in this print is a hooded figure with a long jacket on which covers the person leaving no skin on show, with the exception of the hand. I decided to use a hooded figure as it could have a resemblance to death and the grim reaper, also commonly associated as a dark hooded figure. I thought this would tie in with the apocalyptic theme which will be going on within my work. Death would play a big part in work that i create as everyone affected will either be delt alot of pain to or will die.

The size of this piece is about 3 or 4 ft high and is one of the larger canvas’s I have worked on over the last few years. I had created paper stencils, and learned from this that using freezer paper is meant to be better as you can reuse the stencil again and not break it when you peel it off after. I had cut the stencils out and with the first stencil added a little water to stick the stencil down to the canvas. This was not a good idea as it had merged with the collaged background, something which I will remember in the future. However after spraying all three layers, the end result was something which I have mixed feelings about. At a distance I like the work, as it can be made out as the image I wanted to get acrosss, however where the stencils had overlapped a new brighter shade of blue has appeard, with lines at different places across the image.

I am still undecided on whether or not to make the colours more bold and fill them in more in a more graffiti block colour style rather than having it opaque with the text being able to be seen throug the image itself. I think in the future I will change this canvas and make the colours darker, for example the black will not be slightly seethrough and just a flat black colour, as at the moment you can see different patches of black throughout which to me it offputting in the work.

Although I have seen many different problems with this piece, making it and observing it after, I like the style of it with the use of layered stencils and spraypaints. I have grown to like this canvas more than in the beginning. it reminds me of what I was once told, if you dont like the picture to start with, you can only see the good points in it, and if you love it to start with, you will only be able to find bad points in the future. I see the relevance of that saying now. I would like to continue to push myself with the use of layered stencils, whether it be screenprinting or spraypaint.

At the start of my second year, a trip to London ended up in a group of us going on a ‘First Thursday’ in London. in one of the galleries. I saw works from what is now my favourite artist, Snik.

The work that I had seen in the gallery and the three that I can still picture even now was a piano with a print on it called Dark Music Piano. I wasn’t interested in the front of the piano as to me it just had the appearance of ‘Tags’ associated with graffiti; however it was the reverse of the piano which had fascinated me the most. The second image down on this post is the reverse of the piano, a stencil which was of a hooded figure playing the piano, it was not the content of the piece that amazed me, but it was when I read that this piece was made up of 9 different layers. The 9 layers used had made the print almost look photographic, and I was amazed by the skill and time that it had obviously taken to create something this detailed.

The second piece that I was amazed with was a 9 colour stencil titled Yesterdays Breeze. This is where it became most obvious to me that the pieces were made from stencils due to how there were many different versions of this work, all with different colours for the hair, while the rest of the image was the same every time. I was amazed with how well the figure had been stencilled out, the amount of detail which had been portrayed in the stencils which I have found out now are all cut by hand. This level of skill is something which I aspire to one day be able to do myself.

The Third Piece of art is known as Kingfisher this is a print that has been made yet again from many layered stencils. The image itself didn’t strike me as anything special, as you see images of birds all the time, however I could stand there for a long time just appreciating the amount of effort it would have taken to produce 9 stencils which create such a detailed image such as this. The process and the detail from it had amazed me with this artist, he has used the style of ‘Graffiti’ artists but through a very controlled and time consuming process he has created an image which from a distance looks photographic and life like, where at a short distance you can enjoy seeing the many different colours and layers which have been put into making the image. Also what he prints onto, showing that you can print on paper, wood, even pianos and still have a great image afterwards is something which has inspired me to experiment more with what I create. When I look at this artists work it inspires me to create art, to want to make layered stencils and layered prints and slowly see an image come together while knowing there was a lot of effort put into the image. This style of work is something which I love, something which I would want to explore deeper in the future.

work has started kicking off with many different ideas in the early stages of being created, before talking about these, I will write about some past works which I had not posted on here before. I will talk about the piece, why I made it and what i thought worked well and what didnt work well.

At the start of the project, when I hadn’t yet chosen to study the passage of the seven angels causing an apocalyptic world, I wanted to create a piece of work but didnt know what of. At the same time I wanted to try and develop my skills in screen printing, so i decided to do both of these. I made a little photoshoot in the darkspace, using candles and sand to create a sort of ritualistic feel. I had this on a pallet above the ground with enough room underneath for someone to put their hand through what would appear to be the ground. After taking these pictures, posted as the top two images on this post. I set on splitting all the colours into different layers, seven colours in total would be used in this test print. The third image is an example of one of the layers which were to be printed, in this case it would be the colour black. I chose to do this image, as at the time I did not know what I wanted to explore within my art, but at the time I wanted to involve some sort of belief or horror and one of the ideas that I had was the idea of raising the dead within rituals, sometimes seen in horror films or shows which aim to shock an audience. The idea that a person is responsible for something so horrific and greusome.

Anyway after printing the screens off, the first problem which i had discovered was that I had not placed in guidelines to use. Something which needs to be used next time as i had to judge where to print the next layers by eye, which took along time and alot of wasted efforts on prints which did not line up properly, this would prove to be frustrating when it came to the 6th or seven print where it would suddenly go horribly wrong. As a result of not having these guidelines, I started by attempting to make 12 prints and being left with just 2 that I was satisfied with and 3 more that were useable but had errors in them.

Another problem which I had encountered was that I used a variety of different colours, hoping that this would enhance the image, making it stand out more and be more like the photograph which i had taken. However looking back on the prints, I would have prefered the image if it was set for example in black and white, with the different layers being different shades, making the image more Photographic and less block coloured. Even though looking back I would have preferred if the image was black and white, I still like the look of the colour, making certain aspects of the image stand out abit more.

Even though I had problems and did not like the final image that was printed, I still prefer making prints of images rather than just printing them off with a digital printer. I prefer knowing that they have been hand crafted, and seeing little mistakes within the printing process, such as little specs of colour which should not exist, showing the artists hand in the work. I like seeing how they are made, by looking closely at the image and seeing that it is made up of thousands of dots, which is something screenprinting offeres rather than just a digital print. Im not sure why but I find it more impressive if an image has been made in parts that have been layered into eachother, rather than just printed off after pressing a button on a camera. Although the images can be really good, even better than screenprinted ones it just comes down to my own preference and knowing of how the image was made.

Using just the etchings for the seven scientists, I have printed them, watercoloured base colours over top and then added pen and ink on top afterwards. This process is alot quicker than making the prints with etching and lino cuts. Instead of taking afew hours to create the lino print and print both images ontop of eachother I can make the drypoint etching plate, print it, paint it and ink it all within an hour. I prefer the look of these coloured prints compared with the last set with less flat colours and the range of more colours that can be used when painting the piece. Due to this being my preference I will continue and do the other 5 prints in this style while also needing to add a figure into each one after once I have decided what they will be doing. Hopefully these seven will be finished by mid week so i can start my next series of work