Ink studies and Print

Tutorials are always a mixed bag, extending lines of enquiry both in research and practical application, with each tutor expressing their individual opinions and advice.  Mandy Bonnell (Print Tutor) had recommended looking at a book titled 'Of Green Leaf, Bird and Flower'.  This is a new publication which charts the journeys of Artists' Books and the Natural World.  Mandy has contributed several images and a chapter 'Recording of Nature' in which she writes on the exploration of the book as an Art Form. With many artists contributing written articles that link to their own practice alongside the historical development and presentation of Artists' Books this is both a visual feast as well as providing a wealth of different approaches that artists have used to record and express their perception and interpretation of the natural world.  The book has been produced to a very high standard with excellent photography and reproduction.

Following on from tutorial with Mandy I decided to produce small ink drawings referencing my sketch book as per 'Hommage a Queneau' by Colin Crumplin, an idea which was originally suggested by Angie Cockayne as a method of 'getting to know my object'.   Using Somerset off white textured watercolour paper and ink my aim is to produce an initial 10 images of each individual component, i.e. tree, acorn, leaf, bark, flower and oak galls.  Once complete I will experiment with presentation, format, placement in order to assess and re evaluate. This will provide an opportunity to look at the images together to assess how they work as one piece. Thought has already been given to cropping, resizing and reproducing images using alternative print approaches, i.e. woodcut, photo etching but realistically I feel that time is a constraint and that focus should be maintained around these ink drawings alongside my more painterly monotypes.  I have in mind to perhaps produce an Artist Book using an innovative presentation but must confess to reservations around this concept.

My attempt at a cubist style image of acorn.  Mark making is quite prescriptive and controlled.  It is an image that resonates with my aesthetic 'eye' with fine line, dark shapes and overlaying of imagery The varying scale and views all contribute to an interesting composition. I plan to crop this image to form a square shape which will perhaps emphasize and introduce the juxtoposition of two geometric shapes and emphasize the form of the acorn.  

             

                           
                           

                         

       

A very quick, freely painted image which presents some expressive and beautiful mark making..  I had initially seen it as a failure but on revisiting it proves to have some great qualities, There is a freedom within the mark making, repetition both on vertical and horizontal planes with lines breaking up and different distances apart.  It has a quiet perspective with varying proportions of tree form and a good contrast of tonal values. I would like to reproduce this on a larger scale but find spontaneous results a challenge to reproduce!

I consider this a successful composition and strong piece of imagery.