Since I really enjoyed printmaking on calico, I decided to use two different comic pages from different books this time. The yellow print is from Archies Comic and the bottom blue one is from a war comic. Both are very different in genre, and we can even see that through the silhouette of the stencils.
I also cut out different speech bubble shapes from calico. I dyed these patches of cloth in primary colours, and sewed them onto the long cloth with a grid stitches. I like how i’ve taken these elements out of its usual form, and have deconstructed it. We are still able to see the recognisable shapes that are from comic books however, in a different way where it is not even printed on a surface anymore. Side by side with the stencilled prints, we can see the relationship between printed ink and patched that have been attached with thread.
Finally, I came up with another way I can combine printmaking and stitching into one work. I did this by cutting out more speech bubble patches, then printing the inked plastic sheet on top of the calico, so the patches acted as stencils. This left the white patches of the shapes where the ink didn’t touch and also dyed the speech bubble pieces too. Once dried I laid these pieces around the surface and used different ways of stitching to attach them to the calico. The zig-zag stitching in particular reminds me of clothing patches. Overall I am pleased with the way I have developed my work through focusing on the element of speech bubbles and grid forms in comic book stories.
