Week 4
Today I began working at home during lockdown! I was lucky because I managed to find lots of tools that could help me continue my work. One of my favorite finds was some printmaking equipment that I had from last year. This included an entire selection of oil-based inks as well as an ink roller!. I also managed to find myself an unused oven tray that was flat and smooth enough to roll out my ink on. I also managed to find some old pieces of calico and an old sheet with gridded circles on them which I could cut up and use for my printing.
Scratching into Ink
Today I started off with rolling out some ink in purple color to scratch into. I came up with the idea to use oil-based ink to scratch into because I was making monoprints for my minor subject. I wanted to use a thin amount of ink because I was interested in how it would transfer onto paper as well as material. The outcome was interesting as the ink was better able to transfer onto a more textured surface aka the material.
I also decided to create a thicker surface of ink so that I could see the difference between using a thin layer as well as a thick layer. Obviously, oil-based products dry a lot more slowly and are shinier when dried so it was interesting comparing that medium to acrylic paint. I found that the thicker layer was more effective when transferring it onto paper and material but it also moved around a lot when pressure was applied so it impacted the scratching lines a bit.
Reflection
I thought that it was really interesting extending the idea of scratching into different mediums. I still very much enjoy exploring how the scratching technique can be impacted by using different materials to make it. I very much enjoy the concept of using ink to create scratching artworks and so I think that it is something I would like to continue into my next artwork.
Monoprint
Because I was comparing acrylic paint to oil-based ink I decided that I could make both an oil-based ink artwork and an acrylic artwork at the same time through a monoprint technique. To do this I rolled out a thin layer of ink onto the stainless steel – the thin ink allowed for less oil transfer upon interaction with the paper. Next, I painted a thick layer of acrylic paint onto a piece of A4 paper and placed that on top of a clean sheet of A4 paper. Lining them up perfectly, I placed both sheets of paper on top of the rolled-out ink. Next, I grabbed a pencil and used the flat edge of the end of the pencil to scratch lines onto the acrylic paint. Through scratching lines into the acrylic paint, the embossment of the pencil then pushed my piece of paper underneath my painted paper into the ink, successfully transferring my scratches onto my bottom paper as well. When I had finished my scratching, I removed my top paper so that I could then carefully remove my bottom paper which was pressed into the ink. When I peeled up my bottom layer of paper from the oil, it revealed a mirrored image of the scratches I had done on my acrylic paint. There were however a few differences between the two works. On my bottom sheet, the medium was oil paint, the colour was burnt sienna as opposed to purple, and the scratches were inverted. On my top sheet, the painted acrylic was thick and dense, the scratches had lifted the paint, and the background was completely coloured.
Reflection
I was really excited about this because I enjoyed combining these processes and I felt very creative in doing so. I thought that the images helped to clearly communicate the visual impact of the scratches as well as how this technique could be impacted through using different mediums and processes. I really liked the concept of making two mirroring artworks in one. And so, I am considering attempting this same technique except through using two sheets of fabric as opposed to paper to explore the difference. As mentioned before, a more textured surface can transfer even with little to no pressure, and scratching back the paint would be interesting as the fabric can absorb wet mediums very easily.
