Tuesday 27 May 2014

When it goes wrong

... it is frustrating. That's because it costs money to get in the studio, not to mention time (I have to book annual leave to get into the studio in the day. Saturdays I'm at college, and it's usually too busy anyway. )

Making mistakes can be a learning experience, but not when you're not sure what went wrong, or how to fix it.

I want to do better, but it takes time and experimentation. I saw on a programme about fine art printmaking recently that big artists get master printers to do it for them. It can take 16 separate stages to arrive at the final print.  That's a lot of time and a complex process to produce something decent.

When I book my precious 3 hour slots, time whizzes past and that's it for the week. Plus you're competing with other people to get on the presses, to use the acid baths and the drying racks...

Bah...

So anyway, here is an example of one that went wrong. It has an aquatint, which you do in stages to apply different tones. In an ideal world, you'd be able to print a proof at each stage to see how it's going. No time for that. And finally it all turned out... grey.

Baaaah... 














To compare, here you can see an earlier aquatint I made with a range of tones, like it should be.













(And here is Goya, showing how it should be done. )

I really, really, really want my own studio. And I wish I could do this full time.

Sunday 25 May 2014

Tuesday 6 May 2014

What's in a name...?

Sometimes I imagine when we finish college next year, and we get our imaginary ideal studio together, and we start making work... we will be a GROUP, a collective. And we'll have to find a name.

Something interesting, that will intrigue people, but that is not pretentious.

Something short, and fun, and memorable. Something with a twinkle in its eye, that satirizes the art world.

Something that sounds profound, but also playful.

Something easy to pronounce in all countries, to give it international appeal (for all those international exhibitions we'll no doubt have.)

You think hard... you think of the perfect name for your group.

Then you realise someone else got there first.