Printmaking Crit

                                             

The other week we had the "Printmaking crit" i showed the tutor my sketchbook because basically there is where i work and investigate the most, i would say that having a sketchbook allow me to quikly express my ideas and check if they work or not, if i like the result i can try later in other format, so it´s very important for me to make use of my sketchbook, pretty much the entire development of my work is recorded there.

For example i started thinking about basic lines, creating faces with a continuous line.         

                         

 

Then i tried some visual textures and other things such as creating textures with wood glue and playing with shapes and colours. Then i had other idea involving bubble wrap paper, basically i painted the paper with acrylic and then i used that to print on top of an acetate, changing colors and mixing everything up, then i discovered that it could be a good material to use with collage. I also looked some inspiring artists such as Krista Harris and did some proofs with acrylic in the sketchbook, basically i took notes of random ideas that poped up to my mind.

                                

 After all of that research and brainstroming i ended up having more like a finish  idea of what i wanted to do, i was interested in showing the idea of "print" my own way, for me it´s like a footprint, something that belongs to someone or something, that hides a story, and thinking about the idea of footprint i realised that human silhouettes can be understood as a kind of footprint too, actually, you can recognise someone just by his silhouette if you know him well, and if you don´t everyone could be the same person, it can be confusing and kind of cold in a way, not very personal and that´s why i incorporate acetates to the final work, my idea was to show people as a society, kind of reminding mass production concept, and acetates placed that way seemed aggresive and dangerouse, like a society could be.

But on the other hand, people i represented in the work are, most of them, people i know and that i can easily recognise by just their silhouette; so we have both ways of seeing the work.  

New Walk museum, LSA exhibition

The other day i decided to visit New Walk museum, because they are currently having an exhibition of members of Leicester Society of Artists that i was interested in seen.

I liked the exhibition in general but there were some pieces that grabbed my attention more that others, for instance this drawing by Jill Hailes, called Holiday Sketches, i was impressed with the way he practically made a collage but creating a landscape, combining textures and buildings and making everything a beautiful mess that is surprisingly really easy to read and understand.

The next pieces are three drawings by John Barradell called Mezquita drawings, i thought it was very cool how he made shadows, basically scrawling, portraying a really gloomy atmosphere, working with light and darknes, actually i really liked some of the drawing pieces i saw in this exhibition, so i might use some of them for my drawing presentation.

The last ones are paintings by an artist called Jane French, Malcolm, Joe and Solomon; totally eye-catching, it was pretty easy to feel attracted by them, the colours were amazing, so bright and right selected, i loved the colour pallete she used and the fact that you can recognise each feature but the paint strokes were clearly noticeable and i always love to see that because you can feel the movements the painter did and learn from them.

                                

Greg Betza

He is an illustrator, artist and designer from New Yersey.

His work inspires me in many ways, for example i love the way he plays with perspective, faking it so that it turns into the main attention point, i also find interesting the fact that he works in many mediums and styles, in order to produce different effects that i think work very well, i think his pieces are really unique and have a lot of personality.

But undoubtedly, what fascinate me the most are his drawing skills, fluent and decisive strokes with black ink that build up the whole scene; also you can really notice his influences by arquitecture which is present in basically all of his drawings.

So this artist has help me quite a lot in my drawing proyect "the journey", his artwork astonishe me because i can feel the atmosphere that he wants to create, the way he draws environments without been completely realistic but still keeping the vibe of the place.

Robert Longo presentation

A few days ago we did a presentation about and artist ane we chose Robert Longo.

We all were quite interested in his work and we wanted to investigate more about it; he is an American painter and sculptor but lately he has been focusing on drawing.

He took part of a group called Hallwalls, and a key event in his life was when they decided to go to New York to see exhibitions and that way they could get the vibe of New York city education.

I read an interview where he was talking about his work and he said that his job was to show how life is right now, as Rembrandt showed how was it in his time, and you can see that in his drawings, how he refers to the actual moment we are living.

His work seems to be photographically based although he sais it´s abstract in a way.

I was wondering why all of his latest artwork seem to be black and white and i found that it´s because he associate black and white with the truth, like old magazines that show black and white pictures of the war and then they have a colorful picture of a celebrity in the cover.

David Hockney

He has always been one of my favourite artists, he has mainly done landscape paintings, but i also admire his photocollages, the way he deconstructs reality and builds it again, showing a particular way of seeing life.

He influences my practice in a way that i don´t really know how to express, i just have his work constantly in the back of my mind, his colors, his vision of life, the way he plays with perspective...

His drawings are huge and that is one of the things of them that help you really feel the enviroment he´s creating, it feels like you are inside the landscape, like you are a part of it.

He painted in different canvases and then put them all together, kind of using again his collage technique and he usually painted outside, what i really admire because he wanted to feel the place, breathe the same air that he was trying to paint.

Joanne Greenbaum

When i arrived here i thought Paint was Paint, Printmaking was Printmaking and in general, each method was just that, but after a few months i´ve become a lot more open minded, and that´s brilliant because now i can make conextions and see how each method can incorporate things to the others.

With that been said, i have to say that discovering Joanne´s Greenbaum work has inspired me in my work; she is a New York artist that lives and works in New York, she makes sculptures but what have inspired me the most are her paintings.

Table of contents, 2004

The way she approaches painting kind of reminds me of printmaking, and also of drawing, which is clearly visible in all of her work.

The way she plays with colors, the abstract vision of painting as a way of liberation, she doesn´t follow formulas of conventional painting she´s rather expanding the possibilities of the technique.

I see her paintings as a beautiful process, where you can see how the work has evolve, she´s working with layers and it works quite well to my mind, her work show me the pass of time.

Poster, 2004.

"Presentation"

"Presentation" is decisive for the final artwork, the way you present your job is truly important because if you do it wrong your work can loose it´s essence and consequently it´s value.

You have to be aware of the kind of artwork you have created, and present it in a way that helps to express the idea you originaly wanted to create.

To do this, is significant to take into account several things, such as the size of your work, the meaning of it, how you want to make people feel with it, the format of your work, if it´s 3 dimensional or not etc... you also need to pay attention to the room or space where you are presenting your work, some pieces really need space to breathe, or a white, neutral enviroment to appreciate properly and understand the artwork and other crucial thing is the light you want to have in the gallery.

If we are talking about installation or some work that required any digital aspects it´s crucial to present it correctly, having the needed equipment and been aware of enviromental sounds that can interfere and ruin the work.

What i´ve noticed in the exhibitions i have been in is that depending of the format of your work you present it one way or another, so for example in Saatchi Gallery i saw this work by Annie Kevans, i thought it was very well presented because one entire room was occupied by just her work, and that makes it special and creates the atmosphere for you to capture the concept of the work.

Then here we have an example of how to present sculptures, if you want your work to be inside of a room it must be big, you have to let your work have its space, breathe, so that it integrates with the enviroment.

This painting by Claude Monet was well presented too, you could see it really closely and i liked the fact that it was situated near the floor, so visitors of the gallery could see the complete work, having their eyes situated in the middle of the painting.

                                 

One of the key things presenting a work is the way you document it, the label shouldn´t be very big because the main attention should be the artwork, but it is important that you make the label noticeable, so that visitors don´t confuse it with other piece´s labels.