Print Session 2 🎨

For the second print session, we played around with relief mono, and using the relief press. I think so far, this was my favourite session. I came into it more open minded as I was familiar with the print room, but still anxious about not understanding the process and not getting the results I wanted. I looked at my 'card cutout' and all the drawings I had made in the morning and used those as my inspiration for making my stencils. For this process, you needed these. Mine were very geometric, including triangles, squares, straight edges, etc. I did make one with a curved edge and this turned out extremely well! 

Using my drawings, I was looking at the shapes I had created, intentionally or unintentionally. I came up with an idea of using rectangles. I cut out lots of block shapes and started to play around with this idea. It quickly became my favourite shape and stencil; see the image below.

This red one above has to be my favourite. I think the colours just work so well, and the red really 'pops'. It's so vibrant that it brings out the other tones and shades I used on the piece. The shapes and them interlocking together just look so interesting, and as a print really brings a sense of 'unity' to the eye. I could imagine this as a huge print on someone's wall, in a hallway or a living room, used as a feature piece. 

Throughout making these, I kept stepping back and looking at what I had done. What colours can I add? What shapes would make this print look better? Asking these questions halfway through any session is very important, I feel, because if you keep working, keep 'churning' out ideas and not looking at what you have done, you will come out with ideas and pieces that could be made 10x better if you just took a step back. I went back to these prints later on and picked out parts I liked, to photograph and capture as they just look so interesting and really show the principles and elements I had chosen.

This has got to be my favourite session so far as I really love the outcomes. I definitely am going to take these prints further in some way, and take some of the ideas I had in other directions. I feel I learnt again, that I shouldn't doubt the work I can create as these are some pieces I really like. I think I have an eye for colour and what works, so even without planning in advance, they all seem to 'work' and suite eachother.