Major Development!

Last week I had my academic tutorial where me and my tutors discussed the idea of combining my digital work with my mark making experiments. So I have been trying out different techniques to do this….

Firstly, I gathered my digital work to see what I had to work with

My first idea was to manipulate the design of the gas lamps and jug by creating layers. The simple design of the gas lamps is quite cute so I wanted them to stand out. I tried collaging them with coloured cellophane and my mark making screen prints just to see the difference. But I didn’t just want to simply stick them onto the design,  so I used 3D foam sticky pads to create the idea of layers.

I also cut into the design to make layering behind. I think this works better in smaller areas.

To see the contrast,  I layered some lamps without editing them at all and tried different heights of foam squares and these also looked good.

I wanted to try this technique on a different design but in a different way for development purposes.
So, I printed a design with the layers showing and different levels of opacity to give the sense of layers again.  Then,  I cut up a repeat design to later on top.

To make it even more 3D I collaged on my marks using the foam squares which makes them stand out more.

Reflecting on this work,  I decided I needed to do more screen printing as alot of what I had left had white areas which I didn’t want, so back to the print room I went! 

I used one of my digital repeats as inspiration to create these marks.

To ensure no white came through the print, I pulled the screen though numerous times in different directions by changing the angle of the screen etc to get print and colour everywhere.  This left lots of interesting smudges and marks which I can’t wait to explore!