Sketching/Etching: I began with a very rough sketch of the lotus flower which I immediately turned into a detail sketch that was in proportion to my dry point. I placed the dry point plate above the detail sketch with tape. Carving began with the bottom most petal which was in a way is the experimental petal. I found etching to be difficult to control and found out that the point of the tool is a rough triangle. I put less pressure, more pressure and changed my grip many times. Then I continued to outline the lotus. Giving value to the flower, was not so difficult but it was done with less caution and accuracy because at that point my finger was aching terribly with hours of holding the tool and a callus had formed (still here). The lines were etched on straight with varying room between to show different degrees of value. Georgia O'Keefe was the ideal artist as she blended precision with abstractness. The entire focus of her work is flowers and that shouts life at you, or at least it did for me. Although precision is evident in my work, abstractness is not.
My work: I think my work could be better. I envisioned it to look neater and the outlines of the petals should not be outlines at all. I could've blended the lines better and as well as given more clarity towards the middle of the flower. The new medium was a challenge in the fact that attempting to show the intricate details was arduous. You definitely can achieve a lot more detail compared to block print but it is not enough for my taste. I would say this would have been better if I had more time but honestly, I doubt I would've spent more time on this troubling process. However, some aspects of my work I do find not terrible. The contrast in value can be seen and I like that. It was one of my goals and I'm glad it was achieved.
Printing: The printing process was the toughest process out of all but mostly I was disappointed with my prints because I had high hopes on really obtaining the level of detail I had pictured in my mind. For printing, I needed the necessary materials: newspaper, palette knife, latex gloves, bin with water, timer, card stock paper, ink and a roller. Newspaper was laid down on the table and then I proceeded to put on Latex Gloves and apply ink to my design using the palette knife. On the first try, I put on too much ink and taking it off was a lot of work. There were lots of newspapers sacrificed that day. Newspapers were torn and then folded. I applied ample pressure and wiped off. Several times. All throughout this time, the several card stock papers were in the water with the timer set for 8 minutes. I knew the papers would dry out if I finished wiping my ink off too late because either way the papers could not be left in the water for more than 8 minutes or else they would soak in more water than necessary. Around 8 minutes, they were taken out by a classmate that put them on a towel. I finished wiping the ink off a few minutes later. I moved on to the roller. My design went under the card stock paper and then I rolled it through. My first 3 prints were not good. They turned out blurry and one didn't show up at all (pretty sure I printed on the wrong side). The style and stigma of the lotus were nothing but a inky blur so I went back to etch deeper. The following day, I reprinted and timed everything correctly so the card stock papers were in the optimal conditions. My prints came out a little bit neater.
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Title: New
Medium: Drypoint Size: 17.5x12.5cm Date: October 2015 Exhibition Text: 'New' is the representation of life. Flowers bloom where some things have died out. The detail in the piece and the value shows a fragile beautiful flower. This is a continuation of the block print 'Identity'. In sharp contrast to 'Identity', 'New' features a flower to indicate the birth of new ideas and a new culture that takes over the old. Georgia O'Keeffe's paintings of large flowers and Rousseau's realistic paintings inspired this piece onto the medium of dry point.
Style & Stigma: The middle of the flower took more time than the rest of the flower and the results were disappointing when I finally printed it. I started by working on one single filament at a time trying to experiment with the shading using cross-hatching and stippling. The picture from which I sketched from showed white on top of the filaments so I did not etch that much into the plastic towards the top. For the stigma of the lotus, I used cross-hatching more towards the outside with stippling to create a ridge that was naturally there. The ovules were constructed with stippling.
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Word Count: 826