A Reflective Evalution
I began my OCA studies on the textile pathway; however, I was introduced to the works of two interdisciplinary artists, Sumi Perera and Dawn Dupree, both of whom combine printmaking with textiles. Their work inspired me to look at my own studies in a different way and to follow a path where I could study both disciplines.
As I look back in a reflective review of my work I am surprised at how far I have come, from the humble beginnings of a local FE printmaking taster course to an outcome where I have in the final part embraced various printmaking techniques and in the words of my tutor produced ‘sophisticated and well composed prints’.
That is not to say all is perfect, I may have developed good technical skills, I enjoy the practical, the experimenting, the exploration of surface, media, texture and eventually I began to understand the shape and form of abstraction, but there are things that I’m not so good at, things I don’t enjoy doing or think to do; through received tutor feedback I realised that these things hinder my work and they need to be addressed and improved as my studies continue.
A continuing premise of development throughout this course has centred around my approach to critical thinking, my reflective practices, and a need to develop my sketchbook work. I was encouraged to manipulate and explore ideas, play with scale, space, and make notes on my concepts and reflective thought processes e.g.: composition and colour. As I worked, I was to keep asking myself ‘why’?and to look at the significance and effect on my thoughts and become more self-critical.
By Part 5 I believe that I had begun to understand these concepts; my sketchbook was brimming with work and my learning log had become more reflective. Here, not only do I reflect on my chosen theme but also on my early monoprints, prints I thought imperfect, but am now able to manipulate and happily place into my work. I have also begun to look at wider aspects of my research and already see a potential for developing my theme further, ‘man made marks and their historical and cultural significance’, a tempter for the future.
Though I love to experiment, it has at times been at the expense of expanding on my chosen themes and context, in part 5 for example, I ended up with so much research, (tree rings, graffiti, plant cells), my development work struggled to find direction and at one point I was trying to produce cells rather than rings! In fact, oddly my work is labelled ‘cells’. But I now have the understanding and determination to stop, step back, assess and re-group my thoughts and direction.
I had always thought that I would find linocut to be my preferred medium for printmaking, how wrong I was. I struggled to find a way to add texture and space in both the multi-block and reduction exercises, this may have been because my work was pictorial and not as abstract as in the earlier exercise, Pebbles, where I created shape, space and texture. In my personal project I challenged myself to try linocut again and found that by adding chine collé papers, threads and fabrics I could lift a multi-element print from lino that I considered textured and dimensional.
Conversely, I discovered wonderful marks that could be achieved with different textural applications in monoprinting; from brush strokes, to bubble wrap, fabric and the use of negatives and positive masks. By the end of the course I enjoyed using this printmaking technique with collograph and chine collé. While I’m not a big fan of the Chine Collé process I can see it has place in the printmaking process should I choose to use it. Certainly, going forward, I would like to combine monoprint and collograph into my work and experiment with different textile and stitch on both my collograph plates and completed prints.
In conjunction with this course I have taken the opportunity to attend not only external courses, which I used to further my work in part three, but also two OCA workshops. Mapping the Grid and Intuitive Collage, both quite different subjects, but both made me think outside of the box.
Ideas from Mapping the Grid introduced new artists, look at different ways of collecting research material, e.g.; recording walks and activity, continually revisiting source elements and using grids to scale, divide and re-arrange. The Intuitive Collage workshop added mindfulness to process and made me realise that without thinking I was drawing on my subconscious to create my examples. This is something that to me became apparent in my Personal Project work when I suddenly realised that possibly my work had a nod towards some of Kandinsky’s abstract works that I’d researched in Part 4.
Moving forward, I hope that my learnings, backed up with tutor direction will stand me in good stead as I approach the next level of my chosen degree pathway.
Portfolio
Learning Outcomes
| LO1 | Demonstrate the use of drawing to develop your visual ideas | https://billydooprint1.home.blog/sketchbook-part-2/ | Assignment 2 – selection of sketchbook entries for projects 6 & 7 |
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/sketchbook-part-4/ | Assignment 4 – selection of sketchbook entries for project 12 | ||
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/sketchbook-ideas-for-part-5/ | Assignment 5 – selection of sketchbook entries for project 13 and personal project | ||
| LO2 | Use a range of printmaking techniques and media | https://billydooprint1.home.blog/project-7-linoprints/ | Project 7: Linoprints in relief, various inks and papers |
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/project-12-developing-collagraph-plates/ | Project 12: Collograph, various inking techniques, various media | ||
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/project-13-print-making-with-chine-colle/ | Project 13: Monoprint, Collograph, Chine Collé, various papers, media for Chine Collé | ||
| LO3 | Understand the historical and contemporary contexts that inform your work | https://billydooprint1.home.blog/project-10-written-task/ | Project 10: Written Task – Contemporary |
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/project-13-print-making-with-chine-colle/#LO32 | Project 13: Historical context of stories / art on trees | ||
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/research-part-4/ | Research 4: Abstract, historical & contemporary | ||
| LO4 | Reflect upon your own learning experience | https://billydooprint1.home.blog/assignment-2-linoprints/#LO42 | Reflection on assignment 2 |
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/assignment-5-personal-project/#LO45 | Reflection on assignment 5 | ||
| https://billydooprint1.home.blog/project-14-artist-statement/ | Artist Statement assignment 2 |
BILLYDOOPRINT1 