Workshop.6-Stencils+ Metamorphosis.

this was a great workshop!-im really into process,getting my hands dirty. its the fact i can actually hold and have complete control over whats happeneing-yet at the same time you cant be 100% about exactly how it will look-it always looks better than you imagine in my opinion, but because you can see and physically hold each element involved,each tool-i understand it better and my mind works with it better. this is why im more tuned into a hands on approach to image making.

i also really like rachels way of thinking when it comes to this-having that element of slightly rough and ready and clearly hand made-that slight imperfection actually works to the images benefit! below is one of the final images i made

-the brief was,using cut outs to make a stencil dealing with london-either a word or a letter of london that makes a play of the theme of london.

originally i started to sketch the letter L with a city scape-but i hated it. and i started to think more into this idea of characters of london and was talkign to rachel about it and with the previous karls workshop thinking of london as different things i wanted to start with animals.

I began by finding a profile image of a default pidgeon-i felt that was this animal is the biggest londoner of them all. I photocopied a £5 note and reversed the queens head and basicly stuck it on top. 

i noticed how the curve of the queens neck into shoulder blended perfectly with the curve of the pidgeons back to neck to it morphed really successfully!

we were given a couple sheets of plastic to cut the stencil-plastic as we wer to use water based paint and sponge rollers [never used these rollers!turns out thyre great!-look at the quality of the mark i was able to achieve so easily, kind of rough and bubbly and textured]

we were given just two colours to work with-red and blue.i like this. it ties into what i was looking at with Jo's workshop. i feel this deliberae self imposedrestriction actually frees up my creativity!

afterwards alot of people asked me how i was able to make the stencil so life like, if i used photoshop to posterise etc, i did try that but i didnt like it, i simply traced round the shadows i wanted in and felt relevant so i could have more of a say into how the image looked and its style, filled in the shadow with black pen then just cut away!

the stencils. as it was to be two layer [which i was thankful for] i simply made a hole the shape of the outline of the detail image and then cut the detail stencil to go on top

Rachel [thankfully] encouraged me to create many different prints! so i started with a raneg of different backgrounds, mixing the colours, using heavy pressure on the roller and light pressure, only partly filling it etc

then i just added the detail stencil on top and each print was an utter pleasure to do!

i think its quite funny! im really pleased a sense of playfulness comes through. there are more levels to it though which i am happy about, i am looking at and interpreting london in my own way and i like how as you see the queens face alot, you also see pidgeons

So im dead keen on working with this london animals theme

as i mentioned before from darrens workshop im being drawn down this path of creating a series of characters of london.it could be characters on

-THE TYPES OF PEOPLE AND PERSONALITIES WE FIND HERE- such as a punk/chav, office worker,mother and pram, cockney,etc etc 

-STEREOTYPICAL LONDON PEOPLE AS ANIMALS OF LONDON-like the pidgeon queen, i feel the FOX,MOUSE,RAT,PIDGEON,HEDGEHOG,CAT/DOG are very london animals, the old fashioned 'bobby' policman as the fox or dog, the furry helmeted soldier guard as hedghog etc etc 

these kinds of things

also

-following on from rachels london monoprints to create a series of images of london, some etchings and/or woodcuts of the bankside/scenes of london-this would be very good id like to produce a series from each process available to me, 

-this would tie into jo's workshop as well which in itself im going to have a world of messy fun with. ive been taking digital photographs [which has been quite alien to me leaving my 35mm and double exposures at home] with the aim of creating a digital montage to then screenprint in only two colours.

but also mixing some of that in with rachels workshops.

-id like to do some kind of type-possibly made from the rubbings ive been taking, mixing them digitally which would work with the self initiated hevetica distortion ive mentioned before, introducing hand made/digital imagery into the mix

ooh this is going to be a bloody fun project!!!!!im litrally rubbing my hands with excitement for the possibilities -NOT MUCH TIME THOUGH!!!!!