Lino Print

I've been busy working on lots of things lately, but none of it is in any fit state to post as yet, so meanwhile, here's a little lino print I did a couple of months back. I love printmaking and wish I could do more of it! But it has to compete with illustration, puppet making, parenthood, housework…and it invariably loses.

In other news I recently did a workshop with the lovely Isobel Smith, which was fab. I came away with a three-year career plan. (And the day involved lighting candles in the forest!)

Cutting a Long and Painful Story Short

Here is a sample of images from my MA Diploma Project. As my friends must be sick of hearing it was a really difficult project for me and I seemed to come up against one obstacle after another. But I got there in the end and passed...whoop whoop! So it's onwards and upwards for the Diploma Review and Masters Project!


I must thank John Lawrence for counselling me through the engraving process and Digital Goddess Abbie Stanton and her family for letting me invade her house and abuse her equipment...I am so lucky to have such knowledgeable and generous friends!

Not really catching up.

No uni this week - I've been feeling a bit under the weather - plus it's half term, so I thought instead of abandoning my child I would try and catch up a bit at home/in the studio. That was the theory but, of course, millions of obstacles were put in my path. You know when you have one of those bad dreams when you're trying to get somewhere or do something and you can't move properly or you realise hours have gone by and you've missed something really important? Well that's real life for me buddy! Anyway I did get to try a bit more engraving.

Bea and her (newly acquired in the re-write) cat:-

And a mouse I did for my New Address card:-
Thank you and good - Nytol enhanced - night.

Blimey.

Well, that all took longer than I hoped. What a faff. In short, I got huffy, Sky got dumped and I'm now online courtesy of BT. So, normal service has been resumed and there's some drawing to be caught up on. Not much, admittedly...but here's a few from the last couple of weeks. Alexis Deacon in a lecture...

And later that day a hideous journey home which didn't end til after ten and involved torrential rain...

Last week's train journey to Cambridge...
No drawing on the way home last week.

Back at the studio today, and I am still at the early stages of my new project. Wrestling with the story, and meanwhile learning the printmaking technique. Here's my character again only printed with oil based ink (as advised by the wonderful John Lawrence who I was lucky enough to talk to last week) on nice paper. And with added colour at no extra charge.

I love printmaking but I always seem to be in need of something crucial yet really expensive in order to carry on. I would so love a press...it would make my life so much easier and so much more enjoyable! And it wouldn't make my hand joints hurt so much and I could do etching as well as relief....sigh.

For someone who is proud to be non-materialistic I sure do want a lot of things.

In other news, I had cleared up three piles of poo before 8 am this morning (one cat, two dog.) The glamour.

Trying Out Tools!

Well I didn't let the lack of a press or any proper paper thwart my efforts at trying out the engraving tools! Printed on brown paper with a spoon (which really does hurt my hands!) .

May not be much to show for a few hours' work but I enjoyed doing it and learnt a bit too! (Like why John Lawrence suggested darkening the surface with ink - it would have been much easier to see where I had scraped away!)

In other news, we have fleas. Fleas which I must get rid of before moving. It's all glamour, glamour glamour in my life, I tell you.

It's a Start! Jeez!

Well I had a good time at my studio - mainly cleaning the thick layer of dust that had accumulated since my last visit, and mourning my mangle press which someone has recently rendered unusable. (Grr!)

But I did settle on a story for my next project - it's an idea I first thought of years ago but never developed. It's for a picture book. So I will be writing a draft of the text in the next couple of days and meanwhile starting to develop the character, Bea. She's going to be about 2/3 and a bit feisty. Just started doodling an idea of what she might look like.

As I like to work on two things at once (so I can send one to Coventry when it misbehaves) I shall also be doing an animation with this character I think.

I really want to do some more printmaking before I go back, too. The engraving tools I was kindly loaned over the summer keep glaring accusingly at me. So tonight I shall remind myself how to prepare an engraving block and draw out a little design.

Also I have been thinking about opening an Etsy shop, so have also been thinking about things I could make - as well as things for my new beautiful and trendy home (which I will have one day).

So although it may appear that not much is occurring, in my tired desperate mind, it is! (It's competing with day job hunting and moving, but it's there and I am trying to keep it going!)

Bald Ophelia

Today, Ophelia, the puppet I am making for my Sequential Image project, gained a body, including boobs, and a rod to make her move.

Tonight, I hope, she will have her scene scripted and kinda storyboarded. That way she's a bona fide part of a Sequence and not just any old bald naked woman.

And while we're at my studio - here is my very own printing press!

Converted from an old mangle, it still has a few teething problems but I am really hoping this is the baby that's going to save me a fortune in open access fees. This week I am going to try and squeeze from my ridiculous budget a proper etching blanket. I tried a normal old blanket but the weave showed on the print.

I'll think of something to sacrifice so I can buy the blanket. I've always thought protein in kids' diet was over-rated anyway.

Sketches and Arctic Antics

First things first, here are the obligatory train sketches from my trip to Cambridge this week. Both done on the homeward journey - no opportunity to draw on the way there.

I had a great time as usual and finally got my hands on that lovely printroom. I knew there was something very different from Brighton Independent Printmakers (other than the hugeness and hospital-neatness) and as we had our induction I realised what it was...no smell! They use hardly any toxic chemicals and no naked flames (so no smoking of the hard ground or blowtorching aquatints...two of my favourite bits!). It's so strange to be in an odourless printroom! Good-strange, I suppose, although I'm actually fond of the smell of BIP (despite the raw lungs...). They use aluminium with copper sulphate, and zinc and steel with Edinburgh Etch. The processes are very similar to those I have done before so I am really looking forward to taking advantage of the open access facility.

I came home to a letter from hell giving me news I really didn't want. (Boring money stuff as usual). The panic it has induced has given me a burst of energy (not to mention a blinding headache and going off food and sleep) and today I totally cleaned, sorted and rearranged my studio. I have got a mangle which I've had adapted to make a small press, and I wanted to make room for it and varnish the wood bits. I worked really hard all day in the arctic temperature* of the studio and feel frustrated that I won't be able to work in there for ages as I'm doing extra days in the shop next week.

Tonight, sketching for my project. I will work through the pain of the headache and the panic of the letter!

* (I wore - knickers, bra, tights, legwarmers, bedsocks, trainers, jeans, vest, pyjama top, hoody, scarf, painting overall, bodywarmer, hat and gloves).