Research Project: Domestic/ interior spaces
(All drawing of my interior spaces are A5 size and have brief description of each drawing underneath.)
This domestic space is a cabinet in the corner of my student accommodation flats kitchen. This first drawing is completed with wet and dry media; charcoal with water, pen and white chalk for highlights. I took progress stages as this drawings took the longest.
I developed my first domestic space drawings into a collage, made out of an magazine.
Changing location from a kitchen corner to a bath view through a sink and mirror. This is completed quickly with charcoal media. I drew this under 5 minutes to differ from other realistic drawings.
Continuing with the bathroom domestic space I created a sink out of magazines. This sink collage is a different angle from the bathroom drawings baove, to achieve an understanding of shading through strips of colour.
For my third drawing I wanted to draw a realistic representation of how my domestic space is used. This black pen drawing on lined cream notebook paper, features my boyfriend who I share my accommodation with playing video games on his laptop. Inspired by Pierre Bonnard.
With the idea in mind of using domestic spaces I created an abstract looking living room space, inspired by James Rosenquist. The left photo is the collaged living room space and the right photo is the collaged living room space with a ‘person’ / sitter using the space. Made out of magazine.
This collage is very basic but I wanted to feature probably the most used interior space, the stairs. The left photo the stairs by themselves and the right photo is the stairs in use. Made out of magazine and cardboard.
Continuing on with domestic spaces being used I create a kitchen space with a cabinet and drawers, as well a ‘person’ / sitter using the kitchen table. The magazine pages used in this were mainly pages with images of food .
The left photo is the completed quick outline sketch of the contents on one of my open kitchen cabinets. On an A5 page I glued down a receipt from a recent shop and drew rapidly on top of it with a dark blue pencil. However, the receipt changed the changed of the pencil.
Instead of just capturing my interior space I moved onto everyday objects, in this insistence green glass cups. This drawing is completed in ink with the end of a tree twig. This quick drawing took 10 minutes.
I developed this everyday object drawing into a collage, made out of an magazine (green glass reference beside collage).
Instead on drawing onto plain A5 white paper I decided to paint the background with grey patchy paint. Once it was dry I used an ink bottle like pen and drew a kettle very quickly under a minute to give this everyday object a loose style.
This everyday object drawing is of a knife block. I changed my tactic when creating this drawing. This drawing was completed on white lined notebook paper with black pen by drawing with on continuous line.
Continuing with the style of one line drawing, I drew the corner entrance of my accommodation. The classic area why you threw everything at the front door. This was completed with a 2b and 5b pencil. Once I had a one line drawing I started another one line over original one line drawing to increase shadows and black lines.
The purpose of this collage was to create a domestic space of a vibrant living room that looks over cluttered but actually has very limited furniture. To help with this space work concept I added highlights coming from the ceiling light in top centre ( using white chalk) and shadows in the corners of the room and under the sofa (using charcoal).
This final collage is a reminder of how we all wanted to go out in spring and summer but had to stay safe inside. Made out of magazines and masking tape.
Print Artist research:
Quick Sketch Artist research: Pierre Bonnard
Pierre Bonnard was a French known in his earliest years as an intimist (the recording of imitate personal or psychological experiences as a basis for art) in the art media disciplines of a painter, illustrator and a printmaker. Bonnard’s early works around the 25 years old, showed a combination of decorative, abstracted shapes, a flattened space, and the use of quirky yet descriptive marks to make a work that is decorative without being bland, charming without being too sweet, and observed yet not overly descriptive. He had a fondness for domestic interiors that expressed the unusual aspects of everyday life. Bonnard rarely painted from life. He would sketch his subject and then begin the painting in the studio. Coffee 1915 (below), for example, shows a woman sipping from a cup, accompanied by a dog and a second figure, moving in or out of the scene. It feels like a snapshot of a fleeting moment. Below shows the preparatory sketch (left photo) and finished painting (right photo) for coffee. The quick rapid loose sketches helped Bonnard with understanding shape work within the sitting objects, like the women sipping on coffee at her dining table or the dog sitting closely behind her observing. Working in this way added a new complexity to the paintings. This sketch style inspired me throughout my domestic drawings.
Bibliography for Pierre Bonnard:
https://www.painters-table.com/blog/pierre-bonnard-drawings-let-it-be-felt-painter-was-there
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bonnard-preparatory-sketch-for-coffee-t06545
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pierre-bonnard-781/eight-essentials-know-about-pierre-bonnard
Paint Artist research: Mollie Douthit
Mollie Douthit has always felt that painting in a studio is unnatural, instead she paints wherever is she. In her own words she’s said described her work, “The act of painting allows me to quietly, consciously reflect on my daily domestic life. While painting, my senses are heightened — I am able to smell more distinctly, see more clearly — and this precision can be visually captured in paint. My work is not only a celebration of the everyday but also a means of self-questioning: what do these subjects and moments really mean to me?” Douthits artwork does heighten your sense’s like she said, you can feel the texture in each one of her brush strokes just be looking, creating a visual onomatopoeia. Douthit likes to work wet on wet, although this technique/ practice is more difficult, she enjoying the fluidity of the process. If she is unsure of the direction a painting needs to go in she will put it to one side, ruminating on it, before returning to it at a later date. Douthit is also drawn to the even-toned understatement found in the work of Giorgio Morandi (left photo below) and Gwen John (right photo below).
Bibliography for Mollie Douthit:
https://www.molliedouthit.com/copy-of-chair
https://artinres.com/artists/mollie-douthit
https://molesworthgallery.com/artists/50-mollie-douthit/overview/
Collagraph Print Artist Research: Suzie MacKenzie
Much like the landscape in the Northern Highlands in which the artist lives and works, there is something very rich, lush and textural about Suzie MacKenzie’s prints. Mackenzie is a collagraph print artist who creates both relief (example middle photo above) or intaglio (example left and right photo above) prints. Mackenzie describes her own process of her collagraphs, “This may involve moving, removing or adding features, stretching and resizing, until I reach a composition that I’m happy with and that I think conveys the ‘feel’ of the image as I originally experienced it.” Personally I feel inspired by MacKenzie intaglio colour palette. She has a dark blue/ navy contrasting with the vibrant colour palettes of light blues, pinks and yellows. This styling has a sense of mystery and magic within her prints and their own printed location. Below shows examples of MacKenzie’s collagraph plate process (left photo) and inking intaglio process.
Bibliography for Suzie Makenzie:
https://www.mackenziefineart.co.uk/
Developed Domestic Drawings and collage
After feedback and reflection, the area of domestic space I want to focus on is my bathroom, especially inspired by my quick charcoal bathroom sink/ reflection drawings (see second drawings above). Below shows photo references of said bathroom.
To start this development I drew my bathroom from different angles but still staying true to the original drawing. The first drawings was very quick and completed with charcoal. The second vertical drawing of my bathroom was completed in pen pen. This was to show more details that are in my bathroom and what else could be seen in the mirror. I further drew on this piece with very light link to create more shadows.
Out of these drawings I developed them into collage as well as creating other new collages as well. This collage below is meant to look like an upside down reflection, the enjoyment element is that you interpret which way the reflection is meant to be.
Gathering materials and creating plates
Below shows my process of creating both my printing plates from start to finish, including materials used on the plates and material experimentations.
The first plate is A3 and vertical. The process starts with outlining and cutting shapes out of the mount card. Adding materials to the board was the next process. These materials included masking tape, glass paint and fabric tape.
The second plate is A4 and horizontal. The process starts with outlining cutting shapes out of the mount card. Adding materials to the board was the next process. These materials included toilet paper, tissue paper, netting, glass paint and fabric tape.
Relief print making inside the studio
Once arriving into the studio I cut my plates down to accurate A3 and A4 size, getting rid of negative space. When this was done I varnished my plates. After the plates were dried I started relief print making with black ink and a roller. Both plates A3 and A4 have been relief printed.
Relief printmaking results
Above shows my relief prints for my first plate. The left image is the ghost print and my first attempt at relief print. It showed me that I needed more ink on my plate for my second print (the right print). I was only working with black ink at the start for all my relief prints.
Above shows my relief prints for my second plate. Just like my first plate I have a ghost print (the left print) to show the amount of ink that is needed for a better darker second print (the right print).
Intaglio print making inside the studio
The next printmaking I creating was intaglio print with colour ink and some with little black ink. Both plates have been intaglio printed. Below shows the first plate, my own inking station and board through different processing; inking, through the press and cleaned.
Below shows the second plate going through the intaglio printmaking process.
The first photo is me swiping the ink into the grooves of my second plate. I few intaglio prints later I started painted on different colours onto the plate (second photo). The third photo shows some of the painted colour patches and cut out lines to contrast the shapes in the plate. The fourth photo shows my plate’s ink cleaned of it.
The left photo shows my finished ink station at the end of the day to show my colour ink process.
Intaglio printmaking results
I started my intaglio prints with my first plate. I choice blue ink for my first print (the left print) because whenever I think of a bathroom I imagine the colour blue, I think its a very stereotypical colour for a room used for water and hygiene. After the first intaglio print I rolled a dark purple for a contrasting colour. After the second print (the middle left print) I didn’t clean my plate and rolled on yellow on just the shower images on the plate (the middle right print). Finally I used black ink over the different colours for my last intaglio print (the right print).
The first intaglio print I made with my second plate was with purple ink. For my next two prints I experimented layering complementing and contrasting colours, red and yellow. After these experiments I wanted to work with multiple colours on on plate at a time. The fourth and fifth prints used a paint brush and colours card placed on the plate to achieve this. Unfortunately, I used too much ink on my second, third and fifth plate so once they were dry I made them into a new collective avant-garde collage (below shows process).
I like the final outcome of this collage more than the final outcomes of the three prints before I cut them.
More printmaking artist:
Dry Point Artist Research: William Kentridge
William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films. In the inventive process by which he created his best-known works, Kentridge draws and erases with charcoal, recording his compositions at each state. He then displays a video projection of the looped images alongside their highly worked and re-worked source drawings. In this way, his process and aesthetic concerns are inextricably linked with the narrative power of his work. The left photo is called ‘Drawing for City Deep (still life)’, 2018. It is a charcoal drawing that is furthered developed into a monochrome print. The right photo is untitled from Kentridge’s series called ‘Domestic Scenes’, edition 30. It is created by printing and etching. In 1980, Kentridge executed the “Domestic Scenes”, a series of 50 untitled small mixed etchings. At first, they were a commercial failure: the only person who subscribed for a full set was Felicia Kentridge, the artist’s mother.
Bibliography for William Kentridge:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/william-kentridge-2680
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/william-kentridge-drawing-for-city-deep-still-life
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/william-kentridge-16-domestic-scenes
Print Artist Research: Bill Murphy
Bill Murphy is a print artist from New York who has a background of painting and etching landscapes, however he does crossover to over interior spaces and features portraits/ sitters. The left photo is a etching dry point print called ‘The closet’. It shows the tilted view of a small cluttered closet space with lots of lineral tone and shapes made out of lines. The right photo is a monochrome print called ‘Two figures’. It features a high contrast of highlights and shadows making the audience believe that these people are actually no where near each other and in different contrasting locations. Murphy describes his drawing and printing process, “I don’t like to talk too much about the imagery in the drawings. Elements in them do have meaning for me and come from specific sources. But I prefer the viewer make up his own story. In my most recent series of large, layered drawings, I have been using a combination of models, photos and studio set-ups.”
Bibliography for Bill Murphy:
https://www.aburninglight.com/?keyvalue=4616&page=ViewCollection&subkeyvalue=29592&startrec=21
http://www.biddingtons.com/content/creativemurphy.html
More developed drawings and collages
Above shows three more developed collages and drawing I did, to the left of each new collage and drawings shows my references. The first collage is two collages stuck together (the drawing of a cabinet in the corner of my kitchen and an ink drawing of glass cups) and a drew a few cups in the cabinet with an inky pen. The second collage is two collages stuck together (the green glasses magazine collage and the dreaming of outside magazine collage). The third drawing is a purple pencil close-up drawing of clothes and clutter on top of my original pencil drawing of the entrance of my apartment with clutter around it. The fourth painting is a quick black paint outline painting of food rubbish on top of a kitchen magazine collage I previously created. The fifth drawing is a normal black pen line drawing on white paper as a brand new drawing to see how layers of objects would look like.
I started thinking about what I was going to etch for my dry point prints out of my development and I liked the cluttered picture as they make a domestic space actually lived in so I decided to focus on those interior objects. Below shows more references of ‘lived in’ domestic spaces.
Dry point plastic plate
I created both plates the same way by using anything I could use to scratch lines into the lexan plastic. Scratching tolls I used for the first plate were a etching pencil, sand paper and an unused cheese grater. The first plate I etched was of rubbish showed a kitchen that has been lived in. It is quite minimalist compared to my second plate.
Below shows my second plate, where I actually show someone living in a domestic space, a person in bed. This plate was based on one of my original research drawings. It is edited to look like a larger picture showing more of the bed. I used the same scratching tools as my first plate but with the addition of using a pizza cutter.
Dry point with black ink print making inside the studio
The process of the dry point is very similar to the intaglio printmaking process. After using the scrim and newspaper to polish I used tissue paper for more ink removal and highlights. I did this process on each dry point plate. In some of the prints I has wiped on the ink completely with an old rag with very bright highlights.
Dry point with black ink print making
The first dry point print turned out better than I expected, with shadows and highlights coming out strong. I was worried after my first print that I would need to make additional mark making on the plate however the marks and texture on the plate were high in consistency.
The first print for the second plate came out a lot darker than the second one because the first print made me realise I needed to remove more ink from the second print. However in the the both prints you can see more highlights coming out of the laptop screen because I wanted to portray the room to look dark and that this person on the laptop is addicted to his screens.
Dry point print making with Chinese colour paper inside the studio
The colour paper with the black ink is a playful contrast of how simple colour can bring life into a print. I cut different shapes into the paper and ever ripped random strips when not being precise.
Dry point print making with Chinese colour paper results
Favourite print out of Chinese colour paper is the middle print of colour in the top and bottom corners with the colourful lids. The first print was meant to have each object have colour, I changed my mind after I cut out the three colour shapes because I thought It would be too colourful and overkill. I believe they turned out very successful, however the last one is the least successful looking as the Chinese paper is coming out over the edges of the print.
I used yellow and blue Chinese paper for the artificial light present giving additional dimensions to this interior space. The blue light is from the laptop and yellow light from the projector. These lights overlap and create a suitable green shade.
Dry point colour ink print making inside the studio
Just like the intaglio prints from my I put the black ink into the etched lines before rolling colour ink on top of the plate. The left print is a mixture of red, orange and pink on my first plate. The right print has red ink on the walls and floor, and orange ink on the bed, this is on my second plate. The right print had messier edges than the left print because the right print had more ink on it’s plate. I wish I had more time to experiment with different colours on both plates.
Rationale
When it came to the collagraph prints I really enjoyed creating different textures, shadows and highlights with my hands and materials. I was worried I was adding too many materials into my collagraph plates and extracting too many cuts out of it, but when the prints came out of the press and I could feel all the texture on the page; I knew I had not over done it. I could not decide which collagraph plate I liked more, between my A3 and A4 plate since they are very similar in materials and share the exact same bathroom location. Personally, I do think that the A3 prints turned out better than the A4 has their borders were not as messy, the ink came out crisper and cleaner. When starting my etching for the dry plates I was nervous because I had zero experience with dry point, and I found the process made me uncertain for how the prints would turn out. While putting the first dry points through the press I felt very anxious to much my mark making would turn out. However, I feel that my dry points were successful, especially my first plate with the cluttered rubbish and how each tone and scratch came out the shade I wanted. I preferred working with black ink as I think it looked more white-collared. Nevertheless, when I worked with the Chinese colour paper for the dry points, I liked the small hits of colour giving my prints a high-spirted look.