University Campus Suffolk

work has started kicking off with many different ideas in the early stages of being created, before talking about these, I will write about some past works which I had not posted on here before. I will talk about the piece, why I made it and what i thought worked well and what didnt work well.

At the start of the project, when I hadn’t yet chosen to study the passage of the seven angels causing an apocalyptic world, I wanted to create a piece of work but didnt know what of. At the same time I wanted to try and develop my skills in screen printing, so i decided to do both of these. I made a little photoshoot in the darkspace, using candles and sand to create a sort of ritualistic feel. I had this on a pallet above the ground with enough room underneath for someone to put their hand through what would appear to be the ground. After taking these pictures, posted as the top two images on this post. I set on splitting all the colours into different layers, seven colours in total would be used in this test print. The third image is an example of one of the layers which were to be printed, in this case it would be the colour black. I chose to do this image, as at the time I did not know what I wanted to explore within my art, but at the time I wanted to involve some sort of belief or horror and one of the ideas that I had was the idea of raising the dead within rituals, sometimes seen in horror films or shows which aim to shock an audience. The idea that a person is responsible for something so horrific and greusome.

Anyway after printing the screens off, the first problem which i had discovered was that I had not placed in guidelines to use. Something which needs to be used next time as i had to judge where to print the next layers by eye, which took along time and alot of wasted efforts on prints which did not line up properly, this would prove to be frustrating when it came to the 6th or seven print where it would suddenly go horribly wrong. As a result of not having these guidelines, I started by attempting to make 12 prints and being left with just 2 that I was satisfied with and 3 more that were useable but had errors in them.

Another problem which I had encountered was that I used a variety of different colours, hoping that this would enhance the image, making it stand out more and be more like the photograph which i had taken. However looking back on the prints, I would have prefered the image if it was set for example in black and white, with the different layers being different shades, making the image more Photographic and less block coloured. Even though looking back I would have preferred if the image was black and white, I still like the look of the colour, making certain aspects of the image stand out abit more.

Even though I had problems and did not like the final image that was printed, I still prefer making prints of images rather than just printing them off with a digital printer. I prefer knowing that they have been hand crafted, and seeing little mistakes within the printing process, such as little specs of colour which should not exist, showing the artists hand in the work. I like seeing how they are made, by looking closely at the image and seeing that it is made up of thousands of dots, which is something screenprinting offeres rather than just a digital print. Im not sure why but I find it more impressive if an image has been made in parts that have been layered into eachother, rather than just printed off after pressing a button on a camera. Although the images can be really good, even better than screenprinted ones it just comes down to my own preference and knowing of how the image was made.

Using just the etchings for the seven scientists, I have printed them, watercoloured base colours over top and then added pen and ink on top afterwards. This process is alot quicker than making the prints with etching and lino cuts. Instead of taking afew hours to create the lino print and print both images ontop of eachother I can make the drypoint etching plate, print it, paint it and ink it all within an hour. I prefer the look of these coloured prints compared with the last set with less flat colours and the range of more colours that can be used when painting the piece. Due to this being my preference I will continue and do the other 5 prints in this style while also needing to add a figure into each one after once I have decided what they will be doing. Hopefully these seven will be finished by mid week so i can start my next series of work

Creating the seven prints of the scientist has changed from the original idea, the first image shown on the right is of when I had created an etching plate, then printed it onto a lino cut print that i had created as the base colour. The aim was to create an image which was clear on what it was about. however once I had merged a lino print with a drypoint one, I did not like the end result, shown here with just one flat colour with an etch on top of it.

Giving a little break from trying to make the best print i could, I designed another 3 plates to be created into an etch, meaning that so far i have 5 out of the seven designs for the final series. I had created these digitally as I had obtained a graphics tablet which I was trying out for the first time to try and expeirance what it would be like to use one. To the right are the three other designs that I have created so far. They have been coloured with just one colour for the base which is what I would use for the creation of the lino print with the black lines the design for the dry point etch. I have decided on having four prints with a scientist involved, and 3 prints which will be of just jars to add variety to the series, and not just have the same things happening in each print.

My first series that i plan on creating. These angels in this series are seen to be like scientists that are experimenting on people, the angel being much larger with a person in a glass jar, as if they were a small creature about to be experimented on. Here are the designs for 2 of the angels with jars so far, with 5 more of these needing to be created and the jars will be filled with an image of a person who is having some sort of experiment or torture happening to them. This idea has come from having the angels, which are unleashing th seven wraths upon the people of earth, with no consequence to themselves, much like a scientist who is performing an expeirment. They have committed deadly acts to a creature, however nothing is coming back onto themselves. After the experiment is over, the scientist just moves on to something else.

I have been looking at a passage at the back of the bible which talks about seven angels which come down to earth to carry out gods wrath against those who are seen to be worshipiing ‘The Beast’, In order, the seven angels pour out their bowls onto the earth and carry out seven consequtive plagues being;

Painful and harmful sores upon men who wore the mark of the beast and worshipped its image

The sea’s became blood, and all the living creatures in the sea died

The springs of water and the rivers became blood

The angel allowed the sun to scorch people

Kingdoms plunged into darkness, peoples gnawed their tounges in anguish

The great river euphrates’s water dried up, allowing a passage for the kings from the east

Lightning and rumblings, followed by an earthquake such as there had never been seen before.

These are the order of the seven wraths of god which are placed upon man. Initially I have thought of these angels to be horrific creatures which are carrying out evil deeds. However these plagues are only seen to be placed upon the sinners of the world, cleanising the world and leaving people who are seen to be innocent. Does this mean that the angels might not be evil after all, and they might be carrying out great deeds to help the world? With thinking about both of these ways of thinking of the angels, I have been toying with the ideas to make seven series of works for the seven angels. It is not definiate what each series will be of, But ideas could be such as using the angels, as sort of superhero’s. People with the power to help people, and they can be seen to be helping good people, or on the otherhand they could be seen to be like scientists who are committing these experiments on people. Another idea is that i will have a portrait of a person, seven of the same person however showing how each plague has affected this person in different ways. It is unclear of yet what i will do these series on, however soon i shall have to start the first one, so better hurry up!