I spent a pleasant afternoon folding and creasing coloured papers, doing simple origami shapes. I work part time for a national charity that helps homeless people and we made a start today on an art project that’s going to grow over the next few weeks. Watch this space 😀
Banners are good. Banners are a useful way of breaking the ice when I’m running sessions in art. A lot of adults feel intimidated by ‘art’ and that they can’t paint or draw. Doing banners means they can drop by and do a few brushstrokes or they can get absorbed for a couple of hours. The group came up with a starting point of writing words and from then on it was colouring in on a big scale, with acrylic paints (Liquitex). We’ve nearly finished, maybe one more session then on to the next banner.
I am so lucky to work as an art tutor for a charity that helps homeless people. I love it and I love using art to communicate with people and to give people a lift, a sense of achievement. This banner has been going for a few weeks now. People can drop in and do a few brushstrokes or work on it for the whole session as they want. But the really important thing is that it engages with people, it draws them in to talk and make contact with the services that can help them.
The venue is in a basement and provides evening meals and a warm, safe place to spend an evening. It’s a Christian venue but is open to everyone in need. Some of the service users wanted to create a banner that welcomed people and at the same time gave an idea what the place stands for. They had to work together to agree on the basic design, the words and images, and I downloaded stencils for most of the imagery as it makes it inclusive to people who can’t, or who feel they can’t, draw.
I did an afternoon of experiments at The Workers Gallery last week, trying out different combinations of inks and papers on a Gelli Arts gelatine printing plate. I want to print papers for collage. I did some basic experiments a few weeks ago and I wanted to do something a bit more advanced to see what the technique is capable of.
I used two different types of pigment – Caligo Safewash ink (oil-based) and Liquitex paint (acrylic) and two papers to print on – Daler Rowney cartridge paper and Hosho Japanese tissue. I also used ripped tissue paper and fruit net bags as stencils to add variation to colour and texture. I took two prints from each inking – a full colour one and a paler ‘ghost secondary image.
The Caligo inks had greater translucency and depth but in future I’ll try the Liquitex with a medium to thin it out a bit and see if I can get a more translucent paint. I prefer the Hosho paper, it gives much more luminosity than the Daler Rowney cartridge. The stencils – tissue and fruit net – worked really well and it was exciting when I took the paper off the plate to see what randomness endued.
I’ve been experimenting with Gelli Art gelatine plates for printmaking again. This time I used Caligo Safewash oil-based printing inks mixed with extender to make them translucent and overlaid the monotype three times, once in Process Yellow, then Process magenta and finally Process Cyan. I’ll explain the process in tomorrow’s blog. This is one of the pieces that I liked best, it is delicate and the overlays have produced so many subtle colours. I’m trying out this process to see if it will produce interesting papers for collage.
I’ve been experimenting doing monotypes on a gel plate from Gelli Arts, trying out different inks and paints over the last week or so. I’ve finished for the time being, ending up with Caligo Safe Wash oil-based printing inks. I used Process Yellow, Magenta and Cyan mixed approximately 50:50 with the brand’s Extender for translucency and to make it easier to roll. It gave good coverage over the gel plate, held texture well, printed with vibrant colours and also produced a decent ‘ghost’ (secondary) print.
I’ve tried out 6 different inks / paints, all printed in two layers onto Daler Rowney cartridge paper (90gsm). I think the best for my own professional use are the Caligo Safe Wash oil-based printing ink and the Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint.
For teaching, I would be happy to use both the Essdee and the Seawhites of Brighton water-based printing inks. And the other 2 media I used, Winsor & Newton Galeria acrylic paint and Liquitex acrylic inks were both too liquid to give satisfactory results on this brand of gel plate, so I’ll be keeping them for other projects.
So, still experimenting with the Gelli Arts plate, this time trying out Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic paint. It gives excellent coverage and takes textures really well. Almost all the ink comes off onto the paper – Daler Rowney cartridge 90gsm – with gentle rubbing, leaving very little for a ‘ghost’ print. The only problem I think is that the colours are very intense, it’s high quality paint, and I either need to experiment with more subtle methods of removing and blending the paint on the plate or find some sort of medium to thin out the intensity of the colour without making the paint more watery.
I’m continuing top experiment with gel plate printmaking using a Gelli Arts plate. Today I tried it with Essdee block printing ink, staying with Daler Rowney cartridge paper (90gsm) for consistency,
The Essdee inks are easy to use, roll out nicely and take a good texture from bubblewrap and scrunchy tissue paper. The ink prints easy with a firm hand rub but leaves a faint and disappointing ‘ghost’ or secondary image. It cleans off easily with babywipes.
I’m working for a charity that supports very vulnerable people, running arts and craft sessions. I work in different venues across the city and I tailor the sessions to suit them and their clients. This evening was about letting people play. It wasn’t a formal session aiming to teach fine arts or enabling people to turn out a well-crafted item, but a chance to just mess around and have a bit of fun.
I took some lovely chine collé tissue papers made from recycled saris and a couple of boxes of stamps, the ones that kids use, and an ink pad. I encouraged people to try stamping the tissues repetitively to make a pattern and / or to overlay them to get a pictorial effect.
Then we put them into little ready-made mounts which set them off nicely. Quick, cheap, easy and fun. People need to play and those living in dire circumstances often don’t get that chance. Providing a safe space for arts and crafts can give them the opportunity.
The final layered print
I tried out a new printmaking technique today, gel printing with a commercial Gelli plate. It’s part of the equipment I’ve been given for my part-time job running art sessions with people who are homeless and insecurely housed. The instructions just said to use paper and acrylic paint but were no more specific than that so I wanted to try out some of the different acrylic media I have hanging around to see which worked best. First off, water-based printing inks from Seawhite of Brighton. The inks blended well on the plate, took the textures I pressed into them, printed easily onto a basic Daler Rowney cartridge paper (90gms) and cleaned up really well. I used baby wipes on the gel plate and warm water on the roller. Easy peasy.
I also tried the process with two other acrylic media, Liquitex acrylic inks and Winsor & Newton’s Galeria acrylic paints.
The Liquitex inks were too runny for this process and smeared rather than rolled across the plate. They didn’t take the texturing well and quite a bit of ink was left on the plate afterwards. It’s a pity because the colours are gorgeous. The makers recommend trying a heavier Liquitex paint.
Lastly, I used the Winsor & Newton acrylic paints. They felt quite dry while I was rollering them onto the Gelli plate but they seemed to take the textures well. However, the inks didn’t transfer well to the paper, they dried out very quickly and I had trouble cleaning the roller.
The results are okay for a first session. I’m used to doing monotypes onto a hard perspex (plexiglass) surface and I’m not sure whether I would use this technique for my own printmaking, but I need to do more experiments. I can see me using this technique to produce collage papers though. Next time, I think I’ll try with my Caligo Easywash inks and Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic. I’ll let you know …..
“Here Be Dragons” at 216 High Street, Swansea until November 11th. I’ve been commissioned by Sky Arts television to make a new artwork for an arts festival and TV programme early next year. It’s Art50, where over 50 artists or art organisations (in music, theatre, literature and the visual arts) have been commissioned to produce new […]
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