Elective Two - Print

I went into this elective kind of scared (not really having done any prints before, other than the few woodblocks I did in the first semester) I was relatively new to the whole thing.  But to be honest it turned out to be a completely valuable experience, one that I really enjoyed.  It's funny how preconceived ideas about something can fool you; where I assumed limitations there were unlimited possibilities, where I assumed constraints there was almost complete freedom, and where I thought there would be a kind of measured havoc with over thirty people in the print workshop sharing things...well, that'd be a pretty good way to put it.

Spending the first couple of days in the studio, planning and researching, I quickly realised that the only way I was going to learn anything was by doing.  So on the Thursday of the the first week I went down to the workshop with a vague idea in my head about what I was trying to achieve.  I knew that I wanted to somehow explore the figure in space following on from the theme of' 'Corporeality' in the last elective; and focus more on the composition, colour and creation of depth.
 

Pages from my sketchbook:

I found that I preferred the fluidity and the quality of line that resulted from these quick mono prints and dry points.  Somehow the fact that I didn't try to draw the exact resemblance of the person, reminded me of artwork by the likes of Alberto Giacometti and Frank Auerbach, who each in their own way strive to capture a sort of essence of being.



Standing Nude, 1946 by Alberto Giacometti