26th October Dry point and getting to grips with everything.

My favourite work from today.

• Added more wood glue to the collagraph and scratched into the glue and card in an effort to 'draw' with the mediums and create something more abstract.
• Thinking about the action of scratching and marking - after Haruns' comment responding to the witch marks.
• As its still wet, I prepped dry point for the print room session booked today.

• Decided to play with the "black cat and sausage" idea that had come up in conversation with Rebecca Davies.
• The first print was an A4 plate with red ink.
• I didn't consider that the a4 paper would have no border
• I didn't consider that the composition would flip sides in the same was as text does
• I don't tend to draw cats and wasn't really happy with the cute kitten asthestic - I prefer the textures in the grass.
• I thought the cat would look like he was coming out of the grass but between the reference and the mirror image print it looks odd.

• I moved to black ink with a simple "David Shrigley"/ badly drawn cat with elongated legs on an a5 plate.
• The first plate got a bit confusing because I couldn't determine the ink from the front and back of the plate - decided it would have been better to leave the backing sticker on to give a better idea of which ink I was scrimming.

             

                           

• The second A5 plate was tidier and I used newspaper to lift areas to focus on the cat. 
• I like the textures in the background and decided to work with these more.

 

• I was pleased with the next print- it picked up details from the scrim cloth and the newspaper lifted the area around the cats head really well.

 

• The last print pushed how much ink I could leave on the plate
• I left scrim details and also wiped with the newspaper to create smudges, details and lighter areas
• I'd like to work into the cat with other mediums - maybe charcoal.

After the print room session, I spoke to Faith and Casey in the studio. 

We all understood each session we'd had, and had made starts in different ways -  but through discussion, we realised that we were confused. There was some overlap between what work was intended for the studio deadline, what fit in where/how, and which exhibition the proposal covered; because we're starting to work on the degree show in terms of title and fundraising. 

Spent some time going through the slides and our notes,  putting everything on one table so we could separate out and confirm dates and tasks. 

Printed one for the studio and will make available to everyone in case its useful.

Once we could see everything we had a clear overview and a reminder that we needed to decide on a degree show title. Added a sheet of paper to an area in the studio where everyone can add suggestions.

Added a section for ideas about who we'd like to write the introductory "essay" for the exhibition catalogue.

Found this article about the Singapore biennale exhibition titled "Natasha". I like the idea of giving the degree a personable identity