Title: "La Mexicana"
|
tools
Experience/ gained information:
Throughout doing this piece I had gotten a demonstration of how to do block printing. I learned how to the process step by step, which is really helpful because i could then do the process all on my own. I learned that everything you carve out will be white where as the parts you don't carve out will be black. Also learning how to block print is very experiencing because then later on in life i can do many more block printing art. I enjoy block printing too, yes it does take time to get the perfect print and you do have to have patience but to me it's worth it because you'll then end up with a fine print that will look how you want it to look.Block printing is a new kind of art that i have experienced in my life and it includes creativity to like other kinds of art.
sketches:
Process:1) Doing the block printing to me was some what difficult, knowing that once you sketch the drawing you want onto the block you would have to carve. Which to me the carving was one of the two hardest parts of doing this piece, because when your carving you have to make sure that you don't carve to much or to little. If you carve to much then you could end up having holes in your block if you go to hard and then if you go to little then the spaces you tried to carve lightly won't show as much in you're printing and then the spots you want white will show up still a bit black.
2) The second part of the process of this piece is the block printing. Doing the block printing you have to keep in mind of how much ink you think you need to use to make a nice print. Which what i learned was just enough to make a square that is about the same size as your block.Then to roll the ink onto your block so you can do the last step into printing. Making the prints was very difficult because there would be many times where i left the ink to thin or to thick on my block . I had to keep printing one after the other, until i finally got a good one that you can see the visual very clear. But one your done with printing you then wash off all the ink from your block so that there isn't no ink left over in it. |
I developed a total of 4 sketches for my piece. These sketches go towards to different ideas I had in mind to make the main figure of my piece. Even though in my final piece I chose to do half of the face as a skull I wanted to do the other side as one of these sketches. Out of all 4 I chose the first one because the way the hair seems to be makes more sense to use that and as well as the flower on the side of her hair. I wanted to use a flower because in the day of the dead we have a flower the marigold that represents the day of the dead.
Artist inspiration"Kathe Kollwitz and German Expressionism." Jwris Blog. 11 June 2010. Web. 14 Dec. 2015. <https://jwri.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/kathe-kollwitz-and-german-expressionism/>.
Kathe Kollowitz- She was a German expressionist artist who created timeless art works against the backdrop of a life of great sorrow, hardship and heartache. I used her as an artist inspiration because she incorporated things that were important to and that stood out and I as well wanted to do that in my piece too with culture.
"Kathe Kollwitz - Biography." Kathe Kollwitz - Biography. Web. 14 Dec. 2015. <http://rogallery.com/Kollwitz/Kollwitz-bio.htm>. Frida Kahlo- Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in her use of bright colors and dramatic symbolism. Which I can reflect on because I myself am Mexican and since I used culture I could use Frida Kahlo because she frequently used her Mexican culture to inspire her as well.
"Frida Kahlo Biography." Frida Kahlo Biography. Web. 14 Dec. 2015. <http://www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/biography.html>. |
failures:These photos here are some of my failures throughout block printing. In all of these, I noticed that I didn't put enough ink in them as I should have. So then after experimenting the different amount of ink to use I finally got my final product after 7 tries. I noticed that putting more pressure into transforming my block print to paper I don't really have to put so much pressure to printing only a good amount, because then if you put so much pressure then the ink can spread out more or it can even be smudged.
Reflection:While looking at my piece I can say that it is an okay job but there is some things that I would of wanted to fix. Like I feel as if I could have added more detail into it, knowing that Calaveras are very nicely detailed. If I could I would go back and detail the block print a bit more. But I mean it's still a nice job, I like my block print, I like how I incorporated half a human face and half a Calavera. Meanwhile doing the block print itself such as carving and printing, it was some what difficult because in the carving you had to make sure you don't carve out to much or too little. Then with the ink you can't have so little because it wont come out as clear. But throughout the trials I learned through my mistakes, leading to me fixing them as well.
Meaning behind the piece: The meaning behind the piece was that I wanted to express my Mexican culture because it has a very big impact on me.But the main reason about this piece was to show that I'm proud and very interested in my culture because in the past and even now there are some very false accusations about Mexicans and who we are. And so I thought that in this piece I could show that I am very involved of being proud and pleased as being raced as a Mexican.
|