kodaTrace

When the pen leaked

close up to the pen leaking

This was the first time i had experimented with Kodatrace. Kodatrace is a special kind of tracing paper made of frosted acetate film. It is used in the process of exposing an image onto silk-screen.Like when using tracing paper the opaque marks made on the Kodatrace sheet will print as the image. All marks made must be opaque to prevent the ultraviolet light from hitting the light sensitive emulsion applied to the surface of the screen. where the part of the screen where the opaque marks block the ultra-violet will remain soft and wash off the screen leaving the design wanted. Opaque paint especially produced for working with kodatrace is called photo-opaque. I found it incredibly hard for my first time. The opaque paint i used was incredibly thick and quite hard to apply to the kodatrace. it took a long time to do my main tracing but once done i felt i had achieved a design i was really happy with. After the first tracing was done i added layers and painted the detail in. Each layer will be a different colour. I came across one huge problem when using kodatra, when  taking all my layers off the table to be handed in to the print room technician the paint i had used on my first layer started to peel off, this could have been because either the paint was too thick or it could have got too warm or too cold. with the opaque paint you have to make sure you get the consistency perfect which i found was far too difficult. Since half of the paint had peeled off i had to reapply it which would have taken too long with the paint so i was given a pen which works just as good as the paint. Once i had almost finished the pen bust destroying my layer. I was mortified and quite frank heart broken. To fix the problem i had faced i had to take a sheet of Kodatrace home and complete the tracing at home. When i did this in class with the paint it had taken me 3 days to complete but at home with the pen it only took me 2 hours which i was quite happy with. once all my tracing was complete i was incredibly happy and could see how my print was going to work and i'm so looking forward to sampling.

William Morris

Here are some contextual studies i did on William Morris, yet again i did some brown paper tags to add colour to my sketch book. You can also see here 2 detail paintings i did in the style of Morris, i used gouache to paint these as Morris's work was so much bolder and richer then Mackintosh's work. i really enjoyed doing these paintings as it made me appreciate how much time and effort Morris put into his work as i found it was very time consuming. 

Mackintosh

For my contextual research i chose to do some little paintings on some brown paper tags which i would hand in my sketch book. i looked through Mackintosh's work and took parts of his work that i really liked which i hadn't already recreated in my book. I drew them first in pencil then Painted them with water colour. I do like these little tags they are a small way to add colour and design to my sketch book.

Visual Sheet

Although these sheets are similar they are separate sheets. I did one sheet and  before i added colour i loved it simply lined as  i had spalshed the paper with water colour before i had started. I felt the slight splashes of colour made the image something i can't quite explain. I used the sorrowful Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh lady as the center point for this visual sheet. I added some flowers of Charles Rennie Mackintosh round the side of her and as a back drop i used a butterfly shape line which can be found on Margaret Macdonalds work. I then recreated the image but did the background a lot lighter i used a yellow and green for the back ground. I still kept this sheet quite simple with colour but i did add it to the flowers round the side, i used watercolour to colour them as they are a lot softer then say, acrylics or gouache. The lady on my third sheet has slight colouring in the cirlcels on her hair as i didn't want her to bee to extravagant and take some focus away from the lines involved in and around her. 

Visual Sheets

This is my First Visual Sheet. as you can clearly see i have taken mostly Mackintosh as my inspiration for this sheet, there is small detail of William Morris such as the steam detail and other small flower detail. I have kept the colours close to what Mackintosh used but had left some things uncoloured like Mackintosh did with his watercoloured flowers. As you can see on one of the ladies hair i have changed the flower from a rose to a four leaf flower which can be found in some of Mackintosh's work. I love this sheet. I did a simple water colour spalsh for the background and i feel it works so well with the illustrations on this sheet. it was all painted  with water colour and lined with a fine liner just to make it sharpe and stand out.

Mood Board

For my mood board i looked closely at Mackintosh, William Morris and Margaret Macdonald, Mackintosh. I took inspiration from all of there works and created this full colour mood board. From Mackintosh i took a large interest in his water colour flower and the line details with the circles. I used simular colours that are seen in Mackintosh's work such as the deep blues, reds, Purples and greens. I also used the female head which looks so beautifully elegant which really inspired me when looking at Mackintosh's work. For my William Morris inspiration on my mood board i kept to his colours of which he used, i looked at his flowers and other patterns he used such as the steam which can also be seen in Orla Kiely's work. Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh's work is almost identical to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, she uses a lot of lines and female figures. I used the sorrowful lady that you can see in her work and adapted her face to make her look more elegant and happy, as i find her incredibly beautiful. i also chose her for my mood board and it uses the lines and circles in the hair like what are used for fine tailing with the work of both Mackintosh and his wife. For me this mood board really helps me focus on what visual sheets i can produce. It is a A3 sheet and isn't to full and busy but it truly inspires me, i look forward to moving onto my visual sheets.

Primary research

Today I planned on going on a visit to cannon hall to collect primary research of the arts and craft movement, much to my disappointment it is closed up until Easter but I was able to collect some images of flowers which hasn't decayed through autumn these will help as William Morris and mackintosh both used flowers in some point in there career and they were seen all over the arts and craft movement