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In dedication to Hollie, thank you for lighting up everyone's day, rest in peace.

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Project Statement

For the Story project I wanted to include a short story my dad wrote and read to us when we were small. Particularly the imagery of a pair of boots that were used in the story. Having been advised to use the pages as a canvas and not approach this project as a illustration project I feel as though I explored relationships throughout this project. The relationship between parent and child, present and past self, even the relationship I have with my poor worn out boots. Due to the limitations of time and equipment I feel there is much more work I could do with regards to this project but I am happy with the work and progress I've made.

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Ogres don't eat parsnips

I would like to do drypoint for these pieces but working with what I have I did a monoprint. For all my giving out about the blue ink I really like how soft it turned out with these pieces. Thankfully I did a test run of the boots and realised I needed to flip the image for it to turn out how I wanted.

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Ogres don't eat parsnips

I used procreate to play around with the composition more. While doing this i wanted to include the page with the line “agres don't eat parsnips". This line in particular brought me straight back to being small and hearing my dad read the story and it brought back a care free relaxation that was well needed. It wasn't until I finished the sketches over the collage that I realised the parsnip looks like bunny ears and a nose, and it looked like my sister and I each had a boot, a very happy accident. I did another collage including the image of my dad reading with a cat on his back while on a trip to sligo, he had his head in a book for years until we got him a kindle and I think that the photo is a nice moment in time because of that and also because it's rare that he gets on with a cat.

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I felt there was a lot of space and I wanted to have more in the piece. I tried adding my dad's welly print to it aswell. He doesn't take directions well but even then it still felt like there was something absent so I tried adding colour.

I tried collaging more to add colour but I think there was too many shapes and the colours took away. After the fact I looked at Debbie Godsells prints because she taught me last year and I remember liking the way she included colour in her pieces, adding paler colours to create atmosphere. Maybe if I had done this I would've been more satisfied but I decided to play around with composition again to see if I could find something that felt more meaningful and made me enjoy the project again.

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I wanted to ink up my boot and have footsteps going across the page. My first attempt resulted in the outlines not being too clear as that area of the floor was uneven but the second one turned out better. I also did a quick monoprint by stamping the footprint and it came out more shadow like and not as clear as I wanted.

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Research

David Bull

Makes woodblock prints in japan. For him it ever gets stale, everywhere else print was used to spread a message but Japanese print has been and is about making decorative pieces. He makes modern pieces dressed in an older style, using traditional processes while creating an image of characters in pop culture.

He spoke about the importance of questioning and experimenting, saying it’s no good spending 10,000 hours practicing is you’re doing the same hour 10,000 times. He also had advice that if you want to make a living doing art you need to evaluate your skill set because making good pieces is only one aspect to the job. He has a YouTube channel where he has video essays discussing topics surrounding woodblock like historical artists or traditional techniques.

Yokai Dracul Rickshaw Cart

Norman Ackroyd

Creates etchings of the coast of Britain and Ireland. Unlike his peers he was not interested in pop art even though that was relevant when he was studying. He went to America but came back because he felt it was too hectic, then he went out early one morning with fishermen to sketch the coast and realised that was where he needed to be.

“Let the eye look and let the hand create what the eye and heart want”. He spoke on the importance of learning when an etching is done, because under-etching is way better than over-etching. He also shared the wise words don’t drink and sketch.

Morning rain, Great Blasket Harewood in autumn

Swoon

Uses printmaking and street art as activism. Uses wheat paste when making pieces as it dissolves and doesn’t damage the environment.

It is a healthy practice of a healthy city to have people be a part of the visual creation of their neighbourhoods. “One of the highest functions of art...is to be the vessel for empathy”. working with communities she approaches it by looking at who is there, what opportunities do they need, how can we answer these needs and how can we do it creatively.

Girl with dappled sunlight,

Chris pig

Makes linos and woodblocks particularly influenced by his childhood. “I am not passionate about printmaking, that suggests something more intense and short lived, like an affair. I’m married to printmaking, a much more complicated and nuanced relationship”. He rubs talcan powder into the lines of the prints to see how it will print and described it as more accurate and beautiful than the print itself. Keeps a YouTube channel documenting the processes in Black Pig Printmaking Studio.

Tiggy’s funeral, the burial of a goldfish Tarifa

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Monoprinting workshop

Des gave us a few lines to experiment with composition. Later when trying the monoprint it did not work as I didn't remove enough ink before printing and I wasn't confident enough but I did use it later in my project and I'm much happier with how those turned out.

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Using the pages from the story as the background I wanted to use photographs to collage but my printer started making the photos look like they were from a horror movie and that didn't really fit the atmosphere so I started planning the prints by painting parts of the photos that I wanted to include. I also did line sketches of the photos in procreate to see how it would look but then we got the printer fixed and I was way happier with how the photos looked.

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I started off looking at a short story my dad wrote and read to us when we were small. The character had a pair of boots that she took from her brother and the imagery of those boots stuck in my head for years. I used pages from his story as a canvas for an ink drawing I did of my worn out boots.

On reflection perhaps my obsession with getting a pair of lace up boots that were mine came from this story.

Take a shot every time I typed boot

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On Monday we had a workshop with @eoinmclsad where we did quick drawings, blind drawings, continual line drawings and finally a 12 minute drawing. It was a great way to warm up and get familiar with my face and the boots I was drawing.

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In the workshop on Monday, @eoinmclsad tasked us to look at our tumblrs and make a more subliminal story from them.

The first excercise was 30 minutes long. My first project was brighter and flowed smoothly but towards the end it got bleaker. I was looking at a picture I painted at the beach Baile na Sceilge, and I was thinking about how it's said that that is where Oisín left the mainland to go to Tír na nÓg. My second project was definitely not as bright as the first had been and I was looking at my ink drawings as well as the paintings I did at the rocks. Whether they extended lockdown or the cold weather was what made my projects get darker I'm not sure but towards the end I did more colour and was hopeful and excited for the new project. Halfway through the piece in the workshop I realised the parallels to the story of Oisín as he left his family and traversed across the sea fighting to get to Tír na nÓg.

The next exercise was 15 minutes and although I didn't get much done the image did give me plans for a more detailed piece.

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Today Eoin had us paired up and tasked us to draw story’s from each other’s tumblrs in 20 minutes. I was paired up with @k00262863 and what struck me about his tumblr was his use of blue, his interest of patterns and honeycombs along with the clouds he created, I really like how his work seems from another dimension it creates really interesting imagery.

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Project Statement

The ocean was a clear choice for me as it is one of then first things I think of when I think of mevement, there’s many ways that movement occurs in regards to the ocean and it’s accessible to me right now. It quickly became about the crashing of waves, the beauty in the motion of crashing that displays the power and danger of the waves. The ocean is the subject of many artists, countless paintings, poems and stories tell tales of the beautiful power the ocean holds. This project being such a short one I did not get to explore all of the ideas I have but I believe I did my best in regards to exploring each discipline in these difficult times. In my research I came to the conclusion that so many people feel drawn to the ocean as I do but its unclear why. I will definitely revisit it at a future date and explore other elements of the ocean outside of the destructive beauty that I explored in this project.

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Some of the photos that I used as references

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Ideas Development Book

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After speaking with Sylvia she recommended I play around with the composition of these paintings to see how they looked together. This was difficult to find a way that worked as the land masses looked out of place but doing more ink paintings and making a collage could work out very interestingly.