Block Print
In a Dream
Watercolor over Block Print on watercolor paper 75cm x 55cm September 2020 Exhibition Text In a Dream is a block print piece that takes inspiration from the bright colors and use of repetition in Andy Warhol´s Marilyn Monroe series of 1967, as well as the block printing technique of Stephen Alcorn. The design of the print is inspired by the cover art of Troye Sivan´s EP entitled ¨In a Dream.¨ I wanted this piece to explore the relationship between myself and today´s pop culture, specifically the work of Sivan. I believe that someone´s relationship with a celebrity or musical artist can shape a lot of who they are, and this piece is an example of the close bond one can form with someone they don´t even know. |
Planning
InspirationMy first inspiration for this piece is the Pop artist Andy Warhol, most known for his use of color and contrast in his work. Many of his pieces are commentary of the celebrity culture that was popular during the sixties and onward. After graduating from art school with a degree in pictorial design, he decided to move to New York. It was there that he began to work as a commercial artist and develop his own reputation. However, it wasn´t until 1962 when Warhol produced his first piece with his signature silk screen prints with colors.
My second inspiration for this piece is Stephen Alcorn. Alcorn is a block printing artist who is known for his skill in creating a beautiful amount of detail and balancing light and dark contrast in his pieces. Born in 1958, Alcorn spent the majority of his childhood in Italy, and graduated from the Istituto Statale d´Arte in Florence. He describes his work as a combination of different mediums and technical experimentation. When looking at his work, like The Interpretation of Dreams from 1984, the skill level Alcorn possesses is clear. I was inspired by his ability to make multiple levels of contrast in a piece with only black and white, and attempted to do the same in my piece. I believe that adding that type of value adds more meaning to a piece. My third inspiration for this piece has to do with the actual design of the block print. I used the cover for Troye Sivan´s latest EP, In a Dream, as the base design for my block print. I have been a fan of Sivan´s music for many years, and I think that he has been a big influence on my life since middle school. This is the reason I decided to use him as a point of inspiration; I believe that many people can form close connections to people they have never met through the art that they create, and Troye Sivan is that person for me. When I saw the art for his new EP, I was very inspired by the pure aesthetic beauty that it held. I thought that that art, combined with the Pop art style of Andy Warhol, and within a block print, would be a very interesting process. |
Planning SketchesThis is the first thing I did when I started this project; I decided to make a visual research page similar to the ones I used to make in past years of art classes. I thought this would be a good way to get the gears moving on what I wanted this block print project to be, and sure enough, I was able to find multiple sources of inspiration. I really enjoyed writing out this page and adding drawings because it allowed me to remember some of my research better. One thing I found really helpful while finishing this paper was the first practice sketch of the EP cover I want to use for the design of my block print. However, I want to include different values in the piece so that it seems less flat. I also needed to work out in what areas I would put color, because that is the other part of this project after I make the actual print. For my second sketch, I focused on sketching the angle of the face and taking notes about certain details I wanted to be sure to add in the final sketch on the linoleum block. (i.e wanting bubbles rising from the person's mouth, different thickness of lines to create value on the face). I also started to think about color for the piece and what I wanted that to look like. On the right, you can see my first attempt at using color to the illustration. For my next sketch, I continued to brainstorm about colors to be used in the piece after the actual printing was over with. In order to help my brain visualize good color combinations, I drew out a color wheel and wrote down different types of color. I already knew that I wanted bright hues in my piece, but this helped me distinguish which combinations would look good. The reason I went into such detail regarding color was because this would make a stronger connection to my inspiration of Andy Warhol´s Marilyn Monroe series. |
Process
Experimentation
The experimentation in this piece mostly had to do with my use of color and how I would apply it to the block print. I knew that making a block print, with Andy Warhol as one of my inspirations, had to have color as an element of the piece. So throughout the process of working on this project, I made sure to constantly be thinking about how I was going to add color. When I was deciding on what kind of paper to print my design onto, I settled on watercolor paper in order to ensure that the paper would not break down with water. I also experimented with different color combinations, and made sure to have the color wheel in the back of my head to make sure that the colors I chose wouldn´t clash in a negative way.
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Process
The first step in this process was to carve my design into the piece of linoleum, which was already sketched onto the material. The size of the block is 20cm x 15cm. One thing I
hadn´t kept in mind when making this design was that it would be flipped when I printed it, and so the final outcome is in reverse of the original album design. I used carving tools with different widths to get either bigger or smaller spaces into the piece (such as shadow details on the cheeks of the person). After I finished carving it away, I was ready to print- however, I practiced a few times on regular sketch book paper before moving to my final piece. In order to have the design transfer onto the sheet of paper, I rolled out some block print ink onto a tray and covered my brayer with it. I then used the brayer to roll ink over everything that hadn´t been carved away, and made sure that the application of ink was even. Once the block was covered in ink, I picked the block up, flipped it around, and pressed it against the paper. I repeated this action of pressing the block onto the piece of paper eight times, and once I did, I began choosing colors to add into the white spaces, referring back to the color wheel I had made in the beginning of this process. I used two different sized watercolor brushes, both with a rounded tip so that i could get around the round bubble shapes lifting from the person´s head in the design. I made sure to mix the color before hand and not water it down at all as I applied the color, because I didn´t want the hue to be splotchy in some areas and mismatch. I started it in a lighter wash, and then went in and added more of a saturated color to make it look as even as the black part of the print did. |
Compare and Contrast
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Compare:
- both of the pieces use bright hued color combinations that relate to the color wheel. My piece focuses a lot on the relationship of color like primary colors, secondary colors, and complimentary colors. Warhol did a similar thing in his Marilyn Monroe silk screen series. Warhol oftentimes used these bright colors to represent the vibrancy of life, or the superficial level of pop culture and its connection to people´s lives; I wanted to emulate this reasoning in my project: I used bright colors and the face of an artist I really admire, because they have had such a large impact on who I am. Marilyn Monroe did the same for the people who looked up to her during her life.
- contrast is a key component in both of these pieces, and is seen mainly in the face detail in both my block print and in Warhol´s Marilyn Monroe Series. This has to do with the fact that both my piece and that of Warhol´s are a form of printing. In my piece, I carved away from a piece of linoleum to create my image, and then printed it onto a piece of paper. Warhol used multiple screens in his prints to create a similar contrast between black, white, and color.
Contrast:
-The type of art piece is different. Mine is a block print repeatedly printed onto a sheet of watercolor paper, with watercolors added in post to create vibrancy and enhance the contrast between what was carved away and what wasn´t. Warhol´s Marilyn Monroe series is a series of silk screen pieces, where he layered different screen designs on top of each other to create the black and white and color parts of each piece.
- The purpose for my project is more specific than the series of Monroe done by Warhol. I wanted to think critically about my relationship with the artist Troye Sivan and illustrate how present his music and influence has been in my life specifically, and how that has influenced me as a person. Warhol´s series on Marilyn Monroe has to do more with her stardom and pop culture of the time of its creation (late 60s).
- both of the pieces use bright hued color combinations that relate to the color wheel. My piece focuses a lot on the relationship of color like primary colors, secondary colors, and complimentary colors. Warhol did a similar thing in his Marilyn Monroe silk screen series. Warhol oftentimes used these bright colors to represent the vibrancy of life, or the superficial level of pop culture and its connection to people´s lives; I wanted to emulate this reasoning in my project: I used bright colors and the face of an artist I really admire, because they have had such a large impact on who I am. Marilyn Monroe did the same for the people who looked up to her during her life.
- contrast is a key component in both of these pieces, and is seen mainly in the face detail in both my block print and in Warhol´s Marilyn Monroe Series. This has to do with the fact that both my piece and that of Warhol´s are a form of printing. In my piece, I carved away from a piece of linoleum to create my image, and then printed it onto a piece of paper. Warhol used multiple screens in his prints to create a similar contrast between black, white, and color.
Contrast:
-The type of art piece is different. Mine is a block print repeatedly printed onto a sheet of watercolor paper, with watercolors added in post to create vibrancy and enhance the contrast between what was carved away and what wasn´t. Warhol´s Marilyn Monroe series is a series of silk screen pieces, where he layered different screen designs on top of each other to create the black and white and color parts of each piece.
- The purpose for my project is more specific than the series of Monroe done by Warhol. I wanted to think critically about my relationship with the artist Troye Sivan and illustrate how present his music and influence has been in my life specifically, and how that has influenced me as a person. Warhol´s series on Marilyn Monroe has to do more with her stardom and pop culture of the time of its creation (late 60s).
Reflection
I am overall satisfied with this project, despite the little hiccups along the way. This is around the same size as my choice watercolor project from junior year, and even though the piece doesn´t completely fill up the sheet of paper that was printed on, it was still a lot of work. I really enjoyed returning to the block print as my first project senior year, when it was my first last year as well. I think that my technique with the carving tools has improved since the first time I tried to do something like this, and I also believe that my piece ended up having a good connection to my inspiration of Andy Warhol, without directly looking like something he had done. One thing I really focused on while trying to make this project was to think about how celebrity culture has influenced my life and my identity, and I realized how much Troye Sivan (the person in the print) has truly changed my life. I found him on YouTube and followed him through the entirety of his musical career. He made me feel comfortable with my sexuality and with myself in general. However, this isn´t to say that there were no problems faced in the creation of this work. The prints are imperfect, whether it be an uneven value of ink or a slight crookedness from the application of the linoleum to the piece of paper. Another problem I encountered during the process of making this place was my use of watercolor with water soluble ink. This one seems as though it would be obvious to avoid, but I truly did not think of it at all until I had already begun to apply color to the piece. Despite its challenges, I really enjoyed this project and am proud of the final outcome.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My piece and the inspiration piece by Andy Warhol both use color and repetition, with pop culture as the subject matter. We use the work to explore the relationship between society/the masses and celebrities/pop culture.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Stephen Alcorn uses precise detail and his technical skill to achieve a high level of detail in his block prints.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned more about Warhol´s career and how his pop art work greatly contrasted with his early pieces as a commercial artist, as well as how his sexual identity influenced the success of his work in the fifties.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea I wanted to explore in this piece was how people inspire what is popular, and vice versa, specifically in the US.
5. What inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer that Stephen Alcorn developed his masterful technique with block printing after years of work.
My piece and the inspiration piece by Andy Warhol both use color and repetition, with pop culture as the subject matter. We use the work to explore the relationship between society/the masses and celebrities/pop culture.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Stephen Alcorn uses precise detail and his technical skill to achieve a high level of detail in his block prints.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned more about Warhol´s career and how his pop art work greatly contrasted with his early pieces as a commercial artist, as well as how his sexual identity influenced the success of his work in the fifties.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea I wanted to explore in this piece was how people inspire what is popular, and vice versa, specifically in the US.
5. What inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer that Stephen Alcorn developed his masterful technique with block printing after years of work.
Bibliography
-https://www.alcorngallery.com/rbp/relief-block-prints.php
- https://www.moma.org/collection/works/portfolios/61240
- https://www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/
- https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/jocelyn/design-thinking/andy-warhols-use-of-color/
- https://www.moma.org/collection/works/portfolios/61240
- https://www.warhol.org/andy-warhols-life/
- https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/jocelyn/design-thinking/andy-warhols-use-of-color/