daSilvaArt II

  Blog created to share ideas of a variety artworks and medias related to my current studies in Printmaking - Block 2 / Also Follow me on Instagram IG @dasilvahnd2scraps

[dasilvaartii]

Personal Evaluation - House Of Cards Brief - Remediated

For this brief we had to firstly create our own interpretation and timeline for the project. My timeline i made an extended way rather than a day to day basis as for me that is more realistic in terms of progress, gives me the freedom to go back and forward exploring my work, while still giving me the deadlines for each step.

One of my mood boards I went with a topic I've worked on in the past and I enjoy exploring as it can bring you to different directions, exploring dark imagery, macabre, apocalyptic, death, some items of steampunk, etc. While researching, I found some information about origins and meaning of the cards and their suits, that shown how they’ve evolved along the centuries, This was quite interesting as i wasn't aware of it.

One of the artists that most inspired me was Emil Melmoth. If i recall correctly i found his work on instagram, and it's just amazing! His sculptures are absolutely stunning! (in some dark macabre way) But the composition of them and the ideas he merges I find it so attractive, even though they will definitely shock a lot of the audience, but that's something I appreciate in art! Also one of my favorites, HR Giger, but for this project I focused more on some mechanical imagery of his.

Started by making some quick thumbnails to generate ideas. This was a good way to start because I got some different and interesting things to explore. So from here I designed each suit.

Being a printmaking course, even though this year we didn't get much access to the college facilities, i didn't want to make my work only in digital format, i wanted to have still the image of a printing technique integrated in my designs, so i decided to go for Lino Printing, as its accessible from home and i enjoy this method a lot.

So, as you can see from the record posts on my tumblr, i design each suit, firstly as a drawing, and then proceed to create the lino cuts, which for the purpose of details i made in A5, as any smaller (normal deck of cards size) in my opinion would love quality in the design. 

My other moodboard was focused on colours, contrasts, and a more abstract concept. I did some research on it and found some interesting artists like Sonia Delaunay, who has created her own deck of cards designs, which was quite fun to see. She explores the interactions between depth and movements with colour contrasts, and even though it is not my “cup of tea” i found it very interesting how it works together. Using some of these artists' ideas and inspirations we did a workshop with colours and painting with sponges. Personally this wasn't something very exciting for me, but i ended up using some of it as background and development work further ahead.

After having my Linocuts set up and ready, I made some initial prints, from which I created digitally a first idea towards the finals. I think it worked well but for me it wasn't quite there yet...they needed something more!

Sometimes it is good to step away from something to give you a better view, to look back at it with clearer eyes, so i decided to focus for a while in creating my box design. 

For this i played with some mark making, collage, drawings, as i had the idea already in my head to give it a mechanical look for the cover, which i would also use on the back of the cards. After I manipulated that imagery on Photoshop, playing with layers, contrast, twisting the images, stretching them to their potential. I am very pleased as to how these turn out. 

Coming back to my suits designs...

i decided to work more with mix media on the prints, see where i could take them, and if I could get closer to the idea i had in my head as to how i wanted them to look. In order to create a frame, I used masking tape before using materials like watercolours, pens, posca pens and textures to add some mask making. I am really happy with how these turned out, felt as they have potential and it was getting closer to a final result.

For my finals, I decided to clean my prints digitally using photoshop, and created some displays of the cards as if they were on a table, and the game being played. I used the suits I designed into the usual format of the deck of cards to make it simple and understandable to the viewer to recognize, while still leaving my own trade on the cards. The font I use resembles as if it was a print itself so I feel it works with the designs. Each of the face cards I used was a different design of the actual suit (On my tumblr i show that with the suit of hearts) all designed by me.

Overall i felt this project was challenging as i never did anything like this, at some point a bit frustrating not sure on where it was heading and due to the current circumstances and working a full time job. But once I got my gears right, I picked up the rhythm and I found my way back to what I was making and I really enjoyed and am pleased and excited with the result! In terms of time management i feel i did and handled quite well. Kept updating my page as i went by also to keep myself straight in covering all the necessary topics of the brief. I’m happy with the topic i choose, as i mention before, it kept me interested and wanting to create a more professional looking prints for my finals. I feel they connect with each other in the concept i choose to take forward with developing.

If I was to develop further, I would probably experiment with different backgrounds on the face of the cards. I would love to actually physically create them to make them possible to play because i really like how they turned out. Possibly would make some changes to the box design. Not so much changes but to make it look less digital, i guess i would try the design with screen printing layers! I think that could turn out to be very interesting.

[dasilvaartii]

Final HOC Suits

[dasilvaartii]

Final HOC Hearts

Here is a final presentation of Hearts suit with all the cards of the suit in a simple but classic way.

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[dasilvaartii]

I've been working on improving my cards images, and i think i've almost achieved the results i'm looking for. This was produced using masking tape to create a border, as you would find on playing cards, and then i used various materials to further develop and improve my lino print designs. I used Posca Pens, normal pens, watercolours, acrylic paint, pen brushes and also use some textured plastic to create some textures. I'm very happy how these are coming along!

[dasilvaartii]

Card Box Layout

Here are 2 options/ideas for my box, where i used the images i previously created. I feel the sides should have the same image to make sense. I might change the sides to just black. I feel the red circle one works best.

[dasilvaartii]

Back of cards - Digital experiments

Using a collage i made with the monoprints I decided to push it foward digitally. As i mention before, for the back of the card I’m thinking something digital. Working with photoshop (as this is the platform i’m more confortable with) here are the ideas I’m playing with:

Firstly i played with saturations and constrast to experiment different colours on the design

I experimented with diferent filters, layers and blending modes.

My favority results are these ones:

I also really like this different design when i played with layer of the watercolour i done with the masking take and a line image of the monoprint. Personally i feel it might look too “busy” but i think as a back of a card deck would look interesting. Maybe i can see if and how i can use it for the box design(?)

(Layers, blending modes, saturations and constrasts)

[dasilvaartii]

Development with my concepts...

Thinking of the “colours” idea, i make some design with it, using masking take to cover liner parts and experiment with watercolours to try and create a pattern of some sort where i could then, using some mark making tecniques, print on top with diferent materials.

Unfortunatly when pealling the tape it also rip parts of the paper but i decided to go with it and use the colour parts that i found more interesting.

I experimented with diferent materials to uso to print but these are the marks i likes best.

I was trying to create the idea of folding pipes, something use more mecanical, the repetition of its shapes, so i decided to use a piece of cardboard and cut out the shapes i was looking for to print:

Cardboard cutout and prints:

I then experimented with doing some montage with bits of paper, cardboard and plastic, i was using for the mark making, as i thought they looked interesting if i put them together:

Finally i had a go on photoshop with these monoprints to see how they would work with my linocut card suits designs, to possibly get some ideas of how i will finalize them, see it i could use this:

I think they look interesting. I also notice how unconscietly i end up going to a more darker imagery sight, even though i started with colours on this development. I will take onward the more darker concept as it obviously something i do and enjoying doing without even thinking to much of it. Find it more appealing and interesting. 

The last 3 images, i feel they actually worked quite well. I like the textures and the contrasts, the “ruffness” that it gave to the design.

[dasilvaartii]

About my concepts for this project...

For this brief we were asked to create a body of work developing towards two different ideas. I decided to work towards an idea that I’m confortable and enjoy (a more darker side) and explore another that i find myself less confortable to create work (a more colourful one). I tend to not work with too many colour on the same piece because is just something that doesnt appeal to me as much as something with a more darker hint. I decided to explore a little this more colourful side to see if i would get something out it. 

For this I explored some artists that word with vivid colours, like Howard Hodgkin, as shown in a previous post. For me personally, the imagery it self, the compositions, don’t really speak to me much, what i really appreciate from it is the vivid colours, the contrasts, his use of complementary colours, i can see myself taking something from that for my own work, because I feel it really captures the attention of the viewers no matter what imagery you are looking at, hence catching my attention.

I decided i will try and integrate the imagery I’m creating for the suits, with the colourful concept work together, or at least explore a bit towards it, but my preference is more to work with 2 or 3 darker shades of colours, so i might work with that idea.

I’m happy with the designs I created for my card suits and i want to take them further and experiment more on the card designs it self, like how to present them, how to structure the actual cards with this designs, the back of the card and finally the box. For the box I’m thinking of making more of sort of a folder type. 

My actually prints for the cards suits will be Linocut with some mixmedia, so these will be in A5 size. The design of the card of the cards i’m thinking on using some of the images and manipulate them digitally to created a more graphic design, so that way I’m still using the development work to further applications on this project.

It is also my idea to create a version of the cards in their usual size, which will give me the change to print them as a digital medium, but i really appreciate the texture of the lino prints and a more “hand made” artwork.

[dasilvaartii]

Digital Manipulations

Finally having access to Adobe Photoshop (yey!) i manage to make some creations for the cards. Because of the way i created mu designs for each suit, i decided to do the ace cards. The idea would be that any number cards, would have the symbol and the numbers on the corner, and for the King, Queen and Jack, i would possibly create a similar design to the respective Ace, but more symbolic to the specific card. I would probably would prefer doing this by first drawing/ designing it manually and them possibly digital, as i prefer to work and create manually, experimenting and in a more free way of using diferent types of medias.

Diamonds:

For this manipulations i used the lino print of the design. The next layer behind it is the experiment for diamonds from the “painting with sponges” workshop, and lastly the background is a scrap mix media from past work that, due to its colours, i decided to use it here. I still wanted to give a dark look to this card, following my theme, so the background is more representative of the red colour of diamonds, while the symbol and linocute are much darker and represent them selves heavier on the composition.

Hearts:

Using the linocut print for this design, i cleaned it on photoshop and then overlaid and blended it with a photo that i took and also manipulated. Even thou is a bit “noisy”, i like the result, the branches of the trees on the background reminds of blood vessels in the human body, so i like the conjunction of the two here.

Clubs:

After cleaning on photoshop the linocut print i experimented with diferent overlays. The background is actually originally a marbelling print i did during my HND1 in red and white. To which i experimented on photoshop, playing about with colours nd contrasts, trying to get the desired colour. I wanted to give it a sort of Biohazard look, to go with the design of the gas mask. I did struggle a bit as im quite rusty with PS, but eventually i found a result that i was please with. In the future i would maybe change the colours.

Spades:

Here i again used for the background on of the “painting with sponges workshop”. I decided to make this on simple, but i also wanted to show a less digital image. So here we can see the brushes of the sponges (originally in blue colour) and the linocut print of the spades symbol i design.

[dasilvaartii]

Creating Linocuts...

I decided to make linos of the designs i have created to be able to print and experiment with them. I do enjoy the results and creating these but it is something that requires quite some time and focus. It took me almost 5h to transfer and cut these in a bit of a unconfortable positions, but the results paid off. What i like the most about having the linocuts is that makes it possible for me to explore other solutions with them manually, meaning without having to rely on digital equipment.

Test Print:

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Painting with sponges workshop

For this workshop we were asked to utilize bits of sponges and diferent types of paints to create quick swatches of abstract work. I decided i would use this to experiment with my colour/shapes research using similar shapes to the card suits, which i made in the paper with masking take, which i after removed to reveal the designs.

These were just quick experiments. When dried i used a posca pen to highlight some areas and give it a bit more definition.

As i have done on my previous design card suit for diamonds, i’m thinking i can maybe use this idea for a concept in which i use this type of colour as the background on the card suits and work with sillhuetes designing something more graphic on it.

[dasilvaartii]

Looking at artists that use colour and shape in their work...

For one of my concepts I’m exploring colours i can use and how i can use them to integrate on my work. Working with very colourful ideas is a bit out of my confort zone so i thought i would give it a shot. 

Here are some abstract artists i looked at for inspiration:

Howard Hodgkin -  British painter and printmaker.

Wassily Kandinsky -  Russian painter and art theorist,  credited as the pioneer of abstract art.

Sarah Morris - British abstract painter

Danielle foye -  freelance watercolor artist

Sonia Delaunay -  French artist, multi-disciplinary abstractist and key figure in the Parisian avant-garde. Her exploration of the interaction between colours has created a sense of depth and movement throughout her work.

Was fun to find and explore the work of this artists, as its not my usual or “go to” type of work, i would not normally working this abstract, but its always good to find diferent approaches. I was happy to find the work above from Sonia Delaunay and to see her own approach on card suits, made to her style. 

[dasilvaartii]

Linocut Printing Development ♠️

Started by using tracing paper to transfer the design into a lino plate, which i then cut and started by doing test prints with black relief ink.

Then i went on to experiment with different background:

As i thought, i'm not please with the "leg" so i decided to remove it.

I like this design but still want to add and play with the colours and backgrounds.

[dasilvaartii]

Idea for Diamonds ♦️ design...

I'm thinking of keeping this one in a simple design, yet colourful, for that reason i decided to do the diamond shape and draw the silluete of a raven as if its coming out of it, and then just play with the background.

I like the colours and how vibrant they came out, in contrast with the black silluete. After producing this i thought i could maybe experiment with this type of design with all the suits afterwards.

I'm still considering using the pentacles for this suit, as it would be more in theme with my moodboard, and i feel with this design i got away from it a bit but i dont regret it and it turned out a fun contrasting piece that i'm please with! Might still try it as a lino, the black part of it, in different backgrounds, think it could be interesting.

[dasilvaartii]

Idea for Clubs ♣️ design...

I decided to try the gas mask design on the Club suit with some pattern design on the left of it so still give the idea and shape of the suit. Again, i started by sketching it in coloured pencils on top of the club shape, from which i could alter and adapt.

Here are different stages of the process:

I will be taking this into a Lino cut, even thou here i started shading and giving more detail to the design, but one of the reasons i did that its because I'm not totally convinced with it, and as mention in my thumbnails post, i feel this suit would do better with some sort of biohazard symbol design, i might explore that possibility.

[dasilvaartii]

Idea for Spades ♠️ design...

For Spades, as i referred on my thumbnail sketches, I'm going to use skulls, inpired from Melmoths art, i decided to use the sort of siemise skulls to integrated in the suit design and this is the sketch i came up with.

If its a line drawing i always like to use pen, after i'm sure about the lines, to make it pop and give more contrast and definition to the design.

I'm not 100% sure about the "leg" of the suit, that was an experiment but i dont quite like it so i'll probably change it afterwords.

I will also be making a Lino cut of this design to see how i can play around with backgrounds and such.

[dasilvaartii]

Idea for Hearts ♥️ design...

I decided to experiment with the design for Hearts by creating a mechanical heart, steampunk inspired. For this i started by drawing the heart shape as it is in a card suit.

Using coloured pencils to make the design, as i decided to create it expontaneous, this way i could still erase and easily modify it as i went.

I find i work better this way, letting the ideas flow and going for it!

As i was sketching i decided to make the left half of the heart as a brain, with the intuit of giving the idea of the usual conflict between heart and brain, giving them connection as if the brain is feeding from the heart.

As i felt more confident about the design i used strongher lines to define it. Its still needs a lot of detail but i'm considering this as a sketch because i want to create a basic design Lino to experiment with relief printing at home. The idea is to also express the comum conflict of "heartVSbrain" where in this case i'm using the connections between them as if the brain is feeding of the heart. I will possibly come back to this design afterwords to make it with more detailed but first i want to see how it turns in Lino cut with different backgrounds.