BLOG POST 5: DRAWING AND PRINTMAKING DEVELOPMENT NOTES FROM TUTOR MACK

THE FOLLOWING ARE ZOOM TUTORIAL NOTES TYPED UP FROM PENCIL NOTES, THEY ARE IN NOTE FORM AS THEY WERE WRITTEN/JOTTED DOWN MID-LECTURE, THEY WORK FOR ME AND I HAVE INCLUDED THEM TO SHOW ENGAGEMENT AND THEY HAVE BEEN VERY USEFUL TO REFER BACK TO THROUGHOUT THIS PROJECT

NOTES: MACK 1-1 PDP zoom session

Book: High and low rare book, Barry Miles counter culture, hippie zines Notting Hill. Pre photo copier xerox printing method. 

Book: Hybrid forms- leeds sculpture and drawings. Organising type and space.

Amazon, ebay, world of books and library ( Email Sarah Shenton)

metamorphosis

subtle, metaphorical references.

Gary Panter illustration for NY Times of Snake Plissken- simplify, just one character: your own thing + composition - close ups, watching films, detailed zooms shots. 1 key black drawing layer and base colour layer with minimal palette. 

Celebrate the human emotions. ambience

DVDs Exorcist; ambience, autumn leaves, wind, tubular bells. Pacing, production of cinematography. William Friedkin - he did First reformed, 

The Wicker Man, Christopher Lee, Saturday night fever, Taxi driver (fly on the wall, voyeuristic) 

NOTES: PRINTMAKING 

-simple, Goya-esque drawings. Sugar Lift, spit bite. Get book on Rodin and Degas Monotypes.

Not got as much time as you think. Lithography is time consuming but it is pure for drawing strengths. 

Crayons through silk screens, turps, ceri wipes - ask Howard, Will and Mike.

Paper- Ask Fashion Department about big roll of paper used for pattern cutting "to sample" ;) Thin enough to get nice monoprint results. 

MONOPRINTING- Big glass mirror/panel - very thin cheap paper; painting on mirror using water based block printing ink. Wet paper, washing up sponge or plant spray bottle, lay onto mirror, use hand or back of spoon to press.

- sneak peak, is it working? 10 in a night, painting, sugar ( sprinkled salt from packet to give starry night/galaxy) The Alchemy of print making. Not always in control.

MONOPRINT + MOCK-UP WOODBLOCK PRINT- Big table spoon to use as press. Big old wooden drawing board - the grain of the wood, old bread/chopping board. 

Paint onto wood using brush, thumb, rag, cotton buds, thin paper, slightly dam, peel off - gives the look of a woodblock print ("fake it till you make it") Lovely wood, shaped, not rectangluar (looked slightly arts and crafts - esque). IMPROVISE AND COMBINE, Secret recipes, ingredients that only you know. Be creative.

Ink must be water-based block printing ink (Reeves ink) water based is important because you don't need  that much pressure to get a print. Oil based requires a proper press/ wheel. Water based can be done with hand, baren, spoon.

Charcoal drawings layered, heavy weight and stripped back with water from shower/ spray bottle. Water can disintegrate your paper/work. Use good quality, BFK.

Visual Research includes experimenting and testing, takes off the pressure for the rest of the unit if you start working hard and experimenting right at the start. Needs the graft.

First 10 days, no pressure, working with the eye - minimilizing ( GOLDEN RATIO ) USE NEGATIVE SPACE. Don't be afraid of white space - composition - look at Hitchcock films, Orson Welles films. Orson Welles - Touch of evil + Golden ratio.

NOTES FROM MACK ON FILM POSTER DESIGN

WJT Mitchell- additional reading

What is an image- different form of writing

Outsider art- making powerful imagery- Bill Trailor

Images culturally embedded language

Semiotics- we read signs – as a society we agree what visual language is- how we interpret

images- Social Semiotics

Body of drawing, collage, print- in response to oneiric

Semiotics:

Explicit- shown, picture of something, clear-designated- its denoted not connoted

Implicit- ambiguous, leaves viewer with lots of interpretation. Connoted = implied. its not

bang on obvious

Need to be able to articulate- use the right lingo, Lexicon.

Oneiric= relating to dreams or dreaming

Jean Cochteaux- beauty and the beast- Belle et Bete

Visual Language being more ambiguous.

Whole sequences of film being silent. Atmosphere= very important

Watch all films- make and add notes from what Mack is saying. Analyse your chosen film.

Read about the films.

- How do you visualise the film- make subtle art from it.

- Human relationships. What is the film’s message/love/ecology

- All the chosen films are good- not Hollywood trash. They are sensitive and subtle.

Evidence of visual responses to the protagonists, their motives, and the landscape/habitat,

sense of place they inhabit.

Environment shapes the person- Terroire (enriched grapes from the volcanic soil).

Landscape can sometimes be the strongest character in the film. Habitat is very important.

How do you depict a certain atmosphere?

How is the atmosphere depicted through colour.

Typography element- work with towards the end.

Can print them off in A2 towards the end in A4 and more

EXPERIMENT. Try not to pick a film that is suited to your drawing- push yourself and try to

bond with the film.

ERRIDITE

Instagram and social media- everything is tailored and filtered down to you = the

importance of Mack- importance of having knowledgeable tutor such as Mack- LEGEND

Watch the films and soak it up.

- Mise en scene- how a director creates an ambience, a scene using props etc.

Costume design, typography. That person that you’re looking at – that person is like

you. Their emotional intelligence.

Shakespeare- Universal, intemporel/timeless messages.

- Verisimilitude- the appearance of being true or real- being seduced into watching

reality. - the enactment of reality but its not real.- when things are done beautifully

they appear real.

Those feelings that the protagonist is feeling… How the fuck can you transfer that into a

drawing?

LIFE DRAWING

-Inversion of value

-not knowing what good is

-aesthetical taste about drawing – proper drawing, powerful, visceral, original.

Rude things – add to work.

Hairy Who- male and female, fresh, huge influence, group of American comic zine, graphic

artists.

Poster project = a massive time to evolve thinking and practise.

Experiment lots and lots and don’t be afraid!!!

Andrzej Klimowski – greatest poster maker.

Terry’s Film Posters

Czech and Polish film posters. Hannah Bodnar- very good resource Czech illustrator did

Vertigo, Terminator.

Human emotion- Sturm und drang = full of emotion

Where the word angst comes from

Human emotion, relationship between protagonists. Habitat with human representation.

Don’t be too literal, takes a lot of bad ones to make a good one.

Best posters are often the most simple.

Work at A2- large, inky drawings, pastels

Arm, wrist, elbow drawings, full body and use of limbs and joints- put all of your effort and

body into the drawing.

Work on newsprint, work with image in Photoshop and preview.

Scan in, they can become sophisticated- needs to work compositionally.

If composition isn’t there= it will look crap.

Composition is key.

Work on other materials – Varnish, oils, paints.

The simpler the better, loose drawings and then add text at the end

Scan it in, tighten it up

Don’t draw/hold your pen like you’re writing a letter to your grandparents.

Cognitive dissidence.

Work on bigger size and scale. A2!!!

A2 loose drawings

Think about composition, draw from the TV

Film Stills.

Put Paper on the TV- map out the composition. It’s not tracing, just getting the shape and

composition.

Don’t stop the way you work. Have complete freedom and liberty to make work that excites

you!!

Billy Childish work.

Rose Wiley

Start following the hashtags of particular artists work- constant immersion with brilliant

artistic influences.

Work in ink- indian ink, quink and bleach.

Just University work- no spare time work – got too much work to do.

In film, breaking the fourth wall= turns to camera and breaks the verisimilitude= explicit.

Try new stuff/methods, full body portrait, have a broad Palette

Go crazy and make the most of the facilities in Uni.

Develop Something that is fresh= good catalyst to make you work.

Change motifs- never stick to something, change it up.

Experiment for first few weeks- watch films, relax. Treat projects as projects.

Combine uni work and spare time work.

Make list of key words after watching films on a key level. Basic level.

Pull out words from the script.

David Lynch, eye of the duck - where he places the eye of the duck? Where something

comes together- the key/pivotal moment of the film. Find that scene in the film and can you

visualise it and do a drawing of it/ about that scene.

Complex= lots to chew on. Get stuck in the film.

Scenes in the film where the character has to respond to what happens- breaks down,

amazing feats of strength and determination. How do you visualise that?

Soundtracks are there to manipulate the viewer

Focus on the film- ambience, just have the film on, no distractions, no chatting, no lights,

phone off…

Resonance= activates the atavistic response.

Atavistic response to the film. Hairs raised on the back of your neck. We are no different to

our stone age ancestors- electric charge. Respond in a sensorial way, a sensory perception

of something.

Mise en scene= strong

Verisimilitude= strong

Whiplash effect.

The best design makes the viewer slow down and look- stop in your tracks.

Needs the drawing to have empathy

More sensitive Monoprints- subtle linework

Exquisite Corpse drawings- the trick is to add a couple of inches between the sections.

Big drawings- Mack trick at Unit that no one else knew how he did it!!! Inky wet drawings,

put them in the shower, let the ink bleed and run off. Drips, stains.

Use blue Quink, bleach. Convey the Mise en Scene for ‘You were never really here’.

Ambience is extremely important.

Work on hand- rendered typography

Point of sale = something that can sell. Turn into postcards.

FOP- discount dvds

Simplify the drawings, scan them in, use preview.

Ron Searle, Japanese prisoner of war drawings. Reportage illustrations- historic.

Not so much line on white standard paper- have coloured, pre-prepared paper and

backgrounds- linseed oil

Scan in drawings and reverse on photoshop.

Play with water-spray water over it using spritzer bottle/plant spray bottle. Inky monoprints.