BLOCK PRINT
Overview
Title: Three Cats
Size: 30.4 cm by 23 cm Medium: Black Ink on Carved Linoleum Block Date: August 2023 Exhibition Text
"Three Cats" is a linoleum block print created to show the impact that my cats have had on my identity. This piece is meant to explore how I believe my cats have made me a more caring and compassionate person, and how I view them to be one of the most important things in my life right now. This block print heavily focuses on contrast between positive and negative space within a piece. I drew inspiration from the work of Margaret Taylor-Burroughs and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner when creating my artwork.
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INSPIRATIONS
In addition, I was also inspired by the work of German-Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. On my previous block print project, I was also inspired by Kirchner but this time I really wanted to dig deep into his work and discover more prints of his that I hadn't seen before. When doing so I stumbled upon his pieces Botanical Garden and Taunus Landscape. I was really drawn to these pieces in the way that he used contrast in both of these pieces, and the amount of detail in these prints as well. In his piece Taunus Landscape I was also interested in the way that Kirchner created movement through the smoke of the train featured in the foreground. I also wanted to be able to created some sort of movement in my piece, possibly through the patterns of the fur.
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When looking for ideas to start my first piece of senior year, I decided that I wanted to make a block print since it was a new medium that I discovered last school year. While searching for inspiration no artists were really catching my eye until I stumbled on the work of Margaret Taylor-Burroughs. Burroughs experimented with many mediums but was most well known for her work in print-making. Many of her block prints featured images of African American leaders, history, and ordinary life. I was instantly drawn to her work due to the amount of small detail and lines used throughout her pieces. In her piece On the Beach I was really intrigued by the sky in this piece and the way she was able to include such intricate and small lines. I also enjoyed the detailing on the faces of the people she chose to feature. In addition, I was also drawn to her piece The Family due to the line work included in this print as well. I found it interesting how she had more negative space in this piece than positive space. This type of intricate line work included in her pieces is a technique that I wanted to include in my piece.
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PLANNING
Next, I redid the same sketches but simplified them more, and cut out the images of them to put into the format that I wanted them to appear in on my block print. I tried to use less lines and specific details in order to make it more realistic for carving. I also noted how I wanted the spacing of the images to work, and which parts of the piece would be positive and negative space.
I finished up by creating one last sketch but this time I simplified it even more and used a black sharpie in order to really capture how this sketch would look as a block print. I was struggling with simplifying the sketches because I wanted to keep some details, but wasn't sure if I would actually be able to capture this detail in the form of a block print. However, I knew that some of the details were important to keep in order to distinct between the three cats, so I tried my best to include them in the final sketch. I also made some quick notes about things I would have to keep in mind when carving and when transferring this sketch onto the block. |
When beginning to plan my piece, I wanted to write down my overall theme and inspirations to get a sense of the direction I was wanting to go with this piece. I knew I wanted to find a way to connect this piece to my others despite it looking so visually different, and chose to make this piece to represent how my cats have affected my identity and how I feel that they have made me a more compassionate person. I wanted to show the impact that they have made on my through the high contrast between the background and them, making the cats stand out more. I started out my sketches by physically drawing the faces of my cats. Drawing animals is something that I had never really practiced or even done before, so I knew in order to create this piece I needed to work out the proportions of the cats faces, and specific features such as stripes and eye shape. Once I sketched out each of the cats I went back and wrote notes about them on the side such as important things to keep, and things I wanted to change about them. I also made notes on how to simplify certain things for the block print since I understood that realistically I wouldn't be able to get as much detail as I wanted to. |
PROCESS
After carving out the larger sections of white, I slowly started to carve out the more difficult sections as well. I did unfortunately have to omit some of the extremely small details in some places due to the fact that I simply wasn't able to carve small enough. Eventually once I finished the bodies of the cats, I moved on to the faces which was the most difficult part for me. This part was the most time consuming because I had to be careful around the eyes and whiskers in order to make sure I didn't accidentally carve out and important features. Once I was done carving out all of the white space of the linoleum, I finished off by carving a simple white border around the three cats so that they would stand out against the black background. I wanted the cats to really pop in this piece in order to relay my theme of how large of an impact they have made on my identity.
When I began to print my block prints, I had to experiment with how much ink I was putting onto the block, and how hard I was pressing in order to transfer the ink onto the paper. My first few prints weren't coming out how I wanted them to. There either wasn't enough ink on the print, or there was too much ink which made the features flooded.
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When beginning my process for this block print, I transferred my final sketch onto the linoleum block and then went over it in sharpie. I did this so that when I began carving, I would know which areas to carve out and which ones to leave white.
Once everything was drawn on and I was happy with how it looked, I was able to start carving. I started out with the larger sections of white, and carved long strips into the linoleum. I primarily used the same blade throughout the entire process because it was the smallest one I had, and I knew I would need to use a small blade for the amount of detail that I wanted to include in my piece. I spent a lot of time making the individual prints because I was trying to find one that I was completely happy with. The reason why it took me so long was because I wanted the background to be completely black. I wanted to be able to make a complete contrast between the black background and the white cats, but eventually figured out that what I wanted wasn't going to be obtainable. Eventually I was able to come up with a block print that had enough of a black background to create the contrast I wanted.
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EXPERIMENTATION
I made a lot of prints for this project because I was really trying to get a completely black background for this piece. I tried to do this a lot of different ways, but the primary way I experimented with this was with how much pressure I was putting on the different parts of the block using the baren.
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A majority of the experimentation I did for this piece was with how much ink I was putting onto my block to make the prints. I wasn't sure how much ink I was supposed to put onto the block in order to get the effect I wanted. I tried to experiment with multiple different methods of putting the ink onto the paper. This included trying different barens to see which one would allow for the most pressure to be put onto the paper, and would have the best overall outcome. I also experimented with how much ink I was putting onto the actual block. I noticed that when I put more ink onto the block that I thought I was getting better results. I also tried putting less ink onto the block to see if that could help me get the results I wanted, but the ink was very faint which was the complete opposite of what I wanted.
In addition to experimenting with how I used the ink, I also experimented with the tools themselves required to make the block print. First of all, I experimented with the size of the carving tools I was using. I started off with a larger tool, but quickly learned that it was too large for the smaller details I needed to carve out. I decided to start using a smaller tool once I realized that I wasn't getting the outcome I wanted.
I also experimented with the type of baren I was using. One baren was made of plastic, while the other was made of a different material and was more solid. After trying a multitude of different block prints using the plastic baren and not getting the outcome I wanted, I decided to try the other one thinking that I would get a different outcome this time. The other baren didn't give me the outcome I wanted either, despite me putting a lot of pressure onto the paper. After doing a few prints using this baren, I went back to the plastic one and decided to just simply use more pressure while printing the ink onto the paper. |
CRITIQUE
There are a lot of similarities between my work and my inspirations. One similarity between my piece and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's piece "Taunus Landscape" is the way that we both chose to use lines to create movement in the piece. Kirchner does this through the way he creates movement through the smoke coming out of the train, and I showed movement through the way I chose to make the fur look. In addition we both made the white spaces of our block print completely clean, with no small spaces of black being included in the spaces. There are also similarities between my piece and Margaret Taylor-Burroughs piece "On the Beach". The most noticeable similarity between our pieces is that we both include more negative space than positive space in our pieces. She shows this by only including streaks of white throughout her piece, and it's shown in my piece by only the cats being made of positive space.
There are also a lot of differences between my block print and my inspirations as well. First of all, the subjects of my piece are animals which neither of my inspirations had as their main subjects. Burroughs displayed people and Kirchner displayed landscapes. In addition, the subject of my piece is very different from that in my inspirations. I also chose not to use up the background of my piece so that I could make a more intense contrast between the background and the cats.
There are also a lot of differences between my block print and my inspirations as well. First of all, the subjects of my piece are animals which neither of my inspirations had as their main subjects. Burroughs displayed people and Kirchner displayed landscapes. In addition, the subject of my piece is very different from that in my inspirations. I also chose not to use up the background of my piece so that I could make a more intense contrast between the background and the cats.
REFLECTION
Overall, I am incredibly happy with the outcome of this piece and truly believe that my patience as an artist has improved after completing this project. I really enjoyed creating another block print, and was excited to see how much my technique had improved since the block print I made last year. I also enjoyed planning this piece and having the opportunity to make a piece based on animals since it's a subject I hadn't worked with yet. In addition, I think this project really taught me to not only be patient with myself, but also to be forgiving of myself with any mistakes I made throughout the process. Specifically through the carving stage of this project I had to have a lot of self-discipline in order to get the piece to look how I wanted, and I think overall it taught me a lot about myself as an artist. My least favorite part of this process was how long it took me to get a print that I eventually liked, but eventually it all worked out. My favorite part of the process was the theme behind my piece. My cats hold a special place in my heart, and it was important for me to be able to make a piece that showed that. I hope that people are able to look at my piece "Three Cats" and consider the important aspects of their lives that have changed them for the better.
ACT QUESTIONS
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
You are able to visually see the connection between my piece and my inspirations through our use of positive and negative space, and well as the line work we used throughout our block prints.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The way that positive and negative space can be used to make contrast against each other, specifically within block prints.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that different variations of lines can create different levels of contrast within a piece.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
How line work can be used to create contrast within a piece.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that the use of aggressive positive and negative space within a piece is meant to create contrast.
You are able to visually see the connection between my piece and my inspirations through our use of positive and negative space, and well as the line work we used throughout our block prints.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The way that positive and negative space can be used to make contrast against each other, specifically within block prints.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that different variations of lines can create different levels of contrast within a piece.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
How line work can be used to create contrast within a piece.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that the use of aggressive positive and negative space within a piece is meant to create contrast.
CITATIONS
“Botanical Garden, Jena (Botanical Garden, Jena).” Botanical Garden, Jena (Botanical Garden, Jena) | LACMA Collections, collections.lacma.org/node/177642. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.
“Taunus Landscape - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.” Taunus Landscape - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner as Art Print or Hand Painted Oil., www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/taunuslandschaft.html. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.
Knox, Martha. “‘on the Beach’ by Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs.” “On the Beach” by Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, wordsonwoodcuts.blogspot.com/2014/08/on-beach-by-margaret-taylor-goss.html. Accessed 30 Aug. 2023.
“Margaret Burroughs.” The Johnson Collection, LLC, thejohnsoncollection.org/margaret-burroughs/. Accessed 30 Aug. 2023.
“Taunus Landscape - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.” Taunus Landscape - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner as Art Print or Hand Painted Oil., www.art-prints-on-demand.com/a/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/taunuslandschaft.html. Accessed 24 Aug. 2023.
Knox, Martha. “‘on the Beach’ by Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs.” “On the Beach” by Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs, wordsonwoodcuts.blogspot.com/2014/08/on-beach-by-margaret-taylor-goss.html. Accessed 30 Aug. 2023.
“Margaret Burroughs.” The Johnson Collection, LLC, thejohnsoncollection.org/margaret-burroughs/. Accessed 30 Aug. 2023.