Sample 3...

Date	23rd October 2012
Fabric	Bleach White Cotton
Dye type	Reactive Dye
Colour Specifics	Scarlet MXG reactive dyes, printed using Manutex.
What worked?	The colour definitely worked for me. I decided to use a reddish colour because I wanted to show my families faces bleeding into one another. I hand painted the dye on so I put extra colour around each body so there was added depth which worked out well.
What went wrong and could be improved?	Even though I am pleased with this print, I think this print could have been bolder, brighter and more powerful through its choice of colour. There is colour fading in certain areas which means this print has lost out on important detail in some of my families’ faces which is disappointing.
Notes	If I was to repeat this process again in the exact same way I would add extra dye to the faces to control and contain the smaller detail in the faces.
Sample Number	Experiment 3

Sample 2...

Date	23rd October 2012
Fabric	White Bleached Cotton
Dye type	Reactive Dye
Colour Specifics	Black MX Reactive Dyes  Manutex print
What worked?	Nothing worked! I wanted to experiment with blocking out certain areas of people’s faces to fit in with my project theme of Amnesia but too much was blocked out so nothing could be made out. Some interesting patterns have been created through using the hand painted print technique.
What went wrong and could be improved?	I used masking tape to block out certain areas so this material gave a straight cut edge, not blurry, which would be more fitting. If I were to try this again I would using smaller scale version of the masking tape to try to maintain a bit of the detail.
Notes	Experiment with a range of colours!
Sample Number	Experiment Number 2

Sample 1...

Date	23rd October 2012
Fabric	White Bleached Cotton
Dye type	Reactive Dye
Colour Specifics	Black MX reactive dye. Hand painted on, experimenting with the technique using Manutex.
What worked?	This experiment was about playing around with hand drawing onto the screen using reactive dyes and screen printing it using Manutex. This technique allows me to play around with pattern and colour depth, I like how this technique allows me to have darker areas.
What went wrong and could be improved?	The patterned areas just look stupid because it takes away the simple detail from the exposed print. Some areas turned out lighter than I had anticipated areas that should have been darker. My little brother’s face on this print is disappointing as I mustn’t have put dye there because his face detail isn’t visible.
Notes	Would like to experiment with this technique more and pay more attention to the placing of the amount of colour and how placing the colour makes the print look more detailed in certain areas.
Sample Number	Sample Number 1

Richard Billingham...

 

Richard Billingham was an English photographer and artist who is best known for his book named ‘Ray’s A Laugh’. The book documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray and his heavily tattooed and obese mother, Liz. The book is a portrayal of the poverty and deprivation that he grew up with. Billingham took his photographs on cheap camera film that provided brash colourings to his photographs, alongside bad focus, but this aspect did add to the authenticity of his life. Both Ray and Liz appeared as grotesque figures that have bad habits but I think they carry a true representation of a British family that have bad habits: obesity, smoking, drinking and gambling, all aspects that effect our lives but are private, I find these images as truthful and refreshing.

 

In the late 2006, an exhibition played host to a series of new photographs and videos that were inspired by his memories of a trip to Dudley Zoo as a child, he entitled his work ‘Zoo’.

Marlene Dumas...

 

Chlorosis (Love Sick)

Made using a range of materials and media’s: ink, Gouache and synthetic polymer paint on paper. A compiled collection of 24 portraits comprise Chlorosis, they were based on Polaroid snapshots of people that she knew onto newspaper clippings of strangers. Thin and exquisite use of colour washes suggests projections, another form of being.

Measuring your own grave

Many of Dumas’ paintings start out as photographs that have a subjective/objective view that focuses on a particular moment in time, like my project of using old family photographs to portray a capture of a moment/memory. Dumas then adds the image with a meaning that gets distorted and played around with, objects and people are depicted in the frame, it is mainly women, children and people in colour that are used.

 

 

Experimental prints...

 

As the multi-stencil prints did not work out as successfully as I hoped I went back to what I thought worked best and revived the singular black prints and experimented with different papers, different backgrounds and textures, trying to bring back my theme of Alzheimer’s through confusion, distortion and reflection of faces. The singular black prints always come out clear, consistently printed well and strong, using black as a colour makes the figure and face vibrant.   

Multi-stencil prints...

 

To get more depth, shadow and highlighting to my prints, I decided to experiment with multi-stencil prints that form one picture. I stuck to using the darker colours of black, dark grey, light grey and white, the blended well together and the shading and structure of the bodies in the picture were evident. Even though I can tell who is in the prints, some did not turn out as well as I had hope. Because my prints did not have registration marks some of the stencils did not register correctly with each other so white areas of the paper underneath appeared where it should not, throwing the print off balance. Next time I will definitely use register marks to make my prints a perfect match up.