Positioning & Summative Statement

Throughout the duration of this project I have been taking on self initiated and self selected briefs which have all shown a keen interest in colour, line work and mark making, pattern and people. This has been through a broad range of mediums from print making to editorial illustrations. I have found my most enjoyable and most successful pieces to be those which combine research to form content with detailed and careful production methods, while still keeping a freedom to work into the work spontaneously. I think this last point is what I enjoy most about art and the reason I chose to study illustration - the expression and the freedom in art. However this also is probably why the majority of my briefs were self initiated, collaborative or individual client based, all of which where there is some creative freedom. I loved working collaboratively and on a personal level with people. These were the briefs which I felt most invested in.

I found the blog very useful in keeping on top of all the briefs which were happening simultaneously, and I also found text playing a large roll in my briefs such as the Q&A Saturday brief. Concerning my Statement of Intent, my final major project reflects these themes of people, research, line work and mark making. The time spent researching gave me the freedom to create a scene which still had relevance to the Indian culture and my own experiences there. Lino was the perfect medium for me to work with as it was very practical and allowed me to really investigate into mark making and manipulating tools and the lino to create the image and shapes I wanted. The last three years have taught me about the power of using media and processes to capture the character or mood of a piece. Through lino cut I have not allowed myself to be a perfectionist with people and objects. I am also using a tool which sometimes is hard to control but this has been a great thing for my practice because with its restraints, lino printing gave me a freedom to explore the process driven mark making and line work.

Project Report

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Extended Practice project report:

Statement of Intent

The key briefs in this module were:

• Ugandan Maternal Healthcare Book. OUIL603 Studio Brief 1
• Q&A Saturday. OUIL603 Studio Brief 3
• SunD.I.Y. OUIL603 Studio Brief 4
• Vagina Dentata Zine Brief. OUIL603 Studio Brief 6
• Final Major Project: Investigating India. OUIL603 Studio Brief 9
• Crispin Orthotic's. OUIL603 Studio Brief 10
• Power Book. OUIL603 Studio Brief 13

Other briefs: 

• Guardian Editorial Brief. OUIL603 Studio Brief 12
• Houlder Christmas Portraits. OUIL603 Studio Brief 7

Follow the ISSUU link below to my renewed Statement of Intent:

BOARDS: FMP Investigating India Brief

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Investigating India Brief presentation boards:

BOARDS: Q&A Saturday Brief

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Q&A Saturday Brief presentation boards:

BOARDS: Power Book Brief

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Power Book Brief presentation boards :

BOARDS: Vagina Dentata Zine Brief

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Vagina Dentata Zine Brief presentation boards: :

BOARDS: Crispin Orthotics Brief

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Crispin Orthotics Brief presentation boards:

BOARDS: Ugandan Maternal Healthcare Book

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my Ugandan Maternal Healthcare Book presentation boards:

BOARDS: SunD.I.Y Brief

Follow the link below to my SunD.I.Y Brief presentation boards:

Q&A Saturday: Final Resolutions in Context

Today We Wore blog share my post on their website here. This, and the original blog posts are examples of where this brief stands contextually in real world situations. With most editorial publications going online, and the rise of the blogger, it is crucial to pay attention to the power of social media in attracting an audience, clients and other work. 

However, personally I love being able to hold a book or magazine, print is still just as important. Here is my double page magazine spread featuring the Q&A that I did with Portsmouth illustration student Aggie Davies. This is a great example of how illustration is still relevant in print today, I have made my illustration the main part of the page however it works alongside text and photography to help to capture and convey 'Aggie'. The illustration gives an insight into her personality in a different way to the other features, it also brings colour, mark making and line work into the page which, purely on a visual basis, makes it look a lot more aesthetically pleasing. 

Lino Cut Finals in Red

I chose the colour red for the ink of my lino prints onto the off white Somerset paper. I chose this for a number of reasons: 

• I wanted to avoid using black and white, even this would look dramatic and powerful I didn't think it would be the best colour to reflect Indian art or culture. It definitely wouldn't be reflective of the colours I witnessed there.
• I thought that red was probably the next, if not more so, most powerful and dramatic colour in most cultures, it being the colour of blood.
• Most significantly it was the importance of the colour red in Indian, and specifically Hindu culture: the colour red is commonly associated with love and passion. In Indian context, red is also connected to the rising sun. Besides, according to astrology, the planet in charge of marriages, Mars, is red in colour. Therefore, Hindu brides are asked to wear red during the wedding proceedings since it stands for prosperity and fertility. I thought this colour choice would help to add impact and a way of connecting media to the content of the prints.

Overall I am really happy with my final resolutions for my FMP brief as they are reflective of most of my practice to date and they have managed to incorporate key elements mentioned in my statement of intent such as colour, pattern, mark making, line work, nature and people. Hopefully a few of them show emotion too! Depending on what you read into them. Obviously they are more understandable if you have some knowledge of the Hindu faith but even if you don't hopefully the rest of the modern day image will have something to offer.
I personally love the imperfect quality that the effect of lino has. I think the prints look recognisable enough to be a scene but are simultaneously a collection of simple line work and shapes.

Unfortunately I started cutting the prints down before they had completely finished drying so because they were not dry I did not want to risk scanning them but here is the set of prints photographed...

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my final prints:

Lino Cut Finals in Metallic

I tested a load of my lino cuts on black card with metallic inks, I was warned by tutors to stay away from the metallics and stick to a block print for my final resolutions, but once I had created those I thought it would be fun to experiment with mixing up metalics into the red and I really liked the bronze effect it created... however the red ink on somerset paper looked much more of a clear and professional print.

Lino Cut Progress Shots

I am soo happy with the way the detailed sections came out when printing as I was worried that the ink mays pread. 

Unfortunately for some of my lino cuts which I had done previously, I had cut into where their frame would have been. To fix this I cut down the original lino print to the size of the image inside the frame and then used a separate piece of lino to cut out a frame. This was quite annoying to print with as ideally you would want everything equal and the ink to be put on at the same time. But it still worked and it was a good way of using a print and not letting it waste just because it was an awkward shape. 

I started by drawing my design in pen, although the rest of this image was done free hand because I didn't want to waste time drawing a scene I knew well... with the gods though it was essential that I planned out how to arrange them into the rest of the scene in a subtle but overshadowing way; reflecting their influence over the scene.  

Here is my trusty steed! Aka lino cutter. There were a range of heads but I mainly used two, the thinnest and the thickest. The thinnest was obviously best for doing intricate shapes and shallow small details such as the eyes, where as the wider ones were much better for cutting a big amount of space out of the lino.

Photographs

After editing my primary photographs on Photoshop I  printed them out on good quality gloss paper. However I wasn't happy with the final layout of them, and I hadn't made them all the same size so I couldn't cut them out to have them separate or use them for a publication. Instead I decided to 'illustrate over the top of them in black, again here, as with my lino cuts, my main focus was line and mark making with intricate details. I am happy with how the sheets have turned out because they help to link my illustrative practice with my photography.

These photographs are a small selection of the huge range from my trip to India that have helped to inspire and influence my work. I focused on a few themes in particular; nature, education (particularly for girls as Kerala is exceptional for this especially in contrast to the rest of India) and day to day life witnessed through the eyes of a tourist.

Find an ISSUU link to a bigger selection of my photographs from a trip to the jungle in the mountains home to the elephant reserve...

Relevant Gods

I intended for part of my lino cuts to be representative of the Hindu gods that influence the modern scene or the event which I am depicting in the rest of the print (scenes inspired by my time there and my primary reportage photographs). I visited quite a few temples, but mostly this idea came to me because religion there weaves its way into everyday life so heavily, in conversation, in homes, shrines in every shop and business. It has such a peaceful hopeful influence yet it is one of the lead reasons for warring and separation within communities. I witnessed a lot of other religions such as Islam and Christianity during my stay there, however I chose to focus on the Hindu faith because of the expanse of Gods/deities, which makes it accessible to use a separate one in each print representing its specific themes.

Kovalam Beach

This is Dhumavati. Dhumavati is holding a winnowing basket riding a crow and adorned with jewellery. This depiction with the inclusion of jewellery and decorations are contrary to her traditional description but I chose to use this early 20th century Rajput painting as inspiration because part of my project is investigating detail through lino, so jewellery and decorations will be best suited for my prints.

I chose to incorporate Dhumavati into my print of a lower cast man walking along Kovalam Beach.  I am not sure if he was an 'untouchable' or just a travelling man, but he didn't look very strong, this may just have been because of his age though. Dhumavati is one of the Mahavidyas; she represents the fearsome aspect of Devi, the Hindu Divine Mother. Dhumavati is associated with things considered inauspicious and unattractive in Hinduism, such as the crow and the Chaturmas period. However she is also often called tender-hearted and described as a great teacher, one who reveals ultimate knowledge of the universe, which is beyond the illusory divisions, like auspicious and inauspicious. Her ugly form teaches the devotee to look beyond the superficial, to look inwards and seek the inner truths of life.

With this combination of  the poor man and the Dhumavati, I hope to give the audience something to think about when judging an 'ugly form' when considering class or cast systems versus the inner truths of life and that really we are all human. The cast system and disability rights (disability used for begging) really disturbed me during my visit. 

Fruit Seller 

This is Indra. Known as King of the Gods, God of the Heaven and God of Weather and War. I chose to incorporate Indra into my lino cut depicting a scene in Kovalam of a fruit seller cutting up a coconut for two customers. I wanted to turn this into a lino cut because I think it is a sweet moment of selflessness, as the two customers hold their umbrella over the fruit seller to protect her from the rain while she cuts their fruit. Indra is the deva of rain and thunderstorms; my visit was during the rainy season so this deva would have been in full force.

He holds a lightening thunderbolt known as vajra and rides on an elephant known as Airavata. Indra is the most important deity worshiped by the Rigvedic tribes.

Egg Man 

This is Brahma, as it says above he is the god who created knowledge and the universe. He created the four Vedas from each of his mouths. I chose to incorporate Brahma into my lino print of a man delivering eggs in the Kovalam paddy fields. This is because Brahma is linked to Hiranyagarbha (the cosmic egg).
Hiranyagarbha, translated as the 'golden womb', 'golden egg' or 'universal germ', is the source of creation of the universe or the manifested cosmos in Hindu philosophy. The Upanishad calls it the Soul of the Universe or Brahman which then broke into two halves which formed the Svarga and the Prthvi. In classical Puranic Hinduism, Hiranyagarbha is the term used in the Vedanta for the 'creator'. Hiranyagarbha is also a name of Brahma, so called because he was born from a golden egg. The egg today being delivered is a source of food; a source of life. It is also the source from which life is born. This influenced my decision making process to pick Brahma to reign over this lino cut. 

Thanumalayan Temple Suchindram, 
Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu.

I was stunned by this temple when I visited it. I am not religious but the architecture and details both on the exterior and interior created an amazing sense of history and importance. It felt like such a spiritual holy place. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the temple but I took a few of the scenes outside; Indians traveled days to visit the temple. The lino cut I chose to create from this scene was one of a mother carrying a child eating an ice cream, with the temple in the background.

The Thanumalayan Temple is of importance to both Shaivaite and Vaishnavite sects of Hinduism, as the name Stanumalaya denotes Trimurtis; 'Stanu' means Siva; 'Mal' means Vishnu; and the 'Aya' means Brahma. I chose to combine these three gods into the exterior of the Temple wall, which in real life is all white created in part from sea shells. The coming together of the three gods reflects the coming together of the communities historically, still evident today as you see people travelling from all over to come and worship together; what I witnessed when I was there. 

This is Siva. 'The Auspicious One'. He is the chief deity within Shaivism, one of the three most influential denominations in contemporary Hinduism. Siva is regarded as limitless, transcendent, unchanging and formless. Siva also has many benevolent and fearsome forms. He is a householder with wife Parvati and his two children, Ganesha and Kartikeya. He slays demons, and is also regarded as the patron god of yoga and the arts.

It was important, especially as there were a few different gods in this print, that they were all distinguishable. Siva has a third eye on his forehead, the snake Vasuki around his neck, the adorning crescent moon, the river Ganga flowing from his matted hair, the trishula as his weapon and the damaru as his musical instrument. 

Vishnu is the Supreme God Svayam Bhagavan of Vaishnavism. Vishnu has four arms and is depicted as a pale blue being, as are his incarnations Rama and Krishna. He holds a padma (lotus flower) in his lower left hand, the Kaumodaki gada (mace) in his lower right hand, the Panchajanya shankha (conch) in his upper left hand and the discus weapon considered to be the most powerful weapon according to Hindu Reilgion Sudarshana Chakra in his upper right hand.

Unlike the depiction of Brahma from earlier, this one only depicts three heads, however it can be assumed that the other head is on the reverse side. Brahma is traditionally depicted with four arms, he holds symbols of knowledge and creation rather than weapons. In one hand he holds the sacred texts of Vedas, in the second he holds a mala (rosary beads) symbolising time, in the third he holds a ladle symbolising means to feed a sacrificial fire, and in the fourth a utensil with water symbolising the means where all creation emanates from.

Kerala Backwaters

I chose to incorporate the god Varuna on his mount makara. The image above was painted in India, Rajasthan,, 1675-1700.
Varuna is the Hindu god of water and the celestial ocean, as well as a god of law of the underwater world. This was the clear Hindu god to incorporate into my print of the backwaters. He would have influence over day to day life there and other areas of India surrounded by water. The worship of gods help people to feel like they have more control and faith in their surroundings, it makes events make sense, for example a flood of a killing by a crocodile. 

Diwali in Kovalam

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune, and prosperity. She is the wife and active energy of Lord Vishnu. Her four hands represent the four goals of human life considered important to the Hindu way of life - dharma (pursuit of ethical, moral life), kama (pursuit of love, emotional fulfillment), artha (pursuit of wealth, means of life) and moksha (pursuit of self-knowledge, liberation). I chose to incorporate Lakshmi into my print depicting Diwali in a small back alley of Kovalam in India. As a boy holds a sparkler in his families small one room clothes shop, Lakshmi appears looking over the scene in the background behind other buildings. The festival of Diwali is celebrated in Lakshmi's honour.

The lotus, which she typically sits on and carries (I depicted both in my lino cut) carries symbolic meanings in Hinduism and other Indian traditions. It symbolically represents reality, consciousness and karma. The lotus blossoms in clean or dirty water which symbolises beauty and purity regardless of good or bad circumstances in which it grows. I like to think that this links to the poverty around India for example the shops in the scenes are very DIY and not the high street shops we would find in Britain, but they are filled with joy and friendly faces, hand made and hand crafted goods and the celebration of Diwali may be in a simple form with parents watching over their child with a sparkler, but it still means just as much, if not more. 

Recap on Lino Print Tests

Follow the link below to my ISSUU document of my lino print tests from a while ago:

With these previous tests in mind I have been thinking about changes in stock, media and colour palettes which would best suit my final prints.

After talking to tutors Patrick and Fred, I decided to stick to one colour instead of mixing them, which is what I had experimented with in the prints above. They suggested that this mixing could sometimes appear like a weak print rather than a mix of colours, and that one block colour would allow the print to be more focussed on the line work and mark making contrasting against the paper. It makes it all about the quality of the lino cut.

They suggested a good quality off white paper such as heavy water colour paper. I got some of the somerset paper in off white and a slightly browny beige shade. I am thinking about a deep red colour of ink because it really ties into the traditional indian practice of mark making by henna. Also they use henna a lot in day to day life, like for dying hair an orange shade. I think black ink could look quite effective and bold however I don't feel like it is very appropriate for this project as I don't get any hint of India from a black and white colour scheme.

Bright vibrant colours are what most reflect Indian culture, in my opinion, but the tutors suggested some bright colours could make the print look cheap. I will be testing inks with my prints and hopefully a deep block colour will give off the right vibes of India and fit well to the content of the print - giving it an overall high quality aesthetic.

Screen Print Tests

Navy ink screen print onto orange-yellow Himalayan paper.

With these two screen prints I attempted to create a marble mixed ink aesthetic by using a blue and white ink but it didn't come out very clearly or very mixed - just at the top of the image, further down I think the inks just blurred together, or the white took over the blue. 

I really enjoyed using different paper stocks, especially the more textured ones. However it really effected the quality of the screen print because there was a lot of bleed as the paper was denser and coarser in certain areas. This puts me off using a paper like this for print, however I think lino print would come out better with a more textured surface. 

I decided to use lino print as my chosen method as I think the hand made line marks and slightly more scruffy quality work better with the content of my prints. However I did a lot of tests with screen prints and different papers for one of my line drawings of the Hindu god Hanuman.

Find an ISSUU link to my test pieces below:

Everyday and Traditional Narratives Combined

My lino cuts are inspired by the sights and scenes I witnessed during my time in Southern India in 2015. The past and tradition of India became part of my experience through the continuation of traditional everyday past times, such as washing in the backwaters, and the huge influence of traditional spiritual rituals and festivities. Because my experience of India was hugely influenced by a multitude of these factors I felt it was important to reflect them within my lino cuts. Adding everyday images to traditional narratives where appropriate. Sometimes this was within the print itself, or on the juxtaposition of the stock with the lino cut.

I found this film by Arun Wolf really useful in reinforcing my ideas of combining the now and the traditional. I think these artworks are great and I can learn a lot from the colour palettes and visual story telling technique. It is also interesting that a lot of them use frames, or frames to single out a particularly important symbol. I have seen this a lot in Indian art and it is something I want to pursue in a few of my prints once I have finished them.

My COP dissertation research has also fed into this project; it leads me to think about folk art and the incorporation of animals further than just as an aesthetic- it reflects the power struggle and faith in the animals. Worshiping an animal gives respect to the animal, it is a way of humans respecting the power of the natural beast, but also giving themselves some power over it; if they worship a crocodile god enough, the crocodile will be less likely to eat them as they wash their clothes in the river. (If your have faith in these folk laws and beliefs... these type of power struggles in worship are evident in all religion and most historical art between human and animal.)

For example in my lino cut piece on transport, I have combined many elements, my modern traffic warden from my primary photograph in Tamil Nadu, with old spiritual and traditional vessels of transport.
Explained more in this blog post:
http://a-dear1316sp.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/transport-lino-cut.html

Transport Lino Cut

The main inspiration for this lino print was from a primary photograph I took of a traffic warden with four fingers at the Tamil Nadu border. Although there was nothing out of the ordinary, really, about this scene, I really liked it because it was totally different to how a service station works in England, as well as his subtle four fingers, and the photograph itself was a nice focused portrait of him; seriously doing his job, but half smiling as he was randomly getting a camera pointed in his face.

The flower pattern on the lower right was inspired by the centre of a celestial women wall painting from Sarveshwar Mahadev Temple, Bhilapur Village.  The more detailed one above it was inspired by a wall painting from Tambekar Wada, Vadodara City.

Transport is a huge adjustment in India compared with England, although there are now more cars than ever before, there is still a diverse array of transport with not many strict road rules. I wanted to incorporate modern day India with the main potrait of the man, with surroundings of the traditions and spiritual links to transport from Indian art, specifically wall paintings (which I studied in my COP project), and religion, specifically the Hindu religion.

The figure in the left hand top corner appears to be a man riding a bird. This is actually Kartikya, the son of Shiva, riding on a peacock. This part of the print was inspired by a wall painting found at Vaso village in Kheda district, which is famous for its havelis. The two most famous Havelis belong to Gopaldas Desai and his brother, Anand Prasad Amin, have the most elaborate wood carving found in Gurajat. Two other havelis belong to Kantibhai Desai and Shri Lashkari. The panels in these two havelis narrate episodes based on the Puranas, soldiers, horse riders, elephants and flowers. Paintings in havelis of this region show a strong influence of Maratha kalam as they were built during the reign of the Gaekwads. These havelis, built around the late nineteenth century, also show introduction of railways and marching European soldiers on some walls. Again the juxtaposition of the old, traditional and spiritual, interwoven with the present day (for the artists at that time).

This elephant rider is harder to see as I carved it amongst the feet of the peacock and the head of the traffic warden. The trunk is not visible either. This does not matter as the point of the incorporation of these surrounding images are to show the emergence of the different elements into the theme of Indian transport. The elephant shown in its entirety is not important.Just a hint of it is enough to show its influence. The elephant is the transport of kings, and so from this you can understand that the image portrayed is that of a royal procession. 

I carved the Goddess Tulja on her vahana, (scorpion) behind the carving of the flower patterns. I like this juxtaposition of the pretty flower pattern with the deadly venom in the scorpions tail, but I think it just makes for a more powerful symbol than purely a deadly scorpion; there is balance. 

I added some more elephants into some smaller areas of the lino, I really like that they are respected as the transport of kings, one palace I visited was built with walls thick enough to stop an elephant getting through, because the kings and armies would ride on these animals in battle. But it still represses the animal by making it a mode of transport. 

Library Research

I visited the library again, really just to gather any more inspiration and ideas about stock and techniques of printing lino cuts as well as how other practitioners have worked into the prints afterwards. In previous artist research into lino cut artists I have found mixed medias from oil paint backgrounds to added colour and detail with water colours. I have a few canvases so I am going to prep these with some vibrant colourful paints, I have in mind bold blues, pinks and fresh greens. I need to keep in mind the juxtaposing ink colour because I don't have much room for error on the canvases.

The library visit wasn't great for books on specifically lino printing, I only managed to get out 2 books as quite a few hadn't been returned by their previous owners. The books I borrowed were:

• Linoleum Block Printing by Francis J Kafka.
• Cyril Power Linocuts: A complete Catalogue by Philip Vann.
  

The librarian was really helpful and mentioned that he had actually had some visitors give a talk on South Indian printing methods. He has a dvd which he is going to get for me. Arun Wolf from Tara Books. Arun Wolf is a young filmmaker from Chennai, India, and has been associated with Tara for several years - he assists with visual documentation and is involved in producing book-related shorts and themed documentaries for Tara Books. He’s also one of the editors of Tara Books’ latest title Between Memory and Museum.

The Cloth of the Mother Goddess by Jagdish Chitara is a limited-edition artists’ book consisting of a sequence of folding panels, designed to invoke pre-modern – and particularly Asian – traditions of bookmaking. It has been made by hand from block-printed cloth panels. Each book is a work of art, which recreates a ritual Indian textile art form known as Mata-Ni-Pachedi. The book’s editor, Arun Wolf, gave a talk at SADACC (South Asian Decorative Arts & Crafts Collection) in Norwich. He talked about the traditions and processes behind the book, alongside a short film that provided a glimpse into the artist Jagdish Chitara’s work.

Tara Books

Tara Books is an independent publisher of picture books for adults and children based on Chennai South India. Founded in 1994, they remain a collective of dedicated writers, designers and artists who strive for a union of fine form with rich content. They continue to work with a growing tribe of adventurous people from around the world. Fiercely independent, they publish a select list that straddles diverse genres, offering readers unusual and rare voices in art and literature. 

Tara Books are relevant to my project because they show a real world context to how printing and hand crafted aesthetic can be used for professional and high quality products. .

Do! is handmade book published by Tara Books, India. It is a set of action pictures, rendered in the Warli art done by people belonging to a tribal community that lives in Maharashtra, in western India. It introduces basic verbs to the young reader through a series of brilliantly drawn pictograms, which illustrate the verb and tell a story. 

Kovalam Beach Lino Cut

I started by cutting straight in to the lino, but because there is a background, mid-ground and foreground in the image, I wanted to get the perspective accurate so I decided to draw the outlines out in pen. I have already painted this scene on canvas with acrylics so I know it quite well and the use of rope appealed to me for a lino cut because of the line work involved. 

I have been experimenting with creating delicate marks and line work for the details such as that on the clothing. This takes a lot of care and concentration but hopefully it will be worth it when it adds depth and interest to the final print. 

Girls Lino Print

I have found inspiration for this project in many areas because of my intensive research, one of these has been 'The British Empire from Photographs;India' by John Fabb. This Lino cut works in to the theme of women's role in society in India which I have been interested in because of Kerala's great education system for girls. I mainly wanted to focus on this image because of the jewelry and detail within it; as I explore mark making and pattern through the process of lino printing.

I have been heavily influenced by my visit to see the Bejewelled exhibition at the V&A. My work already had a focus on detail but on seeing the amazing jewelers work, historically and modern day, the importance and brilliance of detail in the craft fed into how I wanted to create and put care into my Lino cuts. 

In my previous Lino cuts there had been detail but now I have focused even more in the detail of line work and the choice of delicate surface strokes versus the heavy deep cuts. On my previous cuts it was mainly deeper mark making but softer and thinner marks work really well for textures like walls and tree leaves as I have been experimenting on with my Temple Lino cut, and for the hair and jewelry marks on this Lino cut of the two Nautch girls.

Exploring detail with Lino cut; these two Nautch girls were inspired by a photograph from 1870 India. These were the dancing girls whose task it was to please a man, know how to talk, how to make him feel at ease, and teach boys the art of sex. They were usually attached to the court, and travelled all over India.

Temple Lino Cut

I focused on capturing the foreground first as this was the hardest to get right with perspective and proportion. I was also wondering whether it could look effective to print with just the foreground cut out, and then add in the temple background for another overlaying print. However I want the temple background to be pale and white, atleast more so than the foreground... and it would not have been achieved this way as the background would have two layers of print. If I wanted to do this technique I should have cut the temple background first, then printed it in faint colours, then cut it out and printed the foreground. Too late for that now! But I can try to achieve a similar effect by preparing the stock first with some more colourful areas for where the foreground will print.

I wanted to add some texture with mark making so I used a really delicate, quick, short stroke to make a rugged wall of the house. (Surrounding the window). 

The gates and entrance wall (added in the background) were quite tricky to create without any errors. I am lucky that I have chosen lino cut because it is almost impossible to make it perfect- otherwise creating this lino cut would take me forever! The temple itself was made out of crushed shells and is a striking white intensely detailed looming building. Lino cut will allow me to create a simpler illustrated representation of this.

I am so glad that I have chosen Lino cutting as my specific media for this project because I find it really reflective of the DIY 'higgildy piggildy' architecture that I witnessed in India. The imperfect angles and lines go to reinforce and exaggerate these aspects of the buildings and shop fronts which juxtapose greatly to British architecture. 

Lino Cut Experimenting with Mark Making

I used this scrap of lino to practice my delicate and detailed mark making. I wanted to explore with this scrap piece how easily I could produce curves and more complex shapes on a small scale. Sometimes I lost control of the tool and it cuts a sharp straight line... I could counteract this by concentrating on pressure and the angle of the tool, and as long as I focus on this, it is unlikely that the tool looses control. 

I have found a lot of Indian art, that I witnessed there, also artworks on display at the Bejeweled exhibition, included a lot of intricate, mostly floral, frames around the pieces. I wanted to experiment with this and also with cutting away the background rather than cutting out the line work, which is what I usually have done. This was a good experimentation and I found leaving the image and cutting away the background harder than the reverse way round. But it might look more effective with more negative space. 

Inspired by Karen Neal's lino cuts, and because nature is a theme within my project as it was a large part of my trip in India as well as everyday (non-city) life there; I decided to focus a small print on Kingfishers. Kingfishers were everywhere in the Kerala backwaters, as well as being on their branded beer. I created these lino cuts from the still life of the beer bottle I drew with biro in my sketchbook there. 

I am intrigued at which technique, drawing into the foreground or background of the image, will look more effective. I decided to do both, which also helped to create some depth with the plants in the cut, which will hopefully be present also in the print, because one of the birds is in front and so the cutting technique used here has been chosen to convey this background.

I chose to create this lino cut to practice my mark making and pattern skills with the tools and that specific lino. This lighter lino is softer and so is easier to cut into but also easier to loose control of. For this reason, I drew out the design in pen first. 

This pattern is inspired by a clothing embellishment from the Jat Sardars of Bharatpur, from the time of 1860. The noble men that wore the pattern that inspired my cut, had owed allegiance to the Maharajah. They would have been heavily armed with swords and daggers. I like using designs like this for inspiration because although they are intricate and 'swirly', the context behind them is strong, fierce and powerful. I don't like the western view that intricate patterns like this are 'girly'... that is a naive view. In folk art especially, details and little symbols have deep and often dark meanings; it is the viewers ignorance that renders the piece 'just a pretty swirly pattern'.

Karen Neal

Suburban Parrots, 2014.

Linocut mural printed on plywood. 116 x 271 cm. Chilsolm TAFE, Frankston, VIC

This bird theme in Karen Neal's piece reminds me of the birds, such as the kingfishers, that could be spotted in the trees throughout the Kerala backwaters. Her layout here is interesting, I wouldn't use this for my own but actually it could be an interesting way of joining the scene images, to form part of a set. If they can link together through a pattern or piece of line work.

Daniel O'Shane

Aib Ene Zogo, 2015

Linocut, printed in relief, with hand wiping and applied watercolour, 100 x 190 cm

Daniel O'Shane's relief linocut tells the story of Aib and the sacred waterhole. He created it with carefully considered hand wiping and applied watercolour to the lino cut, something which really adds impact in colour and is something that I will be exploring more within my own FMP work to reinforce the vibrancy of colour in India. His inclusion of totem animals and bird shows a connection with nature, a theme that has run throughout my FMP project. Indian natives connection with the land and nature was hugely prevalent during my stay.

Angela Cavalieri

Crociera 2008 Hand printed linocut and oil paint on canvas 145 x 160.5 cm

Another contemporary printmaker who has really inspired my printmaking process for this FMP is Angela Cavalieri. It is not her just her use of text, which appeals to be because I have been reading a literature and poetry inspired by India, and this would be a fantastic way of incorporating it in to my illustrations in a dynamic shape like the image above. The mark making stands out to me because even in the cut away areas there is still visable mark making. Cavalieri has used a mixed media of linocut with oil paint on canvas for this work. This reminds me that I can use my lino prints to create canvas based pieces rather than just on flat paper stock. It also would be interesting to experiment with using the lino cut as the background or foreground of a painting.