Block Print
"Twins"
Block Print
23cm x 15cm
October 7, 2016
Block Print
23cm x 15cm
October 7, 2016
Exhibition Text
Title: ''Twins''
Medium: Linoleum Carving/Block Print
Size: 23cm x 15cm
Date: October 7, 2016
This block print was inspired and created by German Expressionism movement, and the idea came from a little-known artist, and his block print of these boys helped me create my piece titled "Twins". This piece was made to reflect how my sister was the one there for me and helping me get through tough times. This piece has a deeper meaning that is related to my personal life. It has connections with my family and my relationship's with them. This piece was made by carving a piece of linoleum and using that to print black ink onto a piece of paper.
Artist Inspiration
"Kathe Kollwitz: Biography & Artist | Online Homework Help | SchoolWorkHelper." Online Homework Help SchoolWorkHelper. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. |
"Prints." Robin Blue. N.p., 2011. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. https://robinblueart. wordpress.com/prints/ |
Ju00f6dicke, By Svenja. "Eye (linoleum Block Print) Art Print by Emily Eakes." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2016. |
Made this piece based on two of my artist inspirations that I chose. So using the styles that I found from my inspirations I then made my piece based off of their art. One of these artists I was inspired by made art and posted it on WordPress. One of my inspiration pieces is "Brothers" by Robin Blue using German Expressionism. This artist isn't particularly popular. The other inspiration piece is "The Widow" by Kathe Kollwitz using German Expressionism as well.
My artwork is similar to Blues and Kathes by how we show emotion, just from looking at it. It shows passion and companionship between two significant others. How I tried to depict sadness in my piece is the girl showing the boy signs of closure. Also in comparison to Blues piece, the older child is there for their younger siblings because I'm the younger one and my sister is five minutes older than me which is shown in my piece with the size difference. As we were younger as a joke my dad had Sam pick on me by saying I had to listen to her because she was older. How my piece is different from my artist inspiration is I have a girl instead of a boy. This is because I have a twin sister that's all. I made her look like a girl instead of a boy by adding a ponytail to the back of the boys head in Robin Blues piece. I also have a different background in my piece. I added more detail I'm my background so that it will give the boy and the girl in my piece more meaning and unity which makes it stand out more as the main part of my finished piece. I also used the art movements and techniques from my other two inspirations for my final piece. I used the same shading technique for my hill that the boy and girl in my piece are sitting on as "The Widow" - by Kathe Kollwitz did for her skin in her piece. I used the detailed ovals from my inspiration piece the "Eye" - by Emily Eakes and implemented them into the clothes on the boy and girl in my finished piece.
My artwork is similar to Blues and Kathes by how we show emotion, just from looking at it. It shows passion and companionship between two significant others. How I tried to depict sadness in my piece is the girl showing the boy signs of closure. Also in comparison to Blues piece, the older child is there for their younger siblings because I'm the younger one and my sister is five minutes older than me which is shown in my piece with the size difference. As we were younger as a joke my dad had Sam pick on me by saying I had to listen to her because she was older. How my piece is different from my artist inspiration is I have a girl instead of a boy. This is because I have a twin sister that's all. I made her look like a girl instead of a boy by adding a ponytail to the back of the boys head in Robin Blues piece. I also have a different background in my piece. I added more detail I'm my background so that it will give the boy and the girl in my piece more meaning and unity which makes it stand out more as the main part of my finished piece. I also used the art movements and techniques from my other two inspirations for my final piece. I used the same shading technique for my hill that the boy and girl in my piece are sitting on as "The Widow" - by Kathe Kollwitz did for her skin in her piece. I used the detailed ovals from my inspiration piece the "Eye" - by Emily Eakes and implemented them into the clothes on the boy and girl in my finished piece.
Planning
Planning Sketches Create at least 3 planning sketches to choose from: I made 3 different Planning sketches each one based on different artist inspirations. With planning sketch #1 I wanted to use the same piece just change the face to me to show my struggle with life. With planning sketch #2 I wanted to make the boy be a girl by changing its appearance and to also change the background to reflect another meaning of my struggle. For planning sketch #3 I used her eye piece and I wanted to recreate her piece to the best of my ability but with my eye instead.
Linoleum Carving Process
Before I started carving into my Linoleum piece I drew an outline in pencil of where I would carve out the white parts. I used the small tip carving tool to carve out the bigger white spaces in the body and the background design of the piece. Then I used the fine tip carving tool to carve out the fine details in the hair and background in my piece. The reason why I didn't use the larger tip carving tool is because I didn't want to carve too deep and create a hole through my Linoleum piece. Although when using the smaller tip carving tool I carved multiple times because you don't want a too shallow incision in the Linoleum piece where it won't come up when you print it.
The Meaning
Why is my piece called "Twins?" Well, this piece shows the unbreakable bond that I and my twin sister have. This piece symbolizes how my sister helps me through out my life and is there when times got rough for me. I wanted it to look like there's someone there looking out for me. The girl represents my sister Sam, the boy represents myself, and the scene represents the struggle I went through as a child growing up. When I was younger I only had my sister to look towards due to the lack of having friends so I had only my sister that would support me. If you look at the Linoleum Carving Process in my Block Print Portfolio shows my hidden meaning to my piece. Throughout each process photo, there are new words being added. but when it comes to the final piece the words are illegible and utterly impossible to read. This is the hidden meaning in my piece where it represents how I look at my life compared to what other perceive it to be like.
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Brainstorming
Before I started my block print I created some ideas in class so I can find a more specific topic to research artist inspirations for my piece on.
Developing Ideas/Experimenting
To add some more spice from my inspirations background in his piece and to make it my own I changed the theme and background to represent a personal meaning. Unlike his, there's just little dashes going down in his piece, so I experimented my piece by adding text and lines going diagonally for the background to get rid of all that extra space, the words I then crosshatched them out so you couldn't read them in the final piece. I did this to show the meaning of how others see me as to how I really feel inside at times. These words are all thing you would say someone when your trying to be positive and nice. Although that's not how I feel but others don't see that just like how they won't see the words in my piece but I will. lastly, I changed this piece to show me and my twin sister that is being there for me in a time in need. I added a ponytail to make the boy look like a girl instead. I decided to get really crafty and add hidden meaning in this piece.
Block Printing Process
Before I did my actual printing I took photos of all the materials I was using in the Block Printing Process. Then I started to put ink on the pan and then make even coats on my brayer and roll it onto my piece. I repeated this so there was more than one coat on my carving so that the print would come out nice. When I thought it was enough coats I then took a piece of copy paper and placed the print with coats of ink onto my piece. Then I used a baren to smooth the ink onto the copy paper. This presses the ink onto the paper making the ink show when the print is done. I had to repeat this process 3 times because the first 2 prints were faded due to a lack of ink. It wasn't until my third one where my print looked good to be my final piece.
Reflection
This piece "Twins" represents my life as a child and who was there for me the most in my life. This was my twin sister. Siblings have to stick together and we always did and still will. She was there and had my back when I feeling down. I don't know where I would be let alone alive if I didn't have my sister to guild me. This block print I found helped me express this moment of time in my life. My inspiration piece is "Brothers" by Robin Blue. This artist isn't famous, but isn't a bad artist. I just liked the idea when looking at his piece so I tried to think of some ideas to make one of my own that is inspired from his piece that still can represent my topic of emotion. Throughout this project, I didn't have almost any mistakes. The process was fairly simple but I still struggled going through it. my strengths were the quality of my work because I took a lot of time to make my final piece looked great to me. I worked at a fairly slower pace Though if time was not a factor, then this project alone wouldn't take me long to finish, but since my time management skills were lacking it took me some time to complete. I am Satisfied with the final outcome of my work.
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Connecting to the ACT:
1. Identify cause and effect relationships between your inspiration and your artwork.
Because Robin Blues piece was something that relates to my personal life it inspired me to recreate a piece that represents my childhood while using his piece for a format.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
In "Twins" my overall approach was to show that my sister was the one that was always there for me. This piece represents the sadness I would always have and how my sister was there to cheer me up.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned that just because someone else doesn't know an artist doesn't mean you don't have to know them either. Accept and give everything a chance, because you never know, you may like it.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central theme was artwork that was depicting sadness in a German Expressionism piece. I mainly looked at linoleum block carvings from this because of a lot of them being German Expressionism.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I found out that he has many pieces that he publishes on his own WordPress website. He makes a wide variety of art that can be viewed on his site.
Because Robin Blues piece was something that relates to my personal life it inspired me to recreate a piece that represents my childhood while using his piece for a format.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
In "Twins" my overall approach was to show that my sister was the one that was always there for me. This piece represents the sadness I would always have and how my sister was there to cheer me up.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I learned that just because someone else doesn't know an artist doesn't mean you don't have to know them either. Accept and give everything a chance, because you never know, you may like it.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central theme was artwork that was depicting sadness in a German Expressionism piece. I mainly looked at linoleum block carvings from this because of a lot of them being German Expressionism.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I found out that he has many pieces that he publishes on his own WordPress website. He makes a wide variety of art that can be viewed on his site.