Lovely Leaf and Lino Printing

Leaf Prints hanging in the studio

My Prism Arts Studio Theatre crew and I found ourselves with a few 'odd' weeks; we are still touring 'Raining Trolls and Dragons' and so didn't want to make a start on a new production (as I will get confused) but we wanted to make use of our time. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity to do some skills workshops.

Leaf rubbings

Leaf rubbings

Leaf rubbings

Often we have deadlines to work to so we are not always able to play around with ideas so by doing a series of skills workshops I hope to give the guys a set of techniques they can use next time we come to produce a piece, we will already have a good idea of what might work well.

Printing with leaves

Printing with leaves

Printing with leaves

As we are having such a glorious autumn I thought that leaves would be a good starting point. This gives us something tangible to work with and explore different techniques and will hopefully give the work produced a bit of coherence as I would like us to have a small, informal exhibition at the end of term.

Prints strung across the studio

We started off by going out into Tullie House Gardens (which are right next to our studios) and collecting lots of different leaves. I asked the guys to look for different shapes and textures as well as colours. We gathered an amazing range which was really interesting when we came to use them for printing. Our first activity was to take some rubbings of the leaves. This is an easy and fun activity but can produce very beautiful results. I encouraged people to think about whereabouts on the paper they were doing their rubbings as well as what colours to use.

Lino printing

Colouring the print plate

The next step was to print with the leaves. We used acrylic paint and calico and as before I asked the guys to think not only about colour but also layout and combining different shapes. It was great to see how people approached the printing in different ways and the different results that were achieved. It was also interesting seeing which leaves worked best and watching the group share this information with each other. At the end of the session we hung the prints up to dry and they looked so beautiful strung across the studio.

Lino printing

Print on paper

Building on the leaf printing for the next session we looked at lino cuts. I love the textures and qualities of lino cuts and thought it would be a good opportunity for the guys to develop their work from the previous session. We again began by collecting leaves and then made drawings from the them. These drawings were transferred onto the lino and then carved by myself and the other staff members (lino cutters are sharp and I'm not good with blood!)

Lino printing

A used printing plate

The guys were then able to use their lino cuts to make a series of prints on both paper and fabric. I found it very interesting seeing the different approaches to colour, some people wanted to add layers of colour immediately whilst other people wanted one uniform colour. Both approaches worked well and like last session the range of prints produced was very impressive. It also got me really fired up to do some lino cuts of my own!

A collection of prints

A collection of drawings and prints

Over the next few weeks we will be continuing to explore different techniques including some more printmaking and some paper-making. I think this is a great opportunity to not only develop technical skills but also for the group to have some time to develop more personal ideas and approaches to making work.

A collection of drawings and prints

A collection of drawings and prints

Life Drawing 20.10.15

Continuous line drawing

I was thinking that it seems a long time since I last wrote a blog post, then I realised that's because it is a long time! I just don't seem to have been in a writing mood. It's been a funny time recently with lots of projects ending but in stretched out sort of ways and lots of proposal writing. I've got lots of bits of work coming in for next year but not many new things at the moment so it's an odd but exciting time.

Pen, continuous line

Marker Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

Having spent the weekend being ill (very unpleasant and very boring) I was not necessarily in the best frame of mind for this life drawing session, to say nothing of totally shattered. However, as always it ended up being good once I got there. It was lovely to welcome another couple of new faces to the group and to welcome back a model who we'd last seen about 18 months ago. I book a different model for each session because it's good to get a range of body shapes and modelling styles to keep the sessions interesting and to keep testing our skills.

Marker Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

I did quite a bit of drawing with a permanent marker this session, I wanted to create quite solid drawings and I like that you have to work quite quickly with the marker or it just goes straight through the page. I also had a go at drawing in white on black, I really liked this effect but I need bigger bits of black paper!

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

Two Pens at once, continuous line

Our model gave us some good details to work with, such as sticking up feet, which helped me as I was really struggling with proportion this session so I just did some drawings of parts of the body rather that trying to capture the full pose. I wasn't really happy with my drawings from this session but I don't mind because it's all part of the process. Sometimes drawings work and sometimes they don't but there's always something to be learnt from doing them.

Pen, continuous line

Marker Pen, continuous line

Marker Pen, continuous line

At the end one of the new artists said it was really tiring because you have to concentrate so much. I could relate to this but I also find it is a very relaxing thing to do, particularly if you can stop worrying about getting it 'right' and just enjoy the drawing. As one of the other artists pointed out; your drawing will be right from somewhere in the room!

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

Pen, continuous line

Poster

Raining Dragons and Trolls

One of our Dragons

One of my 'day jobs' is working on Prism Arts Studio Theatre project and we are about to start touring our latest production 'Raining Dragons and Trolls' which is linked to the national Family Arts Festival. We will be performing in a variety of venues, including Keswick's Theatre by the Lake, and we are all really excited about the tour. Since we began Studio Theatre back in 2012 we have come a long way and I never cease to be impressed by the ideas, work and commitment that the group shows.

Initial designs

Developing characters with drawing

Set design ideas

Our starting point for this production was the BBC 10 Pieces, ten pieces of classical music selected to encourage and inspire creative responses. The project was mainly aimed at schools but we thought it would be an interesting starting point and this proved to be the case. From the music a story grew, we use a lot of drawing to help develop our ideas and it is often not until very near the end of the production process that we have anything solid written up.

Mecamecal (mechanical camel)

Castle

A lot of things change over the course of making a production, characters come and go (sadly, the mecamecal or mechanical camel did not make the grade this show) story lines change and evolve but eventually a piece of theatre emerges. The constant changing can be difficult for some people but overall it is a positive thing, keeping the group inspired and fired up and allowing new and better ideas to come through.

Felt making: in our productions we use a wide range of techniques and materials. 

Felt making

This production has a strong environmental message, something we all feel very strongly about and which is an important issue. Although there are a lot of fantasy elements in our productions (dragons, trolls, a friendly minotaur) the story is very much about humans and how we interact with each other and the world around us. The main characters in the show have to convince people that unless they change their ways and live in a more sustainable way the world will be in serious trouble.

Making prayer flags for one of the scenes

Prayer flags

I work on the backstage elements of the show, the drawings, props, scenery and costumes. Theatre Skills runs two days a week, one day being focused on production (the day I lead) and the other day focused on performance (led by Vicki Maxfield.) Obviously the performance day leads what we make on the production day but there is a constant flow of ideas back and forth, the two days are very much connected.

We make and use a lot of puppets. Here are the Trolls!

And two mini dragons in a boat

And one of the main dragons (detail)

And we use a lot of shadow puppetry as well

One of my favourite pieces that we have made for this performance is the Sea Guardians cloak. In the story the sea guardian has become trapped in discarded plastic waste and fishing nets and in struggling to escape he is creating huge waves and terrifying the fisherman. To represent the waste he is trapped in we used my favourite technique of crocheting and melting plastic bags to create a large net like cloak that the actor wears. We added further strings of crocheted plastic to give a really tangled up look and add movement. I think this piece of costume works really well and I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.

The Sea Guardians Rubbish Cloak

Crocheted cellophane

Melted plastic

I'm not going to write any more about the production but I hope that if you're near where we're performing you will come and see us and be transported to another world!