INDIA Brief: Lino Printing

Feedback from Patrick and John in consideration to this project after returning to England: 

John suggested that perhaps my India project could be expanded and that I should definitely be more ambitious, why not contact publishers? An India travel guide? Research publishers! Contact them and ask them questions about what they would be interested in seeing in a book about India by an illustrator... what can the fact I am an illustrator add to a book? (A lot!) but think USP! 

Give the reader/viewer/observer MORE! Think about senses! Touch, smell, taste, sound not just sight in order to give an Indian experience told through my experience.

Patrick also gave me a lot of feedback about my India reportage project. He reminded me that Laura Carlin would have created the illustrations for her book 10 Days in Tokyo, within the 10 days she was in Tokyo... unlike me, who will be creating the majority of the work in retrospect. So with this in mind I will definitely not be doing 14 Days in India! 

Patrick suggested it was crucial to give myself a mission statement for my India project in order to give my work direction. Obviously I want to include colour, pattern and people as these aspects are what I am extremely passionate about. But he reminded me of how important it was to break out of the square of the page! To work on separate pieces of paper, using interesting and cool stock. Using mixed media, found objects and printing! Think hidden collage and texture. Think something to excite and engage the reader, fold outs, flaps, things to engage with! Also what can lead the reader onto the next page, cut outs? One continuous line spanning through the book? Colour? e.g. red leading onto next page? Think India- layers, clutter, disorganized, friendly, people of all ages, colour, rush e.g. traffic vs relaxed rules on the road! Juxtapositions. 

Think themes... organise your photographs into themes! Edit them. What would look good black and white? What has great colour? What could you screen print black and white then add colour? 

My India project must be intriguing - using media and the content - think layout, perspective and cropping... looking through my sketchbook work it was disappointing to see how safe I'd stayed. He was not a fan, and neither was I, that a lot of my work stayed firmly in the centre of the page and did not venture off the page. 

3D- overwhelm the observer - scent! suggestions like, tea time! and masala chai tea bag hanging. 

Indian Mixed Media

-Fine art book-

We thought a fine art type of book would be really cool as it would be 3D and full of the chaos of India conveyed through print, materials and illustrations. 

Photographs could be photocopied onto cool stock...

...organised into themes such as faces and places

...black and white and then colourised by hand

Prints and drawing and stitching onto material. 

Loose paper, newspaper - experimenting! 

Check if you have any Indian newspapers. - Checked and my mum had them and shes thrown them in the bin. 

EXPERIMENT WITH PRINT - START NOW - there is a print room drop in tomorrow so if I prepare some lino cuts tonight I can do them tomorrow. 

BE BRAVE IN REDUCTION - don't be scared of taking things away. Practice with negative space in your work! 

CONTACT PEOPLE STARTING NOW

Publishers! 

Agents!

Ask questions related to your projects!

PRINTING - 14-19th Dec the print room should be empty! 

INDIA BRIEF IN REGARDS TO BERLIN TRIP IN XMAS HOLS 

Similar but much shorter project to India - reportage brief... but this time a collaboration with another illustration student - research psycho geography -  collect things, map your way. draw a line and draw what you find/your experiences along the way.

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With this in mind I searched for spare scraps of lino in my own art supplies and I found two bits, one a really thin long piece and the other a bit wider. These were really good for experimenting and I just worked straight into them using my imagination and some inspiration from henna and the animals I have seen in their art on their wall art in their temples and buildings etc. I also included snakes which had a big impact on me when I was there! This was because they are one of the only animals that still can frighten humans and in India are wild and live all around the paddy fields where the people live, this means the people learn to live and work around them and I found this really interesting because if it were England and there were cobras loose, they would definitely be caught and put somewhere as in this country humans life worth comes first. In India it is more up to the individual than the authorities to be aware and watch out for them. 

Anyway. Here is the link to my ISSUU document of my lino prints:

 These experiments really made me passionate about lino and print in general again and I definitely want to push this further! Since this I have also cleaned a screen so I will be doing a screen print, probably using one of the drawings of the coconut cutter and the umbrella, and I have also bought a much larger square piece of lino to cut into with a more thought out design.