line: continuing to question my use of analogue and digital processes, i have been thinking of mixing some hand drawn and hand cut lines with digital images of landscape. this follows on from Tim Ingold’s text ‘Drawing the Line’ in Making (2013) which discusses the haptic quality of drawing versus the optic quality of photography. Ingold also discusses theses processes in terms of time – the photograph being a still finite moment in time and drawing being ongoing and part of a continuum. anyway with this in mind i decided to add some hand drawn lines and also hand cut lines (stencil) into my digital image screen printing process. analysing this added process – the haptic quality of a hand drawn or cut line is reproduced by hand-pulling. anyway, although i am not entirely happy with the results, i feel that there is potential for mixing these image making processes into my screen print landscapes, especially as i am constantly questioning physical experience of landscape versus image of landscape, so perhaps that hand drawn or cut quality could be relevant.
testing my practice: the image size i used for this print edition corresponds with a print exchange and exhibition in a connecticut print studio. as part of testing my practice, i intend to submit an edition of 11 for this, registering by the end of december and sending the work by the end of january. there will be an exhibition in march. i will register this weekend and continue to work on an edition for this over the christmas holidays and post by mid january, all going well.
adding hand-drawn and contour line to digital image with opaque ink
reflection: before going forward i need to analyse what works and does not work with this print edition. technically – the emulsion started to break down during the printing as its at the end of its shelf life, so i need to get new emulsion. also, i tried to fit too many images on the screen which meant the pulling was too close to the frame and the snap was effected and therefore the uniformity of the ink. there is a nice play of hand cut contour line with the digital image but the hand drawn lines don’t work – maybe its the colour choice. i was more satisfied when i was doing the prep drawing in red on the black and white so i might go back to the negative colour range. i also feel that i need to enhance the image’s bit map quality… lots to think about.
elaine crowe 