This week I have returned to Cyanotypes. The season has changed and there are many more plants to experiment with. I’ve been reviewing alternative methods for working with this medium. In this episode I try lamination and suspending materials in acetate.

Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s One Liners, I have been drawing my own one liners as an experiment. Follow the process this week as I explore this technique.

Source: Pablo Picasso’s One-Liners – ISBN 1-885783-78-X

Stencil Pop Art Print development.

Ive been working on this project for a couple of months and thought I would share a bit of the background as well as a glimpse into the considerations made when transitioning from a digital illustration to physical print.

I wanted to create an end screen for the Studio Diaries series, using lino cut printing blocks and green screen filming. This episode shows the process of making it happen.

Today i’m working with Cyanotyes. This is a photographic printing process that produces cyan blue prints. Its a simple process of mixing equal parts of ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide together, painting it onto card and leaving it to dry. Images are made by blocking UV light and washing away the un-cured chemicals.

I’m currently working on a retrospective on The Festival of Britain. The festival, prescribed as a tonic to the Nation, that was recovering from the Second World War. It championed britishness and highlighted craft, design, science & technology.
This year the festival celebrates its 70th Anniversary. Currently Britain is finding its feet, post Brexit. The state is working to create new trade deals, highlighting what is Great from Britain. The parallels from 1951 offer an opportunity to reflect. The 1950s is an aesthetic era for design & produced an illustrative style that I draw on today.

For this project, I have scoured the archives and hunted for contemporary resources. I have acquired original documents from the event and attended seminars and workshops. From this raw material, my work over the next few months will focus on creating a modern take on this past event. I will create artwork to celebrate the Festival of Britain.

Below are some sample illustrations. These are elements in the design development stage of this project.

A customer came to me asking if I would make an amendment to an existing design as a one off print. The artwork was printed on A4 300gsm museum etching. I can’t help but think that the texture of the card stock only adds to the coat of the little dog!

The colours as always are beautifully rich and deep with quality giclée printing.

This week we’ve been trying to get to grips with Adobe Animate. For a long time the animations that we’ve built have been in Photoshop, however with our preference for digital illustration, the logical step is to move towards animation. We have aspirations of creating animations on our YouTube Channel. But walking before we run, we’ve just about master the basics.

I have been inspired by the rich blue designs Cyanotype gives. It feels like alchemy; mixing water with potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate, painting it on card and leaving to dry in a dark room. These are then taken outside into the bright sun with a filter (be it an object, photo negative or drawing) and allow the sun the activate the chemical reaction. Taking it back inside to rinse off the un-activated portion creates these stunning prints. Finally as they dry the react with the oxygen in the air and finish a brilliant cobalt blue.