I then tried framing my composition. I like how the gradient works horizontally. It seems to give the effect of fading out and has a rather ambiguous feel to it.
I like by placing it vertically it seems to feel like smoke or fumes rising upwards. However the gradient effect is not as strong as the previous composition.
I also tried placing it diagonally but still felt it was not as strong as placing it horizontally.
I also experimented with a smaller roller and tried to overlap my strokes more. I ended getting this interesting faded set of straight lines. I also used less ink for this print has its less opaque. I like how there are lines yet at the same time due to the faded effect, the lines are not very clear. I feel this represents the feeling of ambiguous quite nicely.
I tried framing it vertically and found the slightly shift from dark to light lines quite nice.
The horizontal composition felt more flat as the lines became less obvious since they were largely obscured due to the frame.
I also tried to disrupt the orderliness of the straight lines by doing some brush stokes on the remaining paint left on the mono print. However, the effect did not work out very well so I did not use this in the end.
I found a scrapping knife in the 2D room and decided to experiment with it. Noting that majority of my monoprints were largely dark, I decided to try for less dark and more negative space. I filled the lino cut with ink and placed the paper directly over it. I proceeded to use the tip of the scraping knife to scratch across the surface of the paper. Upon lifting the paper, there were these dark black lines.
While scratching, I accidentally stop a few times due to the friction between the surface and the tip. This caused short stops after one line. I found this rather interesting as it stands out from the rest of the strong bold lines. It seemed to be less confident and I thought of how well it represented awkward.
I tried to do a more systematic way of scratching by doing a checked design.
However, upon framing the print, the checks were too large to fit in and did not feel very systematic either as the lines were not completely straight. I would later experiment more with this print.
I tried slanting it as well which was more interesting but still felt quite lacking somehow.
I also tried to concentrate my lines together in one big mess. However, I found the result to be quite plain compared to the first one I did using this method.
While the white lines looked nice agains the dark background, I felt composition wise, this print did not present a strong sense of composition to me so did not use it. I would later experiment more with it though.
I also found a large scraping knife and dipped it directly in ink. I proceeded to quickly “paint” using the knife while twisting it, using both the flat end and sharp to get some variation in my lines.
I thought the result looked quite spontaneous.
I used the scrapping knife to “paint” in fast quick strokes and this created the impression of fast moving lines.
Another way I applied this method was to flip the flat side and spread paint across the lino cut and at the same time I also used the sharp side to scratch around randomly. The result was interesting as it was messy yet very different from the other prints I did. I liked the contrast between the negative and positive space and how patchy the edges were.
When framing my composition, I looked closer at the negative space and found a part with a patch of small dots. I found this very interesting as it looked quite humorous compared to how edgy the rest of the print looked. This made me feel like the print could represent nonsensical.
I applied the same method of using the scraping knife again. This time I did less large dark patches and did more patches, making the whole print look much darker compared to the previous. I did more scratch marks using the tip, making the whole print look more violent and messy which I felt could represent aggressive.
This time I tried to scraped paint off the lino cut in one direction. I liked how this concentrated the paint to one side of the stroke but the contrast was still quite lacking compared to the previous prints.
I played with the framing. Framing it vertically did not seem to work.
However, upon framing horizontally, I found this particular part that was quite interesting. The contrast between the one thick bold stroke against the strokes with more negative space was interesting.
I also tried using the scraping knife to scratch paint directly on the surface of the paper in a criss cross manner but found the result to be rather bland.
For this piece, I used a sponge found in the 2D room and dapped one side of it in paint and twisted it about the paper. I like how due to the pores of the sponge, there were little splashes at the end of each stroke, making them resemble waves. This gave the strokes a sense of movement due to the wave-like impression.
However, upon framing the print, I realised the strokes were too big to fit in the frame and looked less than impressive when cropped.
I also tried using the large rectangle area of the sponge to do one huge circular stroke across the paper. This was also inspired by Peng Ma’s use of circles to represent life. I like how the circular motion if clearly seen in the strokes.
However, I found it harder to frame such a big stroke.
I did managed to find some particular part of the large stroke that was interesting but it was not clear enough and I felt it was not a strong image so I did not use it.
I also tried crushing paper and using it to paint strokes on the paper. The uneven surface due to the crushed paper created strokes with interesting texture. This was also possible as I used paint that was mixed with glue.
I also tried it was a smaller crushed paper and chinese ink. This created more expressive strokes.
