When our class visited the National Gallery for a tour on different art pieces for our Project 3 – Art Critique, I was inspired by the artists’ wood-carve print who used waves of the sea in their art pieces. I thought they look really nice so I decided to go with a sea-themed art piece as well.
Story:
Panel 1:
A man decided to take his sailboat to fish in the vast ocean only to find something he did not expect to see. Instead of catching small fish like he first wanted to, he stumbled upon a whale. He struggled to catch the whale (obviously) and eventually gave up. He is now lost and has absolutely no idea where he is or how to go back.
Panel 2:
It took a while and the sun had already set but he still managed to find his way back thanks to a lighthouse which was able to guide him safely back to shore.
Analysis:
Panel 1:
I placed the tail of the whale at the centre because I want it to be the main focus of the piece. I purposely made it a lot bigger compared to the boat to emphasise it’s scale representing the huge obstacle that the man faced when he encountered the whale. This also gives the user a better perspective showing that the man is closer to the viewer and the whale is farther. But even then, the whale is still bigger than the man and his sailboat. I used the one-third rule on the sailboat placing it on the left side of the final piece (right side of the initial drawing). I wanted to give life to the waves and make it obvious that the waves are really strong and the man is struggling to fight and catch the whale. Putting emphasis on the curves of the waves, this also shows how strong the waves are. It’s almost as if you are feeling how hard the man fought the whale in his attempt to catch it. Initially, I was planning to keep the background plain white but decide no to. It will look pretty boring otherwise. I decided to use lines instead, giving the art piece a mysterious kind of feeling. Just like how mysterious it is to find a whale when the man was only looking for fish. It also gives a misty kind of effect which is nice. I also used lines on the whale and the man as highlights so that the art piece would not look as flat. Makes them look more three-dimensional.
Panel 2:
As you can see in the second panel, there is consistency as I used the same technique on the waves. I used two-point perspective on the sailboat and lighthouse. Even though the sailboat and the lighthouse are almost the same size in the art piece, this is not the case in real life (since we all know that lighthouses are waaaay bigger than sailboats). This shows that the lighthouse is very far back in the background and the sailboat is nearer to the foreground. I decided to go with a solid white for the light emitted by the lighthouse to show contrast with the dark sky. It makes it easier for the sailboat to spot the lighthouse even in the darkness of the night. This time, I decided to go with a solid black background to emphasise that it took a long time for the man to find his way back to the shore. He set out at sea when the sun was still up. At first I was thinking whether I should continue with the consistency theme with the first panel but I decided not to because it would look messy with a lot of things going on in the background. If there are a lot of things going on in the background, this might confuse the viewer on how the man was able to see the lighthouse. With a simple and clean background like this, it would be obviously easier to spot the lighthouse. I used lines on the lighthouse for highlights to make it three-dimensional like what I did on the first panel (consistency again!). I also used lines on the light emitted by the lighthouse to give it a more realistic effect.
Lessons learnt:
At first, I thought lino-cut printing would be a challenge. I was right. It takes a lot of time to decide what will be carved off and what would not. Carving is another challenge as it is not easy to get the texture that you want. It might not show in your final print. I also learnt that it is okay to make mistakes. These mistakes might turn out to give your final piece more flavour and make it look nicer. The results are unexpected but it is almost certain that the outcome will be better than what you think. Another lesson I learnt that it takes a lot of time to find a good print. The final print I had for Panel 2 was not really a perfect print. You can see quite a lot of imperfections on the waves and the light looks a little dirty. But I think such imperfections give the art piece a bit more character and makes it more unique.
Lino pad drawing and carving progress:
Lino pad ready for printing:
Test prints:
