Wedding Celebrations

And so, after weeks of sketching and stressing (and a little bit of avoidance on my part...) the big day is here and my contribution is finally finished! 

I should probably start from the beginning...
Back in May, my dear friend Emily asked me to create a board that would welcome guests to her wedding reception. I had originally planned to create a print for her and her fiancé Calum based around how the early years of their relationship by pulling in some Shakespeare references, but being asked to create their welcome board was an incredibly special thing, so there was no way I could refuse!

The most difficult part for me was working out the composition of the whole piece and the order of their names. How do I decide who goes first? Is there a rule with this sort of thing that I should know about!? I ended up choosing to arrange them alphabetically to avoid choosing sides. Quite glad I did actually, the final composition looks good.
I looked at the recently revisited Peace and Light print I did a few months ago for ways in which I could place the two names. I was also torn between the word "and" or incorporating an ornate ampersand within the flourishes, but after trying several variations with a lovely looking ampersand I decided to ditch it because there was enough space between Calum and Emily for a small "and" to be placed without being too distracting.

 Left to right, top to bottom:  initial letterforms drawn out, Spencerian weight variation added, floral decor on test print and the final print with gold detailing. 

In the wild at the Wroxeter Hotel

I have this habit of over complicating stuff, and I didn't really want to work too much into this design and "spoil" it. My standards are high as they are, but this print will be my first with such a large viewing audience. I didn't want it to be really busy. I've striped it all down to just the basics; a short welcome message, the happy couples names and the date of the union.

For the final, I chose to work with some of the colours on the wedding invite as I wasn't given a colour scheme to work to (for those of you that follow my Instagram feed, I've been posting photos of different colour schemes I've tested). The photograph above shows a small glimpse of one scheme I decided on. There was another that involved much cooler colours, but I wasn't keen on how off my registration was with the gold detailing, and I couldn't give Emily something I was happy with!

Late Night Printfest

I said I'd post when I started printing, so here it is! It was quite a late session because I'd been at work all day, but it was nice to just wind down with some printmaking after a day sat in front of my computer. It was a little eerie being in the workshop on my own, but it meant I could just get on with it and not worry about being in someone's way or having to book the vacuum bed! I think that's probably one of the best things about my PrintHaus membership is that I can go any time I like.

Anyway, the prints! 

Not too sure about the colours, but they look fairly nice.

The photographs above are some of the first test prints because I haven't quite decided on the final colours yet. The yellow and pink gradient is in reference to the first test print I made a few years back for my anniversary piece, by doing so I'm able to see how far my lettering has come in the two years since I finished at BCU. 

I've got to say, the colours have grown on me (the yellow is much brighter in real life)  but I think I'm going to have a play with some metallic colours for the final, maybe a nice copper and gold gradient? I was thinking of more natural colours like green and yellow so that it felt peaceful, I also want to have a go with different coloured paper but I can just keep playing with it until I'm happy.

I'm not particularly keen on the fact that the 'AND' has disappeared a little, maybe I've over exposed it? I don't know. Overall though I'm really happy with the progress!

Hopefully this will be the first of a few new prints, I want to build up more of a portfolio so I can apply for print-based internships eventually as well as having some nice things to sell.  Which reminds me, I need to sort out my Christmas card designs...

Design Revisit

I've been fairly quiet on the blog front since the Seb Lester talk a couple of weeks ago, but in my defence, I've been working on revisiting a design I started back in June last year. While I liked what I'd initially come up with, I didn't think it was quite, "enough".

When I say enough, I mean the overall composition was fairly bland even though the Spencerian inspired letterforms were quite beautiful. That really was the only element of the original that I enjoyed looking at, but I felt like the rest of design was a bit of a let down compared to some of the other pieces I have in my portfolio. So I tasked to myself to recreate the piece, taking inspiration from various Spencerian and Copperplate examples in my personal reference collection.

Left: The original Peace and Light design. Right: The 2016 rework based on flowing Spencerian script.

For the rework, I wanted to draw inspiration from some of Jessica Hische's work and of Seb Lester's early lettering prints.
I've done pretty much the same as I did with my Clive Colledge print in that I tried to fit the entire design within a circular grid, I found it helps me to the overall shape nice and balanced.

The contrast between the Spencerian calligraphy and the serif type that sits in the centre was inspired by the sign for a Better Letters workshop that took place in Copenhagen:

I honestly can't remember when this workshop was, but the sign is gorgeous! 

You can see the influence in the way the letterforms are shaped (my 'a' is slightly narrower) but my lines are heavier. I wasn't sure if I was that keen on the increase in line weight compared to the original but as a whole I'm happy with the visual, it also means that when I eventually print it, the ink will be less likely to dry on the screen in thinner sections.

Anyway, when print day comes, I'll obviously be posting photos of the process. There's a lot that I want to try, like gradients and marbling techniques, plus I got some new acrylic colours for Christmas that I'm dying to use! 

Achievement Unlocked

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked if I wanted to submit some work to a pop-up print shop in Newport, South Wales. Initially, I didn't want to because I had nothing to submit, but I sat down one night after work and had a go at sketching, something I haven't done since I started work in August!

I wanted something that was going to appeal to quite a wide audience but also to express the interest I have in the Welsh language,I start working with a few quotes my close friend James (a first language Welsh speaker) gave to me about family and pride, but ultimately came to one that really stayed with me: "Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon" which translates into "A nation without a language, is a nation without a heart".

I should have written about the build up and printing process over the weekend, but I've been so busy trying to get everything together I haven't got round to it. Anyway, today I went down to the Riverfront Theatre where the shop/gallery was taking place and handed over my prints.

A selection of the finished prints, there are six colour ways in total. 

I wasn't planning on making many, I was intending to give the gallery four prints to sell, while a fifth would be made specially for James as a birthday present and thank you for his help. In the end I printed twenty five, all with gold lettering but on different coloured stock; five on black, five on navy blue, five on royal blue (the brighter of the blues above), five on olive green, four on a warm grey and one test on pale blue.

You could say I got carried away, but it was great to test the gold out on different colours. I think the gold on navy blue has to be my favourite, it just looks so beautiful. The gold on black is a very close second.
The olive green and pale blue were a pleasant surprise as I didn't think they'd work. The green feels quite Christmasy, while the pale blue is wonderfully subtle but difficult to photograph!

The Christmas Creatives pop-up shop has its press opening tonight at The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre is on until the 9th January and also features work from some good friends of mine and fellow members of the PrintHaus Alyn Smith and Catherine Weatherhead.

For some, this whole thing might not seem like a big deal but for me this goes back a couple of years to the career goal setting I did on my MA at BCU. I'll be honest this wasn't something I had even considered back then, but this could well be the first step for me reaching my goal of having my work featured in a book.

Hwyl fawr am nawr!

Getting back on it...

It's been a while since my last post, but I think I'm finally getting used to the varying shift patterns at work which means I can start to get on with my fun projects! 

At the moment I'm working away on a new print design which might soon make its way into my (currenty barren) Etsy store. This new print is inspired by an old African proverb about strength in relationships and codependency, it's beautiful too:

"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."  

Looking at it now, it feels in the same vein as the Silver Anniversary print I did back in September for my parents. I think this could be a theme for my future works. 

Ruling pen tests with India ink. 

The image above is just a collection of letterform tests for me to get used to the stylised shapes a ruling pen creates, as well as playing around with mark making techniques.

I'm not using a homemade pen this time around, I'm using a brass pen I bought online for smoother lines and more uniform finish, something of which I've been trying to achieve for some time now. I've been using the pen for a few months (if you count the months I haven't really done any lettering at all) and it makes a wonderful sound as you lead it across the page, far more subtle than Coke-can pens.

Anyway, I digress! This is the style I'm going for with this next print; slightly rugged and strong with the raw ink marks and drying patterns. I hope to turn it into a halftone for the print, that way I can get the varied depths of the black on the screen and should also work really well as a subtle detail when printed. 

Silver Anniversary

Finally got my PrintHaus membership at the end of August and even though I was quite impatient, it was definitely worth the wait! The first thing I wanted to print was the lettering design I've been working on for my parents 25th wedding anniversary.
I've had this print in pipeline since June, but only recently have I had the facilities to make it real.

I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted for this print, at least in terms of the ink and paper. Simple black paper with a fine, silvery design to play on the traditional name for twenty five years of marriage in the UK.

Last year, I designed a simple print to celebrate the first year of my relationship with my boyfriend Tristan. My mom saw this and thought it was for her, having discovered shortly after that this wasn't the case, she put in a commission for a print for the following year. The quote she picked reads "A perfect marriage is just two imperfect people who refuse to give up on each other".

The design is meant to go off the page and occupy the entire space, with flourishes acting as a frame for the lettering in the centre. I had originally intended to print onto paper that was larger than the design and crop it down once dry, unfortunately for me I'd bought paper that was the exact size of the print, which made lining up extremely difficult (but not impossible!).

(Clockwise, Left to Right) The design on the screen, the super awesome Silver ink and a glimpse of the resulting print.

I've got a real thing for line weight variation, the transition from heavy to very fine to me looks wonderful, but can cause some trouble when screen printing...
As with the Clive Colledge print I did back in January, the very thinnest lines in the design were the biggest issue, with the ink drying in the screen after just one pull, meaning I had to clean out the screen more frequently.

The silver ink I used here was spectacular. Runny, didn't have to mix it with anything and so opaque. The finish on the final print looks great and I really owe it to my friend at PrintHaus, Alyn Smith, who introduced me to it.

The final print.

I did say that I was going to be more proactive about using this blog but seeing as my last post was in July, I don't think I'm doing too well...
Once I've settled into my shifts at work, I should eventually be posting more about new work, commissions and lecturing topics.