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Block Print
Title: The Cold Winds of Jalisco Size: 15 cm x 24 cm Medium: linoleum printed on paper Completion: October 16, 2023 Exhibition text This piece is a telling of how my relationships change my experience with Mexican culture. This block print utilizes clean line work and an understanding of placement of shadows and highlights. The main focus while creating this piece was comprehending how the carved areas were going to replicate as a print. |
Artist inspiration
Artist in Focus: Emil Nolde
I discovered Emil Nolde when working on past projects. I was particularly driven towards Emil Nolde for this project and others because of his wood cut portraits in a German Expressionist style. He typically highlights the face as the main focus point by not carving out the hair or background, causing high contrast between the inner and outer points of the print. This is shown here in "Junger Priester (Young Priest)" with the lack of hair and extreme focus on this subject's cheekbone and forehead. I am using this style in my piece with a self- portrait with my face positioned in the same angle as this subject. I am going to be using the same kind of line work that Nolde presents by outlining white around the face to emphasize the side profile of the subject and also block out whole white areas while stippling parts of face that are neither pure white or black. The reason I chose this piece and artist is because Emil Nolde was born in Denmark and later studied and taught in Germany and Switzerland. This was significant for my piece because the meaning of my block print is to show the contrast of my culture versus the culture I am exposed to. With my family lineage being the same as Emil Nolde, my representation of this portrait as me would be showing European culture. |
Artist in Focus: Marina Pallares
I recently found the artwork of Marina Pallares and she stood out to me because of her use of texture in her block printing. In all of her linoleum cut pieces, she uses lines to not only build texture but also form. An aspect from her style that I wanted to incorporate into my block print was the complex background. When looking at this piece of hers, the eye is first drawn to the center because of the concentration of white but then the focus becomes the movement of the background. She was the perfect inspiration for my idea of incorporating a church into my piece. I have a photo I was thinking of using of a church called Parroquia de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion that is located Lagos De Moreno, Jalisco. Pallares is from Guadalajara, Mexico and makes most of her block prints based on a Mexican game called "Loteria" which features cards with numbers and labels on them. This is significant towards the theme of my piece since I am trying to portray a story of my personal involvement with Mexican culture. |
Parroquia de Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion: This was the image I wanted to recreate on my piece. I was gonna use the architectural structure of my image while replicating some of the texture from "El Templo" by Pallares. This related to the piece heavily since the church is in Lagos De Moreno, Jalisco which is close to where Marina Pallares was born and raised. This church is also one of the tallest Catholic churches in Mexico representing how strong the religious traditions and beliefs are towards Mexican culture.
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Artist in Focus: Jose Guadalupe Posada
This artist is another Mexican illustrator but he specializes in skeleton subjects. He is a more traditional artist compared to Marina Pallares which I wanted to involve in my art piece to show how new and old traditions are still important in Mexican culture. I also knew I wanted to have some sort of dancer in my block print and once I found this image, I knew it was what I was looking for. I appreciate the mix of human qualities that he creates in the skeleton figures. The man in the print has dramatic cheekbones, something that is not typically found in a skull, and his clothes make him appear to have a human body since they are filled out. As for the woman, although her hands are thin, each finger is connected to her hand which is not the anatomy of a human hand skeleton. He also uses thin lines to differentiate between the items of clothing. I am going to try to use this technique to build that texture. These dancers are significant to the meaning of my piece since dancing was one of the first times I had experienced actually seeing Mexican culture. I grew up as a dancer and felt that I knew a lot about styles and techniques but Mexican dancing was eye opening to see how different the movements were. The clothes were also extremely different from the dance attire I grew up with since most dancers would wear boots, tight jeans, dress shirt, and hats. |
Planning
My planning started with creating a reference photo to start my planning sketches. This image was selected out of various poses and angles because I believed it not only had the best lighting but fit with the posture of "Junger Priest" by Emil Nolde. In order to do this, I did a quick sketch to understand the proportions of my face. I also circled the highlights and shaded in the darker points in my hair and face. Then I noticed what could be fixed before I started working on the planning sketches. My right eye was pushed too far down and I had a hard time figuring out the proper crease of my eyelid.
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Sketches
Sketch 1:
For all three of these sketches, I started with tracing the block of linoleum three times in my sketch book to get the perfect measurement. This sketch's main focus was the church but I felt like I needed to have my head bigger if I really wanted to show the inspiration behind Emil Nolde. I felt like most of the sketch was based on Mexican culture rather than the mix of my involvement with culture. I did like the amount of line work I was able to create with the size of the church in the background but the movement of the piece was not appealing. |
Sketch 2:
In this sketch, I worked off of the first plan I had and made my portrait have a stronger influence by enlarging. Another aspect that I felt was important to show the meaning was to not just have the Mexican artists in the background. I felt by doing this, it was isolating myself away from that culture when I actually wanted to show the opposite. That is why in this sketch, I made the dancers be the foreground with skulls on the bottom of the image. Out of all of the sketches, this one I thought had the best movement and was the most visually appealing. |
Sketch 3:
This last sketch I played with the idea of not having my face in the image at all. I ended up not loving this plan because I felt that the movement was distracting and uneven. The most significant aspect of this sketch was the dancing skeletons which I liked. I wanted them to have a lot of focus since dancing is important to me but I felt with them taking up most of the image, it left a lot of empty space. When I tried to incorporate the spiral cloud texture to fill up the negative space, it looked too crowded causing the movement to be more heavily focused on the left side. |
Some things I changed as I was sketching was the attire of the skeletons. I wanted them to have more modern party clothes that would worn by Mexican dancers while still keeping the style of Posada. I picked a cocktail dress for the woman and boots and a dress shirt for the man since I felt it better represented me and my girlfriend dancing. Another thing I was constantly changing was how big the spiral clouds were. The first time I sketched out that pattern, I made the spirals too small and I quickly realized how hard it was going to be to carve those. I changed them a few times around so that the process was easier for me.
Process
Stage One
I started creating this piece by scratching graphite on a piece of paper till it was fully covered. I then put that paper on top of the block print with the graphite side on the linoleum. I took my final sketch and placed that over the paper. I had to feel along the block print to perfectly measure if the sketch and the block were aligned. Once I got it to be perfectly covered, I taped everything to the table so nothing would move. I started taking a dull graphite pencil and tracing over every line that was on the sketch. I also filled in areas that I knew were gonna remain black.
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Once I was finished with this step, this was the outcome. I had the full sketch now replicated on to the block print. Some parts of the transfer did not appear that well so I went over with my pencil and darkened them so I did not have to retrace the image. I also made new circles to show where the highlights in my face would be so it would be really clear when starting carving. At this point in the process, I liked how all of it looked and did not think any line work needed to be changed so I moved on.
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Stage Two
The next part of my process was blocking out every line and shadow with a sharpie. This was helpful because it helped get rid of small lines that would have been hard to carve around. I did not go over with sharpie over every line at this point because there were some lines in my face that I knew were gonna be carved out anyway. The style that Emil Nolde has does not show definite lines around the eyes so I left mine untouched. I also did not black out the highlight areas and parts of my hair since I knew that I drew those just as a template for where to carve. I did not mark the skeletons and skulls on the bottom of the image since they already have such thin lines. I was scared to take such a thick tipped marker since I knew that it could cover important lines and distort what I want and do not want to carve. I went over some of the spirals with thicker lines then how I originally sketched it since they still looked to close together for me. I also got rid of a few lines in the spirals because I thought they overcrowded some areas and made the pattern look inconsistent.
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Tools:
I have used these tools before so I have some understanding of how the blades cut. I knew pretty straight off the bat that I would be using the thinnest blade (shown on the far left) for most if not all of my project. When I started carving the cloud background, I started with the number 2 blade (second to the left) because there were larger areas that I could quickly take out. |
The next thing I started working on was carving. I began with the spirals in the background because I wanted to get the feel of how to do a circular motion before starting the skeletons. The spirals ended up being hard then what I thought they would be since I had to constantly turn my linoleum block. Whenever I tried to turn my carving tool, my hand would slip causing me to cut into black pieces. The zoom in image shows the difference the different chisels made. I started with using a larger blade but sometimes the lines were not as clean as what I wanted them to be. I went over the areas I already did with a slightly larger blade which helped clean up the edges.
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Then I took a thinner marker and went over the dancing skeletons. The one problem I had was with the marker I used, it kept smudging on the linoleum so the line work was sometimes hard. I knew that the teeth were gonna be a problem since the white areas were so small but I used the smallest tool and did not apply a ton of pressure. Once I had dug a small amount out, before I would get to the other side of the area I would flick my wrist up with the carving tool to make a more abrupt cut.
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I thought working on the skulls on the bottom of the block would be a lot harder but it just took a lot of time. There were a few scratches where my tool slipped across the linoleum but I think they will fill with ink since they are so small. The teeth were the hardest part because of their size but I was able to do it in a way that should replicate on a print. I used the smallest blade size and carved over areas multiple times to make sure they were deep enough.
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Stage Three
The next step was to carve my portrait. I saved this part for last since I knew it was going to be the hardest part. This part was difficult since I did not have exact outlines of where I was going to make each cut. I did this because I wanted the carving to look organic and natural with the movement in my face like how Emil Nolde created "Junger Priest". I was constantly referring back to that piece when deciding the highlights and shadows of my face to make sure the composition was at least similar. I started with the eyes and nose because those were the two areas where I had make planned outlines since they need to be the most distinct parts of my face. I started these areas with the smallest blade attachment I had which did not resemble the work of Emil Nolde so I went back over those spots with a larger tool. It began to be hard to see what I was carving so I went over this area with a marker to better see how it would look printed. Once I felt confident in the eyes, I moved to the nose and made sure that I was following the natural slope of my nose.
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Stage Four
Materials:
- Pallet knife - water based ink - metal plate - brayer - baren |
This was the stage where I started the printing process. This was the most tedious part because if one part of this process was wrong, the print would not turn out in a spotless way. I laid out newsprint paper so that there was the least amount of mess possible.
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Then I dabbed ink onto the top of the metal plate using a pallet knife. I started off with a little bit ink and saw how it spread over the whole plate then added more if needed. I did not want to add too much ink because I did not want the crevices in my block print to fill with ink. I rolled the brayer down the plate starting from the top and switching between horizontal and vertical movements. Once the plate was evenly covered and making a sticking sound, I rolled the brayer over my block print. I took the barn
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Experimentation
These two images show how I experimented with precise line work. I started off with a larger blade but I was only able to carve the areas around the line. I was not able to turn the blade to create those corners. So I went in with the smallest blade I have (shown in the right image). This looked a lot better and the smaller blade actually saved me a lot of time because of how easy it made details. I used this technique of starting with a larger blade and sizing down and that seemed to be the best method.
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One of my biggest issues with printing the piece was that every time I would get a good image transferred, there would be ink marks on the outer part of the image. This made the whole block print look messy and rushed no matter how clean the actual artwork was. The reason this was happening was because the area underneath my block print was getting messy and when I would take the baren to press the ink into the paper, the mess was transferring as well.
I also noticed a few areas that did not look good to me as I printed it. The negative space on the nostril looked strange to me so I carved it out before I started printing again. Also the area above my upper lip make the impression of a mustache which was not the look I was going for. I carved out one extra line along the lip to eliminate that negative dark spot. |
This was another failed print attempt because there was not enough ink rolled over the linoleum block which caused uneven ink spots. I had to remember to keep re-adding ink to the metal tray because I would often make prints back to back and not replenish the plate. This was happening repeatedly so I knew that I needed to change the process I was using to complete this. I started rolling a lot more ink on the roller and as soon as the paper was set over the block, I immediately applied pressure in that area. This helped significantly and those spots started occurring less as I made these adjustments.
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This print was not only messy on the sides of the paper, but there were also water stains on the image. In the beginning of printing, I experimented with washing the ink off my block print each time I created a print. This was not only time consuming but there was water that got stuck in the crevices of the carved areas. This did not seem to be a big issue until the block got printed again and the ink started bleeding because of the water. This made most of the sharp lines indistinct and made the piece look sloppy. I found that when I did not wash the block each time, ink filled in the carved areas and messed with the final print. The best final process for me was to print several images without washing the block and then washing it once the image started to get distorted.
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Critique
Emil Nolde Inspiration:
Compare:
Both of these pieces have that German Expressionist portrait style. A big aspect of both artworks is how the lines create the movement of the face. I replicated the direction of the form of my face to add dimension to this block print. The part of these pieces that I see the most resemblance are the cheekbone areas since most of those parts of the face are highlights, there are heavy concentrations of carved area. Within that region, I dragged the eye bag down like how it is in the original piece and left a black spot to show the sunken part of the under eye. I also kept the neck and hair on my self portrait black since that is what Emil Nolde does to create emphasis on the face.
Both of these pieces have that German Expressionist portrait style. A big aspect of both artworks is how the lines create the movement of the face. I replicated the direction of the form of my face to add dimension to this block print. The part of these pieces that I see the most resemblance are the cheekbone areas since most of those parts of the face are highlights, there are heavy concentrations of carved area. Within that region, I dragged the eye bag down like how it is in the original piece and left a black spot to show the sunken part of the under eye. I also kept the neck and hair on my self portrait black since that is what Emil Nolde does to create emphasis on the face.
Contrast:
The main contrast between these two pieces are the depth of the line work. I think to fit the inspiration better, I could have made the lines a bit thicker so that they would take up the majority of the face. The lines itself have a downward movement in Emil Nolde work and in my block print, I use more horizontal strokes to show the form in my face. I also did not make the bottom half of the portrait as white as "Junger Priest" because the reference photo I was using had the light angling towards the top of my face, which casts a shadow on the lower half of my portrait. I also changed the hair a little bit. Instead of making the whole hair completely black, I made a few small outlines to show the movement in my hair. I think this was a good idea since there were there is so much white within the piece, having that whole area be black could offset the composition of the piece and make it more weighted towards one side.
The main contrast between these two pieces are the depth of the line work. I think to fit the inspiration better, I could have made the lines a bit thicker so that they would take up the majority of the face. The lines itself have a downward movement in Emil Nolde work and in my block print, I use more horizontal strokes to show the form in my face. I also did not make the bottom half of the portrait as white as "Junger Priest" because the reference photo I was using had the light angling towards the top of my face, which casts a shadow on the lower half of my portrait. I also changed the hair a little bit. Instead of making the whole hair completely black, I made a few small outlines to show the movement in my hair. I think this was a good idea since there were there is so much white within the piece, having that whole area be black could offset the composition of the piece and make it more weighted towards one side.
Marina Pallares Inspiration:
Compare:
The texture from "El Templo" was incorporated into my piece with the background and with the church walls. My block print shows the inspiration of the spiral clouds around the entirety of my piece. I also used this background to make the church blend into the background so that the viewer has to take a closer look into the artwork. I used the straight lines in the architecture of the church to differentiate a little so that the building did not blend into the background so much where it was unrecognizable. I also have most of the church white and then a dark spot on one side of the tower to stand out like how Pallares created her artwork.
The texture from "El Templo" was incorporated into my piece with the background and with the church walls. My block print shows the inspiration of the spiral clouds around the entirety of my piece. I also used this background to make the church blend into the background so that the viewer has to take a closer look into the artwork. I used the straight lines in the architecture of the church to differentiate a little so that the building did not blend into the background so much where it was unrecognizable. I also have most of the church white and then a dark spot on one side of the tower to stand out like how Pallares created her artwork.
Contrast:
Although I replicated the clouds, Pallares has each individual spiral be smaller and there are thinner lines for the spiral outlines. I originally sketches the spirals to be this way but I chose to make them bigger because I felt like it would make the already crowded piece become even more busy. The main difference is the organic vs. geometric texture along the front of the church. Pallares uses a texture that resembles more of a crosshatch nature where I made the design of bricks since my reference photo of the church was made of brick and stone.
Although I replicated the clouds, Pallares has each individual spiral be smaller and there are thinner lines for the spiral outlines. I originally sketches the spirals to be this way but I chose to make them bigger because I felt like it would make the already crowded piece become even more busy. The main difference is the organic vs. geometric texture along the front of the church. Pallares uses a texture that resembles more of a crosshatch nature where I made the design of bricks since my reference photo of the church was made of brick and stone.
Jose Guadalupe Posada Inspiration:
Compare:
I used the inspiration of these two skeleton dancers at the bottom left corner of the piece. My main focus was replicating the shape of the skulls since the bone shape has a specific style from Posada. He adds more depth to his subjects faces by having dramatic cheekbones which I did show in the male figure. I also replicated this on the skulls along the bottom of the piece. Another aspect that I enjoyed from Posada's artwork that I contributed into mine was the teeth. Skulls do not have big teeth so I knew that this part of his characters were important so I added it to the dancers and the skulls in the foreground.
I used the inspiration of these two skeleton dancers at the bottom left corner of the piece. My main focus was replicating the shape of the skulls since the bone shape has a specific style from Posada. He adds more depth to his subjects faces by having dramatic cheekbones which I did show in the male figure. I also replicated this on the skulls along the bottom of the piece. Another aspect that I enjoyed from Posada's artwork that I contributed into mine was the teeth. Skulls do not have big teeth so I knew that this part of his characters were important so I added it to the dancers and the skulls in the foreground.
Contrast:
The biggest opposition of the two pieces were the clothing attire. I purposely changed the clothes on the dancing skulls because I wanted them to be wearing modern outfits because it better fit the meaning of my piece. The clothing was significant in Posada's work since the skulls are wearing traditional dancing attire that take up a majority of the positive space. Another difference was the definition of the bones of the woman's arms and legs. Posada's work only shows the skulls and no other bones but since I wanted the woman to be wearing a modern cocktail party dress, I needed other human bones exposed.
The biggest opposition of the two pieces were the clothing attire. I purposely changed the clothes on the dancing skulls because I wanted them to be wearing modern outfits because it better fit the meaning of my piece. The clothing was significant in Posada's work since the skulls are wearing traditional dancing attire that take up a majority of the positive space. Another difference was the definition of the bones of the woman's arms and legs. Posada's work only shows the skulls and no other bones but since I wanted the woman to be wearing a modern cocktail party dress, I needed other human bones exposed.
Reflection
Overall, I not only enjoyed creating this piece, but the final artwork had the vision that I aspired to make. There are a few changes I would make and that would be the thickness of the lines on my portrait. This specifically bothers me because I feel like it could fit the inspiration a bit better if I had used a different blade. I do like the self portrait on my piece and I do think it fits the movement of German Expressionism which is what I was going for, but it does not have that strong of influence with Emil Nolde. As for the other changes I made throughout the piece, I think they were all worth it to make the artwork come together and look unified. By the end of the project, I realized that I needed to get rid of my idea of perfection and take a faster approach to art. This ended up working very well for me since I waited till the end of my carving process to complete my self portrait and rushing that area was a good idea so that the lines looked more organic and less organized. I found that areas like the background that I spent the most time on were also the parts that had many mistakes and not as much clean edges.
ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
As soon as I understood what my inspirations were, I started altering my planning. Having these inspirations caused me to expand on my ideas and comprehend the best route for finalizing these plans. The inspiration had a huge impact on my artwork since it gave me a route to build off of. Before starting the piece, I did not know the little details of line work and movement until I found artists that I could replicate.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Personal relationships have a major impact on the way humans experience culture and learn about new cultures. This shapes the identities of the people involved since they learn new discoveries about the world.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have concluded that people express culture in many ways even if it is not a significant part of their identity. People are also curious about the world around them and seek to become involved in learning about these new concepts.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
When I was researching my inspirations, I was looking for themes around culture. I used this because I wanted to relate how I discovered new cultures through my personal relationships. The artists I found had strong artistic influences from the cultures they identify with so I knew that using Marina Pallares, Emil Nolde, and Jose Guadalupe Posada was good for this piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I found that having many varying textures adds the overall movement of the artwork. When I was researching, I thought that my pieces were overcrowded with line work and texture but it made the composition come together and made a unified artwork.
As soon as I understood what my inspirations were, I started altering my planning. Having these inspirations caused me to expand on my ideas and comprehend the best route for finalizing these plans. The inspiration had a huge impact on my artwork since it gave me a route to build off of. Before starting the piece, I did not know the little details of line work and movement until I found artists that I could replicate.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Personal relationships have a major impact on the way humans experience culture and learn about new cultures. This shapes the identities of the people involved since they learn new discoveries about the world.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have concluded that people express culture in many ways even if it is not a significant part of their identity. People are also curious about the world around them and seek to become involved in learning about these new concepts.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
When I was researching my inspirations, I was looking for themes around culture. I used this because I wanted to relate how I discovered new cultures through my personal relationships. The artists I found had strong artistic influences from the cultures they identify with so I knew that using Marina Pallares, Emil Nolde, and Jose Guadalupe Posada was good for this piece.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I found that having many varying textures adds the overall movement of the artwork. When I was researching, I thought that my pieces were overcrowded with line work and texture but it made the composition come together and made a unified artwork.
MLA Citations
- “---.” Gastón Charó, www.gastoncharo.com/m-pallares.
- “Mexican Artist José Guadalupe Posada.” Posada, www.posada-art-foundation.com/about-posada.
- “Emil Nolde Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/artist/nolde-emil.