gel print

Artist Statement

For this project, we were to explore with gelatin prints and our exquisite creatures that we all created. We learned how to make prints and used them as a basis for our projects. For mine specifically, I painted on the ink with a palette knife, creating different patterns and marks, and then made a dark print and ghost print. I wanted it to look abstract yet somewhat intentional.

I used markers, colored pencils, gel pens, and the ink base to create this piece. As I sort of explained above, you spread or paint on the ink on the gelatin and then place the paper on top of that to create a print. There were different sized gelatin sheets and I chose to use one of the bigger ones.

During this whole project I was experimenting with color and line specifically. The print created so many natural figures and shapes that I could simply outline or build off of. I used a black gel pen to define what I saw, leaving certain things without an outline to create space and emphasis on the things I wanted to be seen. I tried to majorly keep the piece “cold” as in cooler colors (blues, purples). It looked like an ocean for the most part, but I wanted to implement other things like buildings and clouds, so it evolved to being this mixture of many things that still mainly go back to the idea of an aquatic scene. I highlighted animals, playing with value to make some more evident than others. I want people to look at my art for a long time and see the movement I’ve attempted to create -- this piece, I think, is a good example of that. I didn’t revise this piece as much because I was going with the flow the most of the time and had a good basis to start with. Overall, I'm interested in both gelatin and India ink and am curious as to what their potential could be.