SI #7

Masks

5.5"x 8"

Marker and ink on paper

The idea behind this project was to inspire two artists into my work as well as continue to explore my idea of a distorted self image. I used Picasso because most of his work is portraits of humans that play with dimension and shapes. Most of his works you can easliy make out where the humans are, but sometimes it takes a secind look to make sure they're humans at all. I wanted to put that idea of really messing with features and where they are placed on a face. The second artist I was inspired by was Warhol. Warhol, did many portraits and paintings, and he often did them all of one thing but if you looked at them closely they weren't all exactly the same. Some may have been more smudged than others, and sometimes it was a different soup flavor. In my project I imitated that mass production and slight change in each, even though all the outline prints are generally the same, the way I colored them in is different for each.

I used print and markers for this project. I used print so that I could easily do that mass production and get as close to the same result each time I printed. It also allowed for a solid line outline which you can see in many of Picasso's paintings. Around most of his shapes is a black outline. I then used marker to fill in the colors. I used marker because it was easy to fill in large spaces, but also because markers have very strong and brilliant colors that imitated the pop art style that Warhol was so well known for.

I started with sketches and was originally going to be inspired by Picasso and his shapes as well as Frida Kahlo, because she focused a lot on a distorted image of one's self which is directly connected to my sustained investigation inquiry. However none of the ideas I came up with I really liked, so at the last minute I switched, because I kind of just had an idea that I wanted to print, and I also had an idea in my head already for ideas I could do. I began with my sketch and then traced it onto the right sized paper so that I could transfer it onto the linoleum. However the graphite kept smudging and I couldn't find a way to just get my design onto the paper without getting a bunch of other graphite marks on the linoleum. I ended up just copying it as best I could onto the linoleum by just looking at the sketch I'd just done beside me. I then carved and printed everything. Once I had colored it in and laid them out I realized that I had a weird number, so there would not be a full row at the bottom. Unfortunately I did not have to materials to make another, at the moment so I decided it would have to do.