Evaluation

In the second half of this project I feel that my work has really progressed. I added in a 'wild card' of a spyrigraph and although now my work doesn't reflect the spyrigraph it was a key piece that helped me move forward with my project. I took the colours brown and green from the previous half of the project and then made my colour pallete more interesting by adding in blue's and black's, I got this idea when we were doing mono-printing in the first session of print. I really like the way these colours looked.
I created a screen with spyrigraphs on but after some experimentation I realised it wasn't what I wanted so I took forward the symmetry of a spyrigraph (explained earlier in my blog) and began to experiment with mono-printing and butterfly printing with assitate.
Butterfly printing was good but the colours would run together too much when I was folding the assitate.
The drawing tools workshop really moved my project forward. I wanted to include these new marks I had discovered in my work so I decided the best way to do this would be to go back to using mono-printing as the inks wouldn't run this way. I could print half and then edit the samples later in photoshop to make a symmetrical pattern. This was a really fun and successful way of working as I got the marks I wanted and I had enjoyed working on photoshop in previous projects.
I also enjoyed experimenting with flock paper, foils and the heat press. I really like the effects foils and flock paper give yet I am not so keen on the effect the heat press gives. I had used the heat press at my previous college and knew that it does make the colours very vibrant. However, I still wanted to give it ago. I liked the way I could get the exact marks I wanted because I could simply paint onto paper and then transfer them but as I remembered it makes the colours very vibrant. This could be useful in other projects but in this one is results were far to bright. 
In this project I have realised I like working with natural sources. My first projects so far were on crystals and then growth and decay however, when I came to working with this graphic image of a spyrigraph I really didn't enjoy it nor did I like the effects it gave.
Although I enjoyed the print workshop I think I enjoy constructing a fabric more like weave or knit and not so much designing onto a surface like print.
As the end of the project was nearing I feared I hadn't done much work but when I started bringing all my drawings, paintings and samples together I realised I had done plently of work and I was pleased with most of the end results.

Moving on...

Butterfly printing didn't allow me to use the tools from the drawing workshop to their full potential as every time I folded the assisate everything would blur together. This is where I thought I should begin to create marks with the tools I had made and then make the prints symmetrical in photoshop afterwards. Image one shows the original mark I made and image two, three and four show how effective repeating, flipping and editing the image on photoshop can be. Making the prints symmetrical in photoshop is a much more accurate way of making sure the prints are symmetrical. Image Five shows another original print I created by mono-printing and images six, seven and eight so again how I have repeated, flipped and edited to create an interesting end result.

Image one.

Image Two

Image Three

Image Four.

Image Five.

Image Six.

Image Seven.

Image Eight.

Progress

Firstly I started creating basic butterfly prints with assitate. As shown below in images one and two. I then began to create more complex designs and began to add flock paper and foil. This gave a really interesting effect. Examples images three, four and five.

 

Image One

Image Two.

Image Three.

Image Four.

Image Five.

Tool Workshop

In this workshop we had to make our own tools out of odd bits and bobs to use to create drawings or paintings. I used things like toothbrushes, empty biro casing, sponges, wire but the thing I enjoyed most was the lego block. As my project is related to spyrigraphs and symmetry the circles that the lego block created were great. You can see the effect the lego block gives in the image below.

In this workshop I also explored the possibilties of butterfly printing and thought the results were quite successful. Below are a few examples.

I was also inspired to try out some smaller versions in my own time shown below. This workshop got me thinking about the different kinds of tools I can use to make different marks in my mono-printing and assitate printing to give my work something new and different.

Change of Direction

As I began to experiment with my screen that had spyrigraphs on I began to realise it wasn't working. I really liked a particular drawing I had created while doing mono-printing and later edited it in photoshop. In photoshop I had vertically and horizontally flipped the image creating a mirror image and this is where it came to me that spyrigraphs are symmetrical and that's what I will take forward form them. Below is a spider diagram explaining my thought process.

Photoshop Experimentation

I decided I wanted to take a mono-print I had created further. Image One shows the original mono-print. I then added extra bits to the image in photo shop and began to repeat it. I then create a mirror image making it symmetical. Image Two, Three and Four show the results.

                         Original Image                                                 Edited Image

Image One.

Image Two.

Image Three.

Image Four.