Throughout working on my coursework for the second component for Creative Design Practice, I feared that I was coming up with the same solutions each time and defaulting to using digital media rather than experimenting more with traditional methods.
This being said, I wanted to work on my traditional printing skills in particular, as I’ve only managed to work with this type of medium only a handful of times, one of them being in the first year. Not to mention, my time at university is quickly ending, so I wanted to take advantage of the facilities that we have available, especially since our year group, in particular, has had less time to do so due to the pandemic.
I wanted to create a project that meant a lot to me, something that wasn’t video game-based but has personally affected me a lot since the start of the 3rd year. I have mentioned it briefly in one of my older blog posts about my cat Cutie dying from stomach cancer. She meant so much to me, so I still haven’t recovered from her passing because I loved her so much.
This being said, I wanted to do what I think I do best, expressing myself through art, and I wanted to pay homage to her by making a series of screenprints of her to express how much she meant to me. It was a difficult process drawing the illustrations and then the printing process. Still, I created some prints with exciting colour schemes that showed her calm yet feisty personality.
However, after speaking to Greg about where I could improve, I wanted to create prints that show more emotion and how Cutie’s death has really affected me. It has been challenging to process, especially after some people are not being very respectful towards me about it. What I mean by this was that I feel like it took longer for me to accept her death because within my accommodation, some people weren’t really kind about it, and someone even said to me once, “no one cares your cat is dead” when it not long happened. Her death has affected me mentally so much throughout the year, and I just wanted a way to get it off my chest, and I felt like this was the best way to do so.
Unfortunately, I didn’t finish this project mainly because I wasn’t as mentally strong as I thought I was about it, and I had a hard time illustrating the pieces as it still feels like an open wound losing her to something like cancer. Not to mention I didn’t want to rush the project, and due to how short of time I had left to create work for this component, I decided to disregard this project in the end.
I was glad I experimented with screen printing regardless, as I enjoy working with traditional print methods a lot, especially with Greg, as he makes the experience a lot more fun. I felt like I needed a break from constantly creating digital as I was in a bit of an art block, so this was a fun and different way to express myself through artwork. I hope to be able to create more screenprints either for client work or just as a hobby, as I love the overall look of screenprints and the textures and colours it produces.
Comments