The Process

So I wanted to bring up the process of making a piece of work. The one thing that really irks me is when people think making art is easy. Which it can be but most of the time, at least for me, it is not. There is a process, there is time you need, research and imagination.


I'm going to specifically talk about my new piece.

First step is inspiration, I have a folder on my desktop dedicated to images or quotes that inspire me to create something. Tumblr is a huge source of where I get my ideas, so I don't feel as guilty when I'm aimlessly browsing the site. The inspiration for my next piece was a quote by Jean-Paul Sartre, "Words are loaded pistols." To me that quote means words can do serious damage. So then that got the wheels turning in my head of a pistol with flowers coming out. Obviously a gun means violence and with flowers coming out of it, it contradicts the violence. The "words" are flowers. I want people to interpret it the way they want. It could just be a gun with flowers to some or it could mean something more to others. 


So I finally have my idea, my next step is to actually put it down on paper, the fun part. I wanted to make sure I was actually drawing a pistol and not a revolver (which I definitely had to google) and then my favorite part, is drawing the flowers. So I was able to finish the initial sketch in a day.


 I draw everything in pencil first, but so I can see the lines I then outline everything in pen. Now I have to transfer my drawing to linoleum. I do that by getting tracing paper, overlaying it on the drawing and outlining the image again. I do this with a soft pencil so that the lead will transfer to the linoleum easily.  

I flip the tracing paper over so that the pencil side is touching the linoleum. The image will be mirrored on the linoleum, which is usually what you want, so that it will look like your original sketch. And now I outline the back of the tracing paper with a ballpoint pen to transfer the lead onto the linoleum.  So now it is on the linoleum in pencil, and fortunately all the lines I wanted show up! But I can't keep the image in pencil  because it will smudge and you guessed it, I have to outline it in pen, preferably sharpie cause it won't smudge but I only had a blue pen near me, which kinda smudged.
 SO if you weren't counting, I drew the original image and then had to redraw it 4 times! 

And now I get to cut it! Which I am really excited about, there is a lot of detail and I am looking forward to the proofing it by next week! And I will talk about the process of proofing.


I guess what I want people to know, especially the people that say to me, "Oh you are/were an art major, your classes must be SO easy," is that just because I am not studying for exams does not make my art classes any less difficult. It takes skill and effort to want to do this, just like anything else anyone wants to do. You have to want to do draw over and over and over again until you get it right. Hopefully the majority or art majors don't choose art because it's easy. It challenged me more than any math or science class I had to take. 


I'm fortunate to have found something I truly enjoy and I wish people would see that first instead of giving me the, "Are you serious?" look. It's very easy to start doubting yourself when other people do to and I'm trying to sound more confident when I tell someone I am a printmaker. Cause usually that shuts them up or they just don't know what it is. 


Anyway that's all I got. 
Going home to Pittsburgh this weekend, running away from the Blue and White Weekend in State College. 
Have a nice weekend everyone! Thanks for reading!