Block Print
Title: Musketeer of Art
Size: 22.8 cm x 30.5 cm Medium: Linoleum block print with black water based ink Completion Date: September 16th Exhibition Text: Musketeer of Art is meant to present some more recent challenges that have been faced in the animation industry involving HBO Max and Discovery+. My piece was inspired by Frida Kahlo and surrealism with her The Wounded Deer artwork with the overall layout and image in the piece. I also took some slight inspiration from the anime "Jojo's Bizarre Adventure" and the character ability Silver Chariot Requiem made by Hirohiko Araki with the main character in the print. |
Inspiration:
Artist in Focus: Frida Kahlo
One artist I gained inspiration from for my block print is Frida Kahlo. Frida Kahlo has made some work in the surrealism movement such as The Wounded Deer which is a specific piece I took inspiration from. The piece relates to an operation on her spine that she had in 1946. She was hoping that the surgery would free her of some back pain but it did not end up working that way. The painting was made to show her disappointment, sadness, and pain from the operation. She showed her sadness of not being able to change her fate. In the piece you can see the pain she was experiencing through the deer which has arrows piercing its body. The barren and empty forest in the background is also there to contribute the feeling of sadness or emptiness. Kahlo puts the deer as the centerpiece of the painting to bring focus to there. This shows how all this pain and sadness is being directed onto her. Her piece has some elements that symbolize sadness in a way I would like to convey as well which is one of my main reasons for choosing Kahlo and this piece. To have the Musketeer be wounded can show the pain that animation, the animation audience, and I are all feeling about those changes. I hope to use Kahlo’s piece as a layout to convey my own message in a surrealist way. |
The Wounded Deer by Firda Kahlo
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Silver Chariot Requiem from the "Jojo's BIzarre Adventure:Golden Wind" manga
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Another artist I gained some inspiration from is Hirohiko Araki, a mangaka and creator of the “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” series. I mainly took inspiration from a character's ability called Silver Chariot Requiem from Part 5 of the series, “Golden Wind.” The character has a musketeer type look and is all black which is a direct connection to the medium as I know it will be in black and white. With how the character is portrayed in the show, and how musketeers are seen in real life, I felt that it was a nice fit in my piece as representing the animation industry as brave, confident, and defending themselves.
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Silver Chariot Requiem from the "Jojo's BIzarre Adventure:Golden Wind" anime
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Planning:
Sketch on my Ipad using Procreate
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When I started this project, the situation with HBO Max had just happened so it was fresh in my mind. I almost immediately decided to do something relating to that. I also quickly thought of Silver Chariot Requiem from “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” because of the way the ink and block would work together to create an image. After I got those ideas I immediately started getting a drawing on paper. I started to draw it normally with lines but then I thought about how I’m cutting out those lines and decided to make them doubled. After drawing it out like that for a while, I was questioning how it would work and look exactly so I used my Ipad and procreate to have an all black screen, and erase away lines in which I would carve away. It was almost like I was doing the block print digitally. After I laid it all out digitally and saw that it worked out, I went back to paper to finish up that sketch of it. After that point I looked at it and thought of changing it so that the musketeer was more isolated in the image.
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Planning sketch #2
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I then started doing a second sketch of the idea and laid it out in a more preferred manner. I thought that I could probably change the way that the “wound spots” looked as well as the look of the feather on the musketeer's hat. For the wounds, I thought of just scribbling down pencil and then taking my eraser and erasing random shapes into it in order to give it a more natural look of it being erased. For the feather, I decided to do some research on what feathers looked like. I looked at more pieces by Frida Kahlo and found one titled Me and My Parrot which gave me some insight onto how she has made feathers. I sketched out a few different looks besides Kahlo's and they seemed to be too complicated to carve out on the block print in such little space and so I tried to simplify the look. I started to add things in sixes eventually creating 4 groups of sixes to create 24 total little details to reference 24 frames per second. For my final sketch to eventually transfer over, I changed something to the cross shape on the musketeer thanks to some feedback from another student. He brought up the idea to change it to different types of art supplies to further give it some connection to art and animation. I made it so that it was a paint brush, pen, fine point pen/sharpie, and some kind of marker tip. I thought that the idea looked really cool so I decided to keep it. In the final sketch I also decided to change up the pencil a bit with what I am carving out.
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Planning sketch #3
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Final Sketch
Process:
After I had my final sketch all done, I tore out the page from my sketchbook and started filling in the back of the paper with pencil so that I could transfer it over to my block. After I had it all filled in I cut off the sides, lined it up with my block print, and taped it down so that it wouldn’t move. I then took a pen and drew over the lines.
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Scribbled in back of final sketch
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Final sketch transferred over to block
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Block colored in with sharpie
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After I finished tracing each of my lines down, I took off the sketch, and then I took a sharpie and colored in everything that was remaining black and not being cut away. After everything was colored in that needed to be, I started carving away at the block starting in the bigger areas. I carved out as much as I could with the biggest blade. After it seemed like I cut away everything I could with the biggest blade, I switched the blade to be smaller to cut away the smaller areas. Then I downsized again eventually to get the super small lines. While I was cutting parts out, I wanted to make sure the big areas of white space were really cut down to make sure they don’t get ink onto the final print.
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Block carved out
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While trying to cut down areas, I cut through the block entirely in a couple areas, leaving holes. I was worried at first but then remembered that it would be white space anyways so it wouldn’t matter too much. I would just have to worry about the stability of the block. After I carved out a bit from all the areas I decided to do a test print. I noticed that I needed to carve out more of the big open spaces and some of the smaller lines as well. I carved away some more and did a couple more prints. I kept noticing that I was getting a lot of ink in some areas I didn’t want there to be so I decided to just cut chunks of the block off in order to make it so that it didn’t pick up ink.
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Block carved out with cut out areas
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Experimentation:
The process of me making the prints was a lot of doing the same thing over and over. I was committed to doing the print by hand with the baren pushing the print on the paper. I kept making print after print and there was always something that just didn’t work out right. I might not have been pushing hard enough on some areas or with me carving some parts in between prints, there were pieces of the block sitting on it still when making the print which caused it to have gaps of ink in the print. I washed my print and dried it off trying to get the pieces out of the block and I eventually stopped having that problem.
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Test print #1 (by hand)
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Test print #2 (by hand)
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Despite that, there were still areas that weren’t getting ink down. I tried using more and less ink but it was always either too much or not enough. After a lot of trial and error of printing, washing off my block, and printing again, I finally decided that I should try out the printing press a couple times to see how that would work. My first test of that method had way too much ink on it. I realized then that since it is pushing down so hard, I won’t need to add as much ink as I would have to when doing it by hand. I had to wash off my plate in between each try just to make sure I didn’t have too much ink on the block. Over some time I eventually had my final print. Using the printing press method, I had to accept the fact that there would be extra lines appearing. If I didn’t want to have them appear I would have to cut out giant chunks of it which could terribly worsen the stability of the block which would make it much harder to print. This wasn’t ideal, however it did actually still turn out pretty nice and to my liking.
Critique:
Similarities:
There are many similarities and differences between my final artwork and the inspiration artwork. For one, with Kahlo’s The Wounded Deer, our works have a very similar layout to them in order to emphasize the main points in the piece. We both have the empty trees on the side with the animal/person in the middle spotlight, wounded. We have also used similar ideas with symbols. We have the barren, empty trees and the wounds on the animal/person to show pain and sadness. Our two pieces both convey a similar message. My piece is also similar to Araki’s Silver Chariot Requiem in the color and overall look of the characters. They both have a dark figure with a musketeer look. The hats are proportionally big and shaped in similar ways. We also both use the musketeer look to show a similar message of defending themselves, bravery, and confidence
Differences:
The two pieces are different in some ways too. All the pieces overall are made in different mediums with mine being a block print, Kahlo’s being a painting, and Araki’s being a manga/anime. The coloring of the piece is different as well. With Kahlo’s work, she has multiple colors allowing her to more easily show the sadness and pain in her piece. With Araki's work, He does use black, but he is able to develop the look of the character more with different shades of gray as well to add more detail to the look of the character.
There are many similarities and differences between my final artwork and the inspiration artwork. For one, with Kahlo’s The Wounded Deer, our works have a very similar layout to them in order to emphasize the main points in the piece. We both have the empty trees on the side with the animal/person in the middle spotlight, wounded. We have also used similar ideas with symbols. We have the barren, empty trees and the wounds on the animal/person to show pain and sadness. Our two pieces both convey a similar message. My piece is also similar to Araki’s Silver Chariot Requiem in the color and overall look of the characters. They both have a dark figure with a musketeer look. The hats are proportionally big and shaped in similar ways. We also both use the musketeer look to show a similar message of defending themselves, bravery, and confidence
Differences:
The two pieces are different in some ways too. All the pieces overall are made in different mediums with mine being a block print, Kahlo’s being a painting, and Araki’s being a manga/anime. The coloring of the piece is different as well. With Kahlo’s work, she has multiple colors allowing her to more easily show the sadness and pain in her piece. With Araki's work, He does use black, but he is able to develop the look of the character more with different shades of gray as well to add more detail to the look of the character.
Reflection:
The entire piece as a whole was very educational. I have never worked in this medium before so it allowed me to branch out as an artist. This work allows me to know how to do similar pieces. If I work on something similar again, this past experience will be very helpful as I have on idea on how it works and I could possibly make something even greater than this print I made. My inspiration for this project does connect well with my final piece. Looking at it, one is able to see how the pieces are similar and how I drew ideas from them. The biggest challenge I encountered on this project was printing the block out onto paper. It was a struggle to make it just right but I eventually made it there. This project ties together some skills I have learned in the past with printing images out on shirts with ink. My favorite part of this project was probably seeing the final result. All of my planning, and failure lead to the final print working out which was a fun experience to have. It was nice to have the hard work pay off. I hope others can view my work and get what kind of message I am trying to show with the animation industry or at least that it connects with art. From there, I would love to see what others can make of it.
Connecting to the ACT:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
From my inspiration pieces of Frida Kahlo’s The Wounded Deer, and Hirohiko Araki’s Silver Chariot Requiem, you can see that I took the layout of Kahlo’s piece into mine with the center animal/person surrounded by the empty forest. You are also able to see how my musketeer is similar to Araki’s Silver Chariot Requiem in appearance and outfit.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author's overall way of drawing out their images and how they choose to relate most to where I draw my inspiration from the pieces.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have realized that the way you organize a piece and what you choose to draw attention to can have a bigger impact on how the viewer interprets the piece.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my inspirational research is the rejection of art and how it can be hurt but remain standing strong.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I have inferred that pain and sadness could be an easy idea to portray in art or a good way to get that idea out.
From my inspiration pieces of Frida Kahlo’s The Wounded Deer, and Hirohiko Araki’s Silver Chariot Requiem, you can see that I took the layout of Kahlo’s piece into mine with the center animal/person surrounded by the empty forest. You are also able to see how my musketeer is similar to Araki’s Silver Chariot Requiem in appearance and outfit.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author's overall way of drawing out their images and how they choose to relate most to where I draw my inspiration from the pieces.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have realized that the way you organize a piece and what you choose to draw attention to can have a bigger impact on how the viewer interprets the piece.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my inspirational research is the rejection of art and how it can be hurt but remain standing strong.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I have inferred that pain and sadness could be an easy idea to portray in art or a good way to get that idea out.
Citations (MLA):
Araki, Hirohiko. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. VIZ Media, Shueisha, 1995-1999. 7.
Bowman, Emma. “HBO Max Cuts Dozens of Titles in a Cost-Cutting Move before a Merger with Discovery+.” NPR, NPR, 19 Aug. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/08/19/1118344173/hbo-max-cuts-shows#:~:text=Press-,HBO%20Max%20cuts%20'Sesame%20Street'%20content%2C%20'Infinity%20Train,Train%20and%20Summer%20Camp%20Island.
Tsuda, Naokatsu. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. David Production, 2018-2019
The wounded deer, 1946 by Frida Kahlo. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-wounded-deer.jsp
Me and my parrot, 1941 by Frida Kahlo. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.fridakahlo.org/me-and-my-parrots.jsp
Bowman, Emma. “HBO Max Cuts Dozens of Titles in a Cost-Cutting Move before a Merger with Discovery+.” NPR, NPR, 19 Aug. 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/08/19/1118344173/hbo-max-cuts-shows#:~:text=Press-,HBO%20Max%20cuts%20'Sesame%20Street'%20content%2C%20'Infinity%20Train,Train%20and%20Summer%20Camp%20Island.
Tsuda, Naokatsu. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind. David Production, 2018-2019
The wounded deer, 1946 by Frida Kahlo. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.fridakahlo.org/the-wounded-deer.jsp
Me and my parrot, 1941 by Frida Kahlo. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.fridakahlo.org/me-and-my-parrots.jsp