Paper Cuttings, Monoprints and Collagraphy: Exciting A Level Portraiture

Last Updated on January v, 2022

This innovative A* portraiture projection was completed by Lucy Feng while studying WJEC A2 Fine Art at Hereford Sixth Grade College, Herefordshire, United Kingdom. Lucy gained 93% for A Level Art, following 91% at AS Level. She was recently awarded 2nd prize in the national Immature Photographer of the Yr competition run by Hereford College of the Arts and is a finalist in Digital Photograph mag's Perfect Portraits photography competition.

One of Lucy'south sketchbook pages is included in our new book: Outstanding High School Sketchbooks . This book has high-resolution images and then that fine details and note are clear, making information technology an excellent resource for students and schools. Learn more!

Lucy's project is a source of inspiration for a number of reasons. Not only is her A Level submission filled with cute, gestural, observational drawings, merely she uses media creatively and continually pushes the boundaries, using modern engineering science in a way that is exciting and rare among Painting / Art students. Her precise, intricate newspaper-cuts are enough to make most Fine art students (and teachers) desire to run the store and buy a laser cutter or CNC paper cutter to play with!

We were lucky plenty to interview Lucy about her projection. Her responses are below.

These large scale (A2) charcoal cocky-portraits were completed quickly, working from life (20 minutes each). A delineation of light and shadow falling upon complex iii-dimensional course; edges and boundaries defined with rich, gestural marking-making.

Demonstrating excellent observational drawing skill from the beginning, this charcoal and pastel drawing sensitively depict homo form.

Competently depicting the whole human body, this A Level sketchbook page contains beautiful gestural figure drawings, fatigued from life using ballpoint pen in Instanbul, Turkey.

Please talk to us about the ideas behind your 'distorted portraiture' theme and why you chose this topic.

Lucy: The main aim for my project was to convey raw emotion and sensation in a similar way to the creative person, Francis Bacon, whom I decided to write my personal written report on. This is what led to my determination to focus on portraiture, every bit the face is the most recognisable symbol of emotion and is where most of the 5 senses are concentrated. My decision to distort the conventional human confront was made to intensify these emotions and invoke a stronger reaction in the viewer, who would naturally be more disturbed by the discordance created past morphing such a familiar paradigm as the human confront. The fact that portraiture is such a common topic actually contributed to my desire to work in this field, as I wanted to bring my own unique camber to it. The theme besides seemed bonny to me, due to my dearest of photographing people, so I knew that I could hands take plenty photographs to piece of work from.

Students oft make the fault of assuming that 'research' in an Art and Design project ways sourcing information from the cyberspace or books. In this context research implies visual investigation also: trials and experimentation with the practical aspects of art-making, medium and technique. Lucy completes a beautiful array of visual investigations in the early phases of her projection, from continuous line drawings (run across the example shown to a higher place correct) to fragmented, cubist-inspired pencil works (higher up left).

To make the photographs more personal to me, and therefore invoke a stronger sense of emotion and expression, I also worked from many self-portraits throughout the projection. On the other hand, I also included work that was based on photographs of strangers in the street that I had taken, so that I could interpret their emotions my ain fashion with a sense of disengagement. I also felt that different emotions were expressed by these strangers than in photos of myself or people close to me, as they were pushed out of their comfort zones past being asked for a photo past a stranger.

At every moment, Lucy is creative and inventive with media. The portrait on the left was created in xv minutes, using a strip of card dipped in ink. The larger A2 work on the right was rendered using pen and ink wash.

This A Level sketchbook page shows an creative person study – formal analysis of the work of Francis Salary alongside Lucy'southward own experimentation. Adobe Photoshop has been used to distort original photographs, earlier creating a monoprint of the image and overlaying other images printed onto acetate. Supporting artist works can be seen aslope, including those by Picasso, Käthe Kollwitz and Dustin Farnsworth.

Your project is an excellent example of how modernistic engineering science and creative apply of media can be used to develop and extend a traditional Painting / Fine Art project. Please provide some detail about the techniques, tools and processes yous used.

Lucy: I believe that fusing mod techniques with more traditional media can add together an edgy twist to the outcome and I frequently endeavor to combine unexpected materials and processes in my work, such as photography and laser cutting. I was lucky plenty to have access to a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutter in my own domicile, as my dad is a greeting card designer and uses a light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutter to create the cards, but most of my results tin be achieved using a arts and crafts knife (although a chip more patience may exist necessary)! To create my laser cut panels, I started past blocking out the basic shapes to exist cut out directly onto printed originals of my photographs, before rescanning the images and using the design softwear, Coreldraw, to trace these shapes and create cut pathways for the laser cutter to follow. I and so transferred these lines onto the laser cutter'south design programme and programmed the lines to be cutting. When cutting out your pattern, it is of import to consider the force and beam thickness required for the material that you are planning to cut (the engraved panels were achieved on a much lower strength setting that just burnt away a thin layer of the card board I was cutting into). After cutting out different patterns on a variety of similar images, I then layered the images on top of ane another to reveal selected portions of each photograph in the pile, creating depth and distorting the image. To attain some other layered up effect, I also tried photocopying some of my images onto acetate and layering them over each other and some cut up pieces of the original images and prints of the originals with ink drizzled over areas (come across below).

One of many rich sketchbook pages in Lucy's A Level Fine art project, this example shows experimentation with collage and paint, drawing inspiration from photographs by Nigel Parry and Connie Imboden. Information technology is worth noting that the visual process a student has undergone should be obvious (as information technology is hither) without the demand for excessive notation.

I as well experimented with ii different types of printing – monoprinting and collagraph press – to reach two very different effects. To create collagraph prints, I drew my design onto a thick slice of paper-thin, before using a craft knife to pare a few layers of the lath abroad in the areas I wished to appear darkest (as more than ink is absorbed into the rougher surface) and I applied PVA glue to any highlights to make the board less absorptive in these areas, leaving midtones untouched. After the glue dried, I then used a rag to employ printing ink all over the surface of the board before wiping the ink away from the less absorbent areas. I then placed the board confront downwards onto some thick cartridge paper and rolled it through my Fine art Department'southward printing printing. The board can then be re-inked in several different colours and re-printed between each new color, over the outset image, to create a more complex result. The plate can also exist rotated betwixt each new press to vary the results even further. Although collagraph printing has the advantage of a reusable printing block and perhaps a more textured look, monoprinting enables far quicker results, every bit you simply apply the ink directly onto a metal plate, applying more than ink to shadows and less to highlights, before printing. The drawback is that the metal plate must so be done before reapplying the ink to create a 2nd print.

For students who are used to working in a single medium alone, Lucy'due south art project is a breath of fresh air. The A3 piece of work on the left is a hitting, mixed media piece combining collagraphy, light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation-cutting, collage and acrylic paint. The work on the right is a collage of original photographs, monoprints, collagraph prints and acrylic paint.

As well every bit being a visually stunning and fun medium to use in your project, printing is also a quick way to provide a big body of work to give variety to your project. Information technology is particularly satisfying to churn out a batch of vibrant, beautiful collagraph prints inside minutes – after the much longer stage of creating the printing cake in the start identify, of course!

Continuing to push button boundaries and use mediums in exciting and inventive means, this A Level Art sketchbook page shows images printed upon Tyvek (a durable constructed material that resembles paper but is made from high-density plastic polyethylene fibres). The Tyvek sheet has then been heated to distort the surface. This led to further experimentation, with images creased and photocopied to simulate the melted Tyvek effect.

Which artists did you study as part of your project? How take these influenced and shaped your work?

Lucy: My initial inspiration for my project was the striking distortions of the homo form by artist Francis Bacon. However, it wasn't his actual painting way or method of distortion that inspired me, it was the way that he reduced bodies and faces into raw emotion. His painting entitled 'Pope innocent Ten', for instance, seems to have become an embodiment of violence and aggression.

I also loved how Bacon managed to capture the essence of his models despite using so few castor strokes and distorting them so extremely. I tried to replicate this thought through my various prints, by distorting elements of the face in my original photograph whilst maintaining a few essential features, before stripping this distorted version to as few shapes as possible.

On a schoolhouse fine art trip to Venice, I was lucky enough to see an original painting by Bacon, entitled 'Written report for Chimpanzee', in the Peggy Guggenheim museum. Although the painting was not directly linked to my particular theme, it was a great privilege to get an impression of the infinite that the painting actually fills, as it tin can be hard to visualise the size of a painting based on a set of dimensions written down. I could also get a closer look at the type of brush marks Bacon used and see how thickly he applied his pigment.

The splattered and smeared pigment in the photographs of Jenny saville by Nigel Parry and the photographs of Connie Imboden inspired me to use a similar technique in some of my collage work to increase the upshot of distortion. I also loved the colour combination of the carmine and blueish, equally the colours clashed and fabricated the overall consequence more than discordant.

After attending "The Outset Cut" newspaper art exhibition in Manchester I took inspiration from the work of the various paper artists included, such as Noriko Ambe to create my light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation cutting panels. I dearest the sculptural quality of Ambe's work, despite the flatness of the initial material (paper) and wanted to create a similar impression of depth in my own paper fine art.

This comprehensive sketchbook page documents a highly original visual journey, with photographic images fractured, cut and reassembled. Drawing inspiration from The First Cut paper art exhibition in Manchester, Lucy's laser cutting experimentation is influenced by the paper cuts of Noriko Ambe and Lucas Simoes, likewise as paintings by Marker Posey.

An enlarged detail from the sketchbook page, this work above shows the level of precision and item achieved in each piece of work: the laser cut pieces of paper meticulously reassembled and joined together; breaking out of the frame.

This sketchbook folio is one of the most heady sequences of development I have seen in a high school Art projection. The small paper cutting artworks will provide inspiration for those studying a wide range of creative art disciplines, including Photography, Graphic Blueprint and Painting and Related Media.

An enlarged detail from the A Level sketchbook page to a higher place, illustrating the beautiful complexity and depth of layers in each laser cut portrait.

One of the great triumphs of this A Level Art projection is the fluid exploration of ideas; the confident dance betwixt mediums. Here, with muted colour applied to her own hands, face and shoulders, Lucy becomes the human canvas.

What advice do you accept for other high school Art students who wish to gain splendid grades?

Lucy: This may be the well-nigh common piece of communication, but I don't retrieve information technology can be stressed plenty how important it really is to be really passionate nearly your projection. And don't only settle for an idea considering it seems easy, equally some of the well-nigh hard ideas to carry out can exist the near exciting and fulfilling, but on the other hand think non to seize with teeth off more than you can chew! A large idea executed poorly is never as good as a more managable concept with excellent execution.

Also, call up that the entire process really is as important as the final effect. In previous years, every bit many Art students seem to practise, despite the teacher's communication, I would always think of my final outcome kickoff and base of operations my project around that. Still, since a few short courses at Cardinal St Martins, I finally realised the importance of the menses of a project and how much more than naturally inspiration for unusual ideas can come when thinking in a chain of ideas initiated by a spark of inspiration, rather than trying to remember backwards. Why limit yourself right from the beginning, when yous tin instead engage in an endless creative menstruum that could accept you anywhere?

This image shows an enlarged detail from Lucy's concluding piece: the first panel in a triptych. Fabricated from pastels and oil paint on cutting layered board, the work has a sculptural quality, each section cut and raised to create depth; an aesthetic that has adult from the earlier paper cutting investigations.

Lucy'southward art project is i of many outstanding high school Fine art projects nosotros have featured on the Student Art Guide. Nosotros actively seek out and celebrate outstanding educatee Art projects from effectually the globe. If you enjoyed viewing this project, please share it using the social media buttons below!

Amiria has been an Fine art & Blueprint instructor and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course blueprint and assessment of student work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Available of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Design Coursework Assessor.

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Source: https://www.studentartguide.com/featured/paper-cut-portraiture-a-level-art