Here’s a little look into the “planning” stages of a print:

Draw downs on top of a test print. Choosing colors, mixing colors, trying to find the right ones. Sometimes it’s very obvious what I want in a print…other times, not so much. Sometimes I really need to push myself away from colors that I use too frequently (read, TEAL) other times, I don’t. Can’t explain it, don’t know if I fully understand it, I just let my intuition work its magic.

One of many type collage films that I’ve printed out for this group of prints. I can’t say that I’m excited to make these collages on the computer (would be much more entertaining to do with actual letter cut-outs), but I don’t hate it either. Something to do while watching a movie or TV. After I’ve burned all these images to screens, I think I might cut them all up and make ridiculously abstracted new collage films. Avoiding the computer, maybe, but I sure do love cutting and taping.

I don’t do much planning apart from that. After I have a good stack of films made, I’ll usually sit down and play with composition. There might be a couple films that I’ll pair up because they fit together in just that way. Or I’ll lay films on top of works in progress, trying to find the right shapes to add to what I’ve already printed. I’m trying to approach these more like paintings, where I step back and evaluate the piece many times in the process. If it needs a certain shape or color, I can create a new film or pull from what I already have to address that need.

Something that has been helpful this time around are the screens that I’ve burned for the monoprints of random shapes. Plenty of little geometrics, swooshes and the like of all sizes, for little bits of color. Instead of using films for these shapes, I just cut them out of scrap pieces of paper. Good way to use those old prints that I never really liked!

This is where the prints are after today:

Added the teal (see, can’t stay away) type today, making this print a total of six layers so far. After much thinking, I concluded that it needs more fill layers to knock back the text (too strong right now), and since I don’t have any big shapes lying around, it’s on the back burner.

Seven colors & counting. I really got into this one today, after weeks of not knowing what to do with it. I’m afraid I let my impulses get the best of me though, because that top right corner looks like a carnival exploded all over it. A classic case of getting carried away with bright colors. What can I say, I can’t help it. Definitely needs some muted colors. I would also like to mention that I triple hit the yellow ‘f’ because I put too much base I into the yellow. Not a total loss though, that ‘f’ is now velvety smooth, yay. …Apparently, I was so excited by the color orgy that I neglected to take a picture of the whole thing. So just pretend the picture below has an orange rectangle in the top right and you’ll get the idea.

Five layers so far. Eh. I really enjoyed this print after I printed the white text layer and even after I printed the purple text layer, but I’m just not feeling it right now (and no, it is not because of the muted colors). This one might also need some large fill shapes, might be too busy with all of the letterform pieces floating about.

Going to start print four tomorrow. Fingers crossed for the best results!