Tuesday 29th March 2011:

Today, I was able to produce my screen-prints. I prepared many surfaces to print onto, such as: lined paper, brown paper, paper towel, material, etc. I used black, white and red as the ink colours and for some of the prints I combined the red and black which I think works really well. I made about 21 prints just as experiments. I feel that these worked well, but perhaps after evaluating them, I could focus on the effects which worked best and develop these further. For example, I think that the best ones were on material, and that the ones where I combined the red ink with the black work really well. I really like the white print on the black and gold material – it stands out well and is unique, however, perhaps a darker ink colour on a lighter background would show the importance of the words better. I also like the black ink on the red background with the masking tape. It looks attractive and bold and represents the distressed emotion which I am trying to convey. It could also represent 'plasters' covering up scars and perhaps I could've actually printed onto plasters to show this.I like the white ink on the bright backgrounds, such as on the royal blue, however, many of the prints ‘leaked’ and so don’t work as well as hoped. On the other hand, this could be part of the effect, perhaps representing a ‘scar’ or that a mistake has been made by bullying (hidden meaning), etc.

I also worked into photocopies of my drawing ‘Burning Giraffe’. I had words and emotions coming out of the draws and although I like the idea behind this, I feel that this could’ve been communicated visually in a better way. Perhaps I could try to recreate this digitally and make it look more realistic. I also worked into a photocopy using the colours red and blue to keep it simple but to add some hints of colour. I think this looks quite effective and I could explore using minimal colours further.

I also looked at another piece by Dalí, ‘The Anthropomorphic Cabinet’, and drew this on a ripped brown piece of paper, to represent the emotion within the image. I will then photocopy this drawing and work into it. Perhaps I could write on the arm, ‘Stop Bullying Me’, etc. I think would create quite a powerful image and will show the vulnerability of the victim.

I then thought of some questions which I could ask the Head teacher and the pupils at William Ransom Primary School tomorrow. Most of what I thought of was in my questionnaire, but I adapted these to suit the age group which I would be speaking to.

Target for today: Create various surfaces to screen-print on to. Work into own ‘Burning Giraffe’ images and prepare questions, etc, for tomorrow (for Head teacher at primary school).

Target for tomorrow: Visit and talk to head teacher and pupils at William Ransom Primary School and ask them about bullying experiences and opinions, etc.