Block Print
Title: Mask and Revelation
Size: 23 cm x 15.5 cm (9 in x 6 in) Medium: Linocut Completion: September 7th, 2017 Mask and Revelation expresses the contrasting emotions someone appears to have to the emotions they feel implicitly. The ‘shadow people’ on the men's shoulders symbolize their inner selves as for the trees, leaves and vines wrapping around and behind them symbolize their well-being. The inspired style was off Northern Renaissance artist Hans Baldung Grien and his way of showing sincere emotion through his figures.
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Critical Investigation Research
Baldung, Hans. "Lucretia." The Met, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2017, http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/416670.
Baldung, Hans. "Angels Served at a Table." The Met, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2017, http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/416970.
Baldung, Hans. "St. Jerome in the Desert." WikiArt, WikiArt, https://www.wikiart.org/en/hans-baldung/st-jerome-1511.
Baldung, Hans. "Angels Served at a Table." The Met, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2017, http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/416970.
Baldung, Hans. "St. Jerome in the Desert." WikiArt, WikiArt, https://www.wikiart.org/en/hans-baldung/st-jerome-1511.
Hans Baldung Grien was a northern renaissance style artist who was born in Germany and lived from 1484 / 1485-1545. He was born of a family of academics and intellectuals who all went to a university. Baldung did not go to a university however, but decided to become an artist instead. He moved from his home in Schwäbisch Gmünd Nuremburg to Italy in 1503 to become an apprentice of artist Albrecht Dürer.
Baldung first started to create woodblocks when his mentor Dürer left for Italy for 2 years and left Baldung in charge of his workshop. His woodblocks usually consisted of dark themes with religious figures; A lot of his works were commissions from churches. He also created illustrations for books using the block print method.
Baldung first started to create woodblocks when his mentor Dürer left for Italy for 2 years and left Baldung in charge of his workshop. His woodblocks usually consisted of dark themes with religious figures; A lot of his works were commissions from churches. He also created illustrations for books using the block print method.
Inspiration
From looking at Hans Baldung's woodcuts, I wanted to use a dark theme like one you'd see in his artwork:
Like in the woodcut,"St. Jerome", I wanted to include some sort of plant life in the background of my carving. However, the reason for including plants in my piece from Baldung's piece differs.
The reason I carved the trees was to symbolize the well being of the men sitting and kneeling on the ground; healthy leaves symbolizes thriving while shriveled, dead leaves symbolizes poor welfare. I thought this theme was appropriate because of the mood a block print gives off in general; There's no color or any value from shading, it's strictly black and white. I could've done better with the perspective of the piece by making the trees look like they're in the background to allow space between them and the people. But, at the same time, it would have been hard to tell what the symbolism of the trees if the trees looked father away from the people than they are; the trees would just be imagery then. The leaves on both of the trees look the same too; I could've done a better job carving the leaves on the right side to look more dead. Another element of Hans Baldung's art I used was his use of line design to create shapes, form and value. He uses repeated line patterns for a person's arms and body to create the form and to give a sense of where the light source is coming from.
I attempted to do this style in my own work, but my lines were not as thin and defined as Baldung's and I did not place my lines in connection to the light source and the texture of the skin very well. It was probably due to the tool I used; My carving knife was too big for small detail. |
Detail of St. Jerome in the Desert
Baldung, Hans. "St. Jerome in the Desert." WikiArt, WikiArt, https://www.wikiart.org/en/hans-baldung/st-jerome-1511. Detail of Mask and Revelation
National Gallery of Art. "Baldung Grien, Hans." NGA. National Gallery of Art, 2017. Web. September 7th, 2017.
Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. "Hans Baldung." Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc, 2017. Web. September 7, 2017. |
Planning
With the theme of internal emotion vs external perception in mind, I drew drafts of what my product might look like. This was before I went in depth with researching an inspiration; I still had the theme but not an inspired style.
After researching more about Hans Baldung Grien and his art style, I came up with my final draft. Instead of just having the faces of the people in my piece, I included their bodies along with the same symbolism for my theme. I thought of the trees symbolizing the men's well being; If the trees were dried up and dying, the man would be going through a rough situation and if the trees were thriving and healthy, the man would also be thriving and happy.
My final draft depicts one man cheerfully sitting on the ground, looking upwards and smiling while the person on his shoulder- symbolizing his inner self- is a constant reminder of how he really feels; sad from the way the face is drawn. On the other hand, the man on the left has a different mood; he may seem miserable and sad on the outside, but internally, he may feel relieved or joyful for expressing his emotions.
After researching more about Hans Baldung Grien and his art style, I came up with my final draft. Instead of just having the faces of the people in my piece, I included their bodies along with the same symbolism for my theme. I thought of the trees symbolizing the men's well being; If the trees were dried up and dying, the man would be going through a rough situation and if the trees were thriving and healthy, the man would also be thriving and happy.
My final draft depicts one man cheerfully sitting on the ground, looking upwards and smiling while the person on his shoulder- symbolizing his inner self- is a constant reminder of how he really feels; sad from the way the face is drawn. On the other hand, the man on the left has a different mood; he may seem miserable and sad on the outside, but internally, he may feel relieved or joyful for expressing his emotions.
This was my final draft as a finished drawing:
At first look, I noticed how I had a lot of small detail in my piece which would be difficult to carve in the linoleum block but I decided to proceed anyway. I also noticed the lack of negative space aside from positive space there was. This drove me to color in the faces of the people over the shoulders to give them more of a "shadowy" feel. The vines twisting around the men's bodies are overgrowth from the trees which emphasizes how their internal well being effects them. |
Process
Experimenting: To get my drawing onto the linoleum block, I first completely filled in the back of my final draft drawing in graphite. Then, I placed it on top of the linoleum block and retraced the lines of the drawing so they would rub onto the linoleum block in order for me to carve the same image. The only difference there would be in this method is the image was now being mirrored or flipped. Then, I began to carve.
Since I have never done a block print before, it was a learning experience for me. I did not know where to start.
Experimenting: I decided on carving the bigger areas first before starting on the detail. Surprisingly, it was more difficult then I thought it would be. My sketch began to rub off and I had to re-draw some spots several times. My carving tool would sometimes 'jump up' if I was digging to hard. Technique: In order to stay safe and not accidentally cut myself, I carved in the direction away from my body, which made things extremely difficult when carving around corners. I had to keep rotating the linoleum in order to carve any curves in my art piece. Inevitably, I cut my finger a couple of times. The easiest part for me was to carve along the branches of the tree since they were an upward movement and had a smooth textured outline so I didn't worry about carving over any design. |
However, when it came to the leaves and the faces, I had a difficult time. I would carefully carve, little by little, the inside of the leaf and around facial features to make the inside shape deep enough that by the time I rolled the ink on it would not fill up. Now that I think back on it, I could've left the leaves black. I carved over a lot of detail and leaves while I was carving also because I feared I did not have enough time to finish it.
After carving out the big positive spaces, I began the bodies of the two people. I tried to keep in mind the use of line to create the form of the body just like Hans Baldung did in his woodblocks. This was difficult to do since the tool I used was too big for such little cuts of detail. I was afraid of accidentally cutting too long and going over the lines or cutting it too shallow where ink would fill it up. Finally, I finished my carving.
Onto Printing: (I worked on a sheet of newsprint for this whole process). First, I used a blending knife to scoop out ink from an ink jar and onto a flat, metal pan. From there, I rolled the ink back and forth using the ink roller until it was smooth. After that was done, I began to roll the ink onto my linoleum carving which was vertical to me so it would be easier to roll ink on.
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I went from bottom to top then right to left when I noticed some spots were not getting inked. When the ink seemed to be fading, I would add more to the pan and begin rolling again. After the Linoleum was fully inked, I carefully placed a sheet of thick, print paper on top of it and using a bamboo baren, pressed hard on the paper to transfer the carving image.
The actual print! After pressing down to get the full design, I took two ends of the vertical paper (the two ends opposite from me) and peeled it off very slowly.
Experimenting: It came out not as I expected. The print wasn't as detailed as the drawing of course and I realized I didn't carve some spots out very well (especially their faces). As you can see in the picture, in order to go back and re carve the image, I had to wash away the ink from the linoleum block. I re-carved the faces by removing excess outlines, making sure the mouth, eyes and noses of each face was distinguishable and repeated the inking process again to create 5 more prints. Since the first print I did leaked ink into some of my shallower cuts in the linoleum, I experimented with the following prints by rolling less ink on the block before pressing. I was satisfied with my 6th print which was fully inked and the edges and lines were sharp and refined.
Experimenting: It came out not as I expected. The print wasn't as detailed as the drawing of course and I realized I didn't carve some spots out very well (especially their faces). As you can see in the picture, in order to go back and re carve the image, I had to wash away the ink from the linoleum block. I re-carved the faces by removing excess outlines, making sure the mouth, eyes and noses of each face was distinguishable and repeated the inking process again to create 5 more prints. Since the first print I did leaked ink into some of my shallower cuts in the linoleum, I experimented with the following prints by rolling less ink on the block before pressing. I was satisfied with my 6th print which was fully inked and the edges and lines were sharp and refined.
Reflection
Overall, as I look over my process more and more, I would say my block print was a success. It was hard to create the same textured figures like the ones in Baldung's woodcuts because of the lack of small tools and skill in carving, but I think I showed a good representation of it. It probably would have been easier for me, sometimes I have an inspiration for art, other times I don't. Hans Baldung was a great inspiration for a project like the block print; he made block prints himself (out of wood) and the theme I incorporated into my piece was inspired by his artworks.
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From the beginning of the piece up until the end, lots of changes took place.
- For one, I carved over leaves and vines eliminating detail and another change was the image flipped from what it originally looked like. I was planning on the having the externally happy person on the right because naturally, that is how my eyes look at a paper and it's more relieving to see how one is internally sad (on the left) to become better on the inside (on the right). But the print came out vise-versa. I don't think my piece is a very good representation of my theme.
- It's very difficult to spot out the symbolism within my piece because of the medium I chose to do this theme for. The leaves surrounding the man on the left look very confusing and the dead vines crossing the man on the right's chest barely look like vines at all.
- It's also hard to figure out the emotions of the people's faces in black because of the poor carving of their faces.
- Furthermore, my background is very plain and my piece has mostly positive space.
ACT Questions:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Through my inspiration, I was able to identify how in order to create a certain texture, I must use a certain tool. (In order to make a line design to depict form, depth and value in the trees and figures, I need a smaller tool).
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors of my research gave an overview or biography of my inspiration, Hans Baldung's, life but not necessarily an insight of how he created his artworks.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I concluded how artists took an important role in the 16th century of western Europe. They completed commissions issued by the church and other important figures and also created illustrations and murals.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme was something sad or fearful; something dark.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
From researching Hans Baldung, I inferred from his subjects how important artists are in society.
Through my inspiration, I was able to identify how in order to create a certain texture, I must use a certain tool. (In order to make a line design to depict form, depth and value in the trees and figures, I need a smaller tool).
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors of my research gave an overview or biography of my inspiration, Hans Baldung's, life but not necessarily an insight of how he created his artworks.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I concluded how artists took an important role in the 16th century of western Europe. They completed commissions issued by the church and other important figures and also created illustrations and murals.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme was something sad or fearful; something dark.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
From researching Hans Baldung, I inferred from his subjects how important artists are in society.
Good Luck future IB Art students!