Visual exploration 2, Colour story, Week 9-16 (18/03/2024 - 06/05/2024)

Over the the weeks of development into the project colour story, my initial ideas for the concept and processes were put into action. In this project, I wanted to explore the colour of venetian red and its connections within Greek mythology, it's ancient empire's environments and its employment within pottery in the late 9th century BCE. I wanted to create a scroll using dyed fabric as the canvas depicting the Greek god Ares in battle as a link to represent the ancient colour of venetian red.

Initial sketches

In the first stages of the projects conception, I began to develop my idea for the scrolls initial design and how I'd integrate aspects from my research into the illustrations. For instance, I took inspiration from a variety of different examples of black figure pottery specifically from the late 6th century BCE. 

From these research examples, I collated key elements I wanted to implement into the design of my illustrations. For example, these included design visuals such as bold linework, decorative, geometric, experimentation with proportion and a limited but strong colour pallet. 

Initial ideas of scroll battle scene, characters and repeat pattern decoration

Thumbnail exploring conception of scroll's scene

Sketches with ink and red coloured pencil; trying to capture the bold style of ancient Greek pottery

Moreover, after my initial finalisation of the illustrations I decided to further improve upon the designs as I wanted to take full advantage of the larger screen size I was aiming to employ for the print. This included integrating more decorative designs such as the skin decorations to frame the proportions, dotted patterns to emulate the decoration of the armor and increasing the linework within areas such as the helmet crests and warrior skirt pleats. I think this was a successful decision as it enhanced the linework, depth and character of the individual illustrations and they're interaction within the battle scene's context.

Final individual illustrations; Page 1

Final individual illustrations; Page 2

Final individual illustrations; Page 3

Photoshop composition

Once I'd defined my individual illustrations for the scroll, I transferred these compositions into digital copies by photocopying and began utilising photoshop software. Firstly, I began by creating the outlines of the scrolls design to frame the battle scenes composition and then implementing the individual illustrations. From here, I was able to experiment with the placement of the illustrations (as shown below) and how they'd interact with each other in the scene. Moreover, I explored layering illustrations such as the shield soldiers to create depth and grouping illustrations with differing heights such as the horseman, soldiers and dog to develop waves within the battle scene.

Initial experimentation with placement of illustrations and beginning to invert linework

After this exploration of composition, I began inverting the individual illustrations so that when printed the linework emulated the red/black figure pottery I'd researched. This process involved inverting the individual illustration then using the magic wand tool to crop beyond the linework. Then copies of these inverted illustrations could be added to the scrolls primary structure to be placed and layered within the scene. 

Acetate

After the final version of the photoshop version of the scrolls design was complete, I printed this design onto an acetate sheet to use for screen printing. To ensure the design printed correctly, I matched the measurements of the height and width of the document/print and correlated the resolution to avoid the linework becoming pixelated.

Finalised acetate design

Creating the screen

To develop the screen for printing, the acetate is exposed to UV light with the screen to indent the design onto the screen. 

One issue that I noticed when developing the screen was that some of the linework, specifically on to scroll's borders, was blotchy and didn't have strong lines. Therefore, to combat this issue using a black marker pen that would work with a acetate's material I went over the linework to eliminate the patchy block colour lines. 

Acetate design on the screen (with the linework corrections applied)

 

Some of the gaps in the illustrations on the screen such as between the arm and spear of the running soldiers hadn't been properly removed during the invert process. Therefore, I used masking tape to block of these areas during the printing process.

Dying fabric

As I wanted to use fabric as my canvas for the scrolls, I initially examined different types of fabrics and dyes which I could employ. I used a chemical dye which was mixed with salts to enhance the hue of the chosen dye (I ended up using a combination of red and brown dyes).

Dye swatches; trying to get the darker shade of red (red + brown dye)

Dyeing fabric; stirring the fabric for 15 minutes to initially aggravate the dye into the fabric

Dyed fabric after air-drying overnight

Beginning printing tests

During the printing stage of the project, I wanted to experiment with different variations of the scrolls composition to explore how I could visually develop the scroll's design. This included printing onto both paper (strong card) and the fabric I'd previously dyed.

Blocked out border print (top) and off center underlay black and white print (bottom)

Paper layering of negative mountain outline; some of the linework on the print (top and bottom left hand corners) didn't come out very well as the paper I used was a different texture to the smooth red card. 

Acrylic paint layer of negative mountain outline

Fabric test prints; I tried a shade of brown fabric paint for the top print but when I printed it on the fabric it was lighter than I realised. The bottom print had a acrylic paint mountain negative which didn't work as well as I'd hoped as the textured surface of the paint meant the print didn't come out clean

Creating scroll; dowels

When I completed my final printed outcome of the scroll, I then began attaching the dowels to create the folded format of the scroll. I chose thicker light wood as the dowels as it was light enough to prevent damaged from pulling the fabric but strong enough to prevent creasing in the fabric. I painted these dowels with black acrylic paint to compliment the black linework of the scrolls printed design. Then to secure the fabric and dowels together I used wood glue as a strong adhesive and applied pressure and gave it 24 hours to ensure the glue had completely dried. 

Final presentation

In conclusion, this is the final outcome of the project colour story and my focus into the colour venetian red. I enjoyed researching the variety of processes which were used to create this ancient practical artform and exploring different mediums and processes to develop the visualisation of my concept. While there were many problems I had to solve such as developing the acetate in photoshop and the many variables in screen printing, I've improved my digital and traditional knowledge of these skills and processes significantly. 

Scroll rolled up; I used a strip of the dyed fabric to tie the ends of the scroll together

Repeat pattern decoration (blocked off on the screen) on the back of the scroll for framing

The fabric scroll rolled out with the black acrylic screen printed design