SOME OF MY EXPERIMENTS

In order to produce high quality images I bought thick acetate, which is stronger [which would last longer then thinner materials], this also meant that I could etch into my acetate without easily piercing through. I had to make sure throughout this experiment that my paper was damp enough to show the detailed image, but not too wet that the image would blur [like my first experiment shown in one of the images below]. However I feel you learn this throughout experimenting. I found throughout my experiments that you don't know what the final outcome is going to be, which can be in some ways rewarding.

EXPERIMENTING WITH DIFFERENT COLOURED PAPER
AND LAYERING 

This first photograph I have taken shows myself experimenting with different coloured and textured paper. the paper was from an old oil pastel book I had bought when little, the paper was like a thin watercolour texture. I found this paper worked really well with the detail of my bird and it shined throughout the textures. the image came up quite clear on both these pieces of paper, however I do really like the paper showing the layered birds, I found this effect to be very effective and interesting, however the colour of the paper created a large space surrounding the detailed etching image, which is one of the reasons why I prefer the brown/darker paper. I really like how my image seems to show a 3D effect, [even though its 2D]. the wing closest to the viewer looks as if its coming out from the page, which I really like and feel adds interest. 

CLOSE UP PHOTOGRAPH OF LAYERING EFFECT

MY FIRST EXPERIMENT 

This was my first experiment. I feel I had left the paper in the water for too long without taking time to dry the paper so that it was very damp when I came to printing on this piece. this is why it has smudged along the wings, as its ink combined with water, as this was my first experiment it was good to create an understanding of how damp or dry the paper needed to be. I do quite like the effect this has created, it creates a motion [as if the bird was moving and flying through the air].however it also created a dirty look along the tale and beak and I wanted the image to be more pristine clean. I found throughout producing more experiments I learnt how damp the paper needed to be in order to create a clean, tidy image.   

COLOURED INK EXPERIMENTS 

As well as black ink I decided to produce experiments into using coloured ink. I used colours that the hummingbird itself shows throughout the feathers on the body. I really like this vibrant eye catching blue and red shade, opposite colours create a very appealing attractive aspect, I also quite like how this image shows the birds on top of each other transforming into a lighter colour, for example my first bird was produced in jet black ink, I then mixed a white into the blue to create a lighter more appealing shade, which then finally led me to the bright but faded red. I also like how I have positioned the birds in this experiment, they have been printed in a straight line, almost perfect which I feel suits the feminine subtle line detail.Even though I quite like these colours when combined I felt black ink looked more professional and attractive, I felt the colours could become quite tacky and less appealing to the viewer.As well as this experiment I had also produced a more experiments into colour which persuaded me even more so to produce my final piece in black ink [I also felt that the black ink stood out more, was more eye catching and didn't fade when printed]. 

EXPERIMENTS INTO LAYERING BIRD 

I was inspired by the previous experiment to produce the hummingbird image layered on top of each other. I really liked how the first three went-however the acetate must have moved slightly with the last print of the bird as it isn't in line with the other images but overlapping over the tale of the bird. these were experiments so it was interesting to see what the outcome would be but I will need to take this into consideration when I come towards producing my final piece if I want a tidy image. I do quite like how this looks however, it adds interest and increases the detail shown. from my previous experiment into colour I decided to limit my palette and just use black ink, which I feel looks really effective and gives of a professional feel. looking at this image you can also see the smudges around the bird which were not purposely done, this was caused by ink left from other images [or other students work] that was left on the roller equipment. unfortunately this has come of on my work but enabled me to realise that I need to make sure that I press clean newspaper print onto my image to protect it from this fault.  

MY ORIGINAL ACETATE ETCHING

This image shows my original acetate etching, I found this process very easy to produce, however I had to ensure that I didn't etch too hard or too soft. etching too hard would have caused the ink to seep through the holes which would have got onto my print, if this were to happen I could carefully place masking tape onto the back of the acetate where the hole was. I bought thick acetate to try and avoid this problem and as I was careful and kept checking the depth I needed to etch by looking and feeling the back this didn't occur. If I were to etch too softly it wouldn't have been deep enough for the ink to travel throughout the gaps and I would of had a faded image, luckily my etching was perfect first time, enough ink came through so that I had a detailed fine image. if this problem did occur I would simply etch into it more. this took me appropriately 10 minutes to produce, so it was a really quick and easy to create, I just simply based my original drawing underneath the transparent acetate and etched onto the top of the material. 

ORIGINAL DRAWING OF HUMMINGBIRD