FREE DUMPY

Welcome back to my blog for yet another session of TMI. Today I join you with a propaganda poster I made for one of my classes. This poster features my best-known cartoon character, Dumpy Dolores. Let's see what elements are contributing to this piece, shall we?

A little background: last year in 2009 I was found out by the police after running a graffiti campaign of hand made sticker art. Although there were several characters that popped in and out of the rotation, Dumpy Dolores was by far the bread and butter of the campaign. So, a workweek's worth of court dates and $2,200+ later, Dumpy Dolores has fallen by the way side, especially in sticker form where she is most beloved by her fans.

So, for this assignment we had to make a propaganda poster. This is a cinch for me personally because I am a fan of poster art and fascinated by the concept of subversive text. The inspiration came from my own experiences with the law and my astonishment for being punished so harshly for something that really isn't malicious. In the spirit of political prisoners and favored celebrities under harsh treatment by foreign governments or their own governments, I created this poster.

Symbolically we were supposed to employ subject matter and use colors that contributed to the overall experience of the piece. For this I chose to use red to suggest anger and outrage, blue to suggest purity and truth, black to suggest desolation and gray to hint at sadness and sympathy. The subject matter shows Dumpy Dolores behind prison bars (which I am lucky to have not been put behind) within a brickwall with keyholes, suggesting some sort of imprisonment. The text on the arch says "VIGILANCE UBIQUITOUS" which is supposed to be a haunting slogan that reminds people to watch over her. I happen to love those words a lot.

The poster is on bristol board with magic marker, paint marker and water color.

One thing I always think about are the 42 stickers the Montclair police confiscated... presumably they are rotting away in some evidence locker or perhaps they were destroyed... Either way, Dumpy Dolores is making an agonizing crawl back to the sticker scene... eventually.

Thanks for reading!

"Bitumen"

Hello and thanks for reading another entry!

Today I am going to talk about my latest project. It is a photopolymer etching. I can hear you say "Gee Mike, what is a photopolymer etching?" and I will try to explain in the best of layman's terms. Here we go!

Let's look for a moment at the word "photopolymer." We can see the first part,'photo'would most likely mean 'light' and 'polymer' would most likely refer to some kind of plastic. In this instance, photopolymer is a light sensitive plastic that is exposed to light to entrench the plate with your artwork, much in the way photographs and film "burn" images into light sensitive films. If you've read previous blogs, etching is a form of itaglio printing, which means the entrenched areas of the plate hold the ink and form the gestures of your composition.

Before you worry about the plate, however, you must first make a composition on frosted mylar with permanent medium that will be the image "burned" into the plate. The permanent medium can be wet or dry, opaque or transparent, but just so long as it is permanent.

From a technical standpoint, this is my third photo polymer etching and this one was made with different media than my first two. But, in this instance we are looking at an image created with a black Stibilo Aquarelle (watercolor) pencil. This was my first time using this approach in photopolymer, like I said, but also my first time using the Stibilo. It was much like working with an inkwash medium but with the ability to employ the semi-soft lines of a pencil. In my last two works in this media I used DecoColor paintmarkers for the most part but follow back into the plate with India Ink ink washes to add areas of gradation to the composition. The interesting thing about Stibilo in creating a compsition on mylar is that it cuts out the middle man of the ink bottle for the washy effects one can come to appreciate in the process of photopolymer etching! It is definitely a good idea to consider transparent washes because they add interesting charm to your plate.

Phew! I feel very detailed and longwinded when doing some of this explaining but I am trying to break it down as simply as I can.

Let's talk about the image:

Sometimes, much like in the way a song can stick in one's head, if I learn a new vocabulary word it just reprises in my mind over the course of days. Recently I learned the word "Bituminous" which refers to tar or petroleum in the earth. Somehow the word captivated me and I found myself thinking about elemental forces of earth and water, but more so, solid and liquid. I am truly fascinated by the concept of earth acting as a container for water. I also thought of a pre-historic aspect of tar and shale where fossils and bituminous matter take place.

On the image you can hopefully see some areas where there is wet brush among other various techniques achieved with the wet and dry capabilities of the stibilo pencil.

Thanks for reading!

"Stacy"

Hello there! Today I'd like to show you a project I have been working on for a couple of months at this point. This process is what is known as "Dry-point Etching" which is a non toxic, straight-forward method for making plates in printmaking. Essentially what you see is what you get with the dry point process so it is almost instant gratification in terms of carving and inking your plate.

The dry point process can either be done on a piece of plexiglass or polystyrene. Essentially you are using a flat piece of plastic to make a plate. The process is as simple as using your etching needles directly on the plate and carving out what will become the distinctive lines of your composition. No ferric chloride involved! Since the etching process is in the itaglio (recessed) family of printmaking, that means the parts you carve away will take the ink and create the lines. (As opposed to relief printing where the removed carvings create negative space such as a lino cut or a woodblock)

I originally started and printed this project at the beginning of the semester (early February) and turned it in for a better grade after re-working the plate to add some more details and character to the aerial perspective. This piece features my emaciated, miserable, broken-hearted ghost character, Stacy, who somehow died of a broken heart and comes back to haunt the culprits of the crimes of love. I haven't really developed her story, as is with most of my 'toons, but she is fun to draw and her subject matter is another facet in a wacky world of inconsequential cartoons that inhabit the pages of my sketchbooks. Here we have Stacy standing on a grave in the middle of a bleak graveyard.

The process itself was not that time consuming and I especially liked it because I was able to work on my plate while I was on the train or in the car. You could conceivably carve your plate anywhere you can take your etching needles, which is cool because during the course of labor on this plate, I was working on it on my way to the printmaking studio and printed it right when I go there. How convenient! Convenience is definitely a key word with the dry point etching because you can re-work the plate as many times as you wish, it is as simple as cleaning the ink off and adding the details where you see fit, anytime, anywhere.

This is actually my very first dry point etching, which was why I was timid at first to really carve the plate, but seeing the results of the 2nd edition of prints after re-working the plate, you can reach a high level of potential with this process.

Once again I apologize for the crumby webcam photo of Stacy, as with Savannah, but i think you will see the details well enough. This is just a proof, but there is now an 5 prints in this edition. Let me know if you're interested in somehow acquiring one from me. Thanks for reading!

-Mike