So I think I'm about done with my next stone. I've left it over the weekend so I can look at it with fresh eyes to be certain. The background is worrying me a bit beacuse it looks a bit bare and monotone. I might go in and add some more detail to it, just so the main figures don't look like they're floating around in a void.
One thing that has been on my mind lately in regards to the images I'm making is the fact that I'm basing the majority of my work off photographs. I don't think that is an issue in and of itself because they help me to make it look as realistic as possible. It's just nagging me that the compositions of the photos are not my choice since they were taken by someone else. Maybe I could use the characters from some of the photos instead of the whole scene. My only problem with that would be that I don't think I could get it to look as natural as my other pieces.
I recently bought an old photo album of ebay from the 1920/30's. I have no idea who any of the people are, despite the fact that I've spent hours on the internet trying to figure it out. It's great to have a stockpile of images to use how I desire, without the fear that I'm twisting someone else's photos. Some of the images are really interesting and I have spent some time on photoshop having a play around with ideas for a few of them. It will be exciting to see how they turn out as prints.
Over the weekend, I've had a chance to look through a catalogue for the exhibition 'The American Scene: Prints from Hopper to Pollock 1905-1960'. There are some really interesting artists in there. I especially liked George Bellows and Martin Lewis. Bellows does stone lithography and I'd really like to emulate the way he has drawn up his prints. I especially admire 'A Stag at Sharkey's'. The catalogue says that the main boxers were drawn using lithographic crayon but not much is said about the rest of the piece. When I draw my figures, I usually use a combination of tusche and lithographic crayon but it might be interesting to see if its manageable with just the crayon. My next stone is pretty big so it would be the perfect opportunity to test it out.
Lewis' prints, which are drypoints intrigue me aswell. I especially love the night time ones because of their use of shadow and light. The shadows create this atmosphere of quiet. They remind me a lot of what I was doing in first year painting. My images are all very staged and eerie, rather like Grant Wood's. I'm not sure whether that adds to the unsettling nature to them or not. I might try to do something a bit more candid and see what happens.