Self Publishing - The Stencil - With Nick Deakin
The first process and production lesson after the Christmas holidays was with Nick and we continued working on the 'self publishing' topic. This time our task was to create printed posters inspired by 1960's French propaganda posters created due to civil unrest. First of all Nick had a box full of different words and whatever we picked we had to create a stencil based on this word. I got the word 'solider'. I sketched some ideas based on soldiers and the army, but decided to go with my first sketch and the first idea that popped into my head which was a sketch of a little solider in a running position with a gun strapped to his back. I liked this sketch as it was straight to the point but reminded me of printed propaganda style work that I had seen before.
Next, I drew out the solider again but much larger and on thicker A3 paper. I then had to figure out how the stencil would work and where would be cut for the paint to show. I found the cutting part quite tense because there were some fiddly small elements that added detail to the design and I was really scared I was going to cut parts out by accident and do it wrong! Luckily it went okay.
Once it was cut out I was then able to apply the paint! There was a colour choice of blue, red and yellow. I decided to make him red to connote blood and war. Placing the stencil over the top of another piece of paper I used the red paint and a roller brush to roll the paint onto the design. I had to do this carefully to make sure I did not mess up any parts where there was thin paper detail for example on the right arm. In the end I was happy with how my little army man looked and the paint rolling was a success.
Whilst that was drying I moved on to the second part. Nick had provided some lyrics from the song 'Bye Bye Badman' by The Stone Roses which again we pulled out randomly from a box. My phrase said 'submission ends it all'. I thought that worked with the army imagery because it could suggest that submitting to war, the army and the government will end up badly, ending 'it all'/ the peace. Therefore the poster would be like an anti war poster. On a new sheet of paper I sketched the words out in an army style typeface that was in capitals with blocky and sharp edges. I put submission and it all at the top and bottom where there was white space and ends in the middle so that it would overlap with the solider.
The first artwork was dry so then I applied the text over the top. I chose blue because it would have stood out more that the yellow and red would have been too much of the same colour. Below is my finished piece! I am happy with it and think it looks good and that the position of my type works. It also kind of looks like the solider is stood on the T!
Below is my final piece along with the type stencil which looks quite cool too due to the blue paint surrounding the cut out letters.
Everyones work was on the tables drying and it was nice to see what everyone else produced. I like the bold primary colours and think they all work together. I enjoyed this session, especially the element of using paint because it is not something we had used before as the other sessions consisted of just cutting. The cutting and painting did have me nervous that it would go wrong or smudge but luckily it did not and I like my final outcome!
