when times are hard, we resort to improvisation

got tempted into mixing colours before clocking in. got out all the emulsion( picked from the dumpster ) and mixed in water for those that were almost dried up to salvage them. they had really natural colours, ones that fit my palette.

got stuck at school library's photocopying room. ezlink card
in bad bad shape, got stuck in the slot. took us about 15 mins
to retrieve it- with lots of force and the help of a pen knife.

the purpose of photocopying the image was for an enlargement,
so that i could oil it to make the paper translucent for exposing
on the screen. the previous kitty was too small to my liking.
to photocopy it on tracing paper again would cost another $4 or
so. When times are hard, we resort to improvisation.

with emulsion almost depleting, i coated only one side of the screen,
then placed the oiled cut out on it.

into the exposing unit for development

pixels reduced by editing stencil with markers and
oil pastel before oiling.

sadly, the new cat screen had to be reclined. one coat of emulsion
was insufficient to last more than one printing. re-coated another mesh
and exposed it. created another screen too for the pebbles that
will go under the kampung house. below's the steps:

step 1: prep image.


i used to create miniatures in pen before enlarging them with
the photocopier and then re printing it on transparency for
screen printing.
however, if you are poor like i am now, and time is a
constraint, draw. (time is a constraint because i can't possibly
keep drawing 3m long of pebbles. . . have to act fast
and screen printing them like wallpaper would be quicker!)

so i picked up a found oil pastel(would cost about 30c at art friend)
and took a piece of newsprint(we're entitled to the use of
newsprint for $0) and drew amass of pebbles of odd sizes.

step 2: oil the image

i flipped the image over and oiled it on the underside.
you see, rubbing the oil with a piece of rag over the
drawing would cause smudge marks.

then i used newspaper to remove any excess oil and left
it in the open to dry.


the idea's to make the paper translucent so that
the white areas which are opaque before oiling will
not block out the uv rays that fix the image onto the
coated screen


step 3: Expose image

this time i exposed the image for about 35s. then
stopped the reaction by washing the screen immediately.

step 4: prep the paper for printing

while waiting for the screen to dry, i prepped the paper for
printing by painting gestural strokes of emulsion of grey, b
rown and white to create texture.

then i tore every right edge of the prepped paper before joining
so that the obvious straight edge wouldn't show on the organic image.
(i joined 3 newsprints in total for the length)

step 5: Printing

on the length of newsprint, it fits 5 prints of the screen

i printed on 2 lengths, which means 10 prints in total.

Step 6: fill in the blanks

i did not draw the image so that it can be repeated. Hence,
i depend on the trustee found crayon to fill in the gaps.
since i used it to create the original image, the prints contained similar
textures which enables the addition to blend in nicely.

step 7: joining the lengths of paper

with spray mount again(my favourite adhesive!) i joined the two
lengths of newsprint, prepared and printed, together!

step 8: cut to shape

i snipped off the excess and walah! its done... until the set up next week.
would need to edit it again after the plates've been installed. 0 : )

do not be mistaken. this is not the new cat,
its the old one from the prev week, a much
smaller kitty. just wanted to do some testing
with the emulsion i got.

placed her on the light box with a news print over
so that i could paint in the colours as a prepped
background for the screen printing.

screen print with emulsion paints and manipulated with black marker.
50 x 30 cm

heading back now.

to everyone who's down for the NAC interview tomorrow, BEST OF LUCK!!!