LINO PRINTING

Another technique that I wanted to use was lino and wood cuts on fabric.

First of I like the folk-art look that lino prints give, especially onto fabric. To reflect the research and inspiration from the photographs by Charles Freger, I want my costume to have that folk art and hand made feel, and I think that lino/wood cuts will emphasis that.

Here are some examples of lino print on fabric by Jen Hewett:

[a]

[b]

I also want to use lino to contrast against the washy and moody prints that the gum arabic creates. The lino will hopefully be crisper, and I can create bold images inspired by illustrations. This will also be an interesting experiment as I have been painting and using a lot of textures in my illustrations recently, and lino I have to cut right back to just black/white and bold shapes.

I started cutting a print based on this illustration of a forest woman, who I would like to develop into the narrative I am making to go with the bear.

To highlight the folk art aspect of my project I focused on bold shapes, especially the stylised design of the flowers and plants that is so prevalent in folk art. 

I then wanted to combine the character of the girl and the dancing bear together, to show the impact that the bear has had on the girl and the guilt she feels for it being killed. I added a ruff and chain to show that she carries thoughts of the bear with her wherever she goes. 

Looking at the gum arabic prints I realised that for a story about a dancing bear there were no dancing bear images on the costume! So I cut a couple of bears with ruffs and chains to appear on the costume, and I'm glad these images are in the bold lino print as it makes them more eye catching than if they were printed in gum arabic with the others.

Then to combine the idea of costume, confusion and blurring the line between humans dressed as animals and animals dressed as humans I cut an image of the bear as the girl: