'Constructed City' 12: K

All images: 'Constructed City' Screen Prints (Work In Progress), Leicester Print Workshop, February 2020

The rash of redevelopment work currently transforming sectors of Leicester is progressing, almost faster than my own 'Constructed City' project that feeds on it.  Nevertheless, printing work continues whenever I can get into Leicester Print Workshop, and a steady momentum is being maintained, thankfully.

The black layers have now been added to the first of my CMYK 'fragments', and, whilst there are always a few technical duds amongst any run of prints (or, any of mine - at least), there are also enough good 'uns to go into the pot.  This includes several completely 'straight' versions of the image, along with various other deliberately miss-registered experiments, and others where one or another of the CMYK colours were omitted, or where white was added to the four inks.

While preparing for the next of these primarily photographic images, I've also returned to the more free-form and increasingly layered prints that have been in play for quite a while now.  I began by thinking of these as potential backgrounds, but as many are now so dense with imagery, I may need to revise that notion a bit.  As I've mentioned before, the ultimate aim is to reconfigure all this stuff through a process of collage - and until then, it's futile to pre-judge exactly how well one section or another might sit.

The real trick is to resist the urge to think of any single print as a definitive image in its own right.  That's increasingly difficult, as some of them appear to reach something resembling individual resolution, and the desire to have some finished 'product' nags away.  But the key to this way of working is to keep all possibilities open for as long as possible, and to be prepared to 'kill one's darlings' at any stage.

It's all a bit Tantric, in terms of delayed gratification, I suppose, but all I can do is relish the mounting sense of anticipation.  I'm still in the generating-content phase for now, but definitely looking forward to the point when the chopping-up and rejoining can commence.  It feels a little closer, and hopefully - that's when something even more significant will emerge.  If not - I guess I'll still have loads of photos of inky screens...
   

  

'Constructed City' 11: C

All Images: 'Constructed City' Screen Prints (Work In progress), Leicester Print Workshop,
February, 2020

...And the Cyan layer goes on to the first of my CMYK separated photographic 'Fragments'.  The aim is to print a small edition of these as straight as possible, with the occurring at a later collage stage.  Inevitably though, a few minor accidents, and a few deliberate experiments have crept in along the way too.  I'll see exactly what I've actually got, once the black goes on.  With valuable Half Term hours on the horizon - that should be achieved by the end of this month.

'Constructed City 10': Y/M

All Images: 'Constructed City' Screen Prints (Work In Progress), Leicester Print Workshop,
January 2020

Progress continues apace, and the yellow, and much of the magenta, have gone down on the first of my 'fragments'.  These colour-separated images will ultimately supply a wholly photographic element within my proposed 'Constructed City' composites, and I'm hoping there'll be quite a few.  One thing at a time though; for now I just need to concentrate on keeping that registration as tight as possible.

'Fragment' (Source Image), Photo-Manipulated Digital Image.

'Constructed City 9': Clocking Back On

All Images: 'Constructed City' Screen Prints (Work In Progress), Leicester Print Workshop,January 2020

Having filled-in the Festive print studio recess with a bit of cheeky painting action, I got back into Leicester Print Workshop, the other weekend, and picked-up from where I exited 2019, with the 'Constructed City' project.

I spent an hour or two laying down another grey layer on some of my still-active prints (which, like everything else, should ultimately form sections of something larger), but the main effort really went into preparing some new screens.  These will be used to print the first CMYK element of the project, and thus represent a significant step forward in a project that, for purely logistical reasons, is progressing incrementally.

In the long-run, there'll be a number of these photographic CMYK sections, and it occurs to me that their actual printing should become fairly rapid (being largely a matter of mechanically reproducing already resolved images).  Hopefully, that means the whole project will feel like it's accelerating into 2020.  We can but hope.

There's little else of significance to say just now - so I'll detain you no longer, and we can all just get on with our day.