Henna Kinda Inspiration

Once we had our induction in the print room, looking at all the various techniques involved, I decided to do an experiment with etching. This interested me as I had previously done screen printing as part of my A Level assessment and was curious to try a new technique.

Above is my first etching plate. Experienced etchers (?) will be able to notice my first mistake with this plate. Yep, the writing is the right way round when it should be back to front! But thats what experiments are for. The design I did on this plate was inspired by henna designs and floral pattrns used in mehendi patterns. This was useful as I do these designs in my spare time and enjoy practising patterns on my friends and family. Above are some examples of henna art.

Funnily enough, drawing inspiration from henna wasn't my first intention- on my example plate I was merely providing a fitting border for the 'Rub it in' font I hand wrote in the middle. However, the way I drew these designs signifies to me how deeply embedded henna is in my system- like I subconsciously revert to what i know best. Spoooky!?

Research

In order to support my idea, I thoroughly research all areas Amanda and I had discussed. She had said that my prints reminded her of silent film credits, with decorative borders and elaborate text. She also said the it looked slightly like the illustrations of an old fashioned fairytale book.
With this in mind, I began looking at children’s literature illustration. I came across a fairly respectable illustrator called Arthur Rackman, whose work is quite linear and has the effect of an etching print.

Development

These are the processes i went to to produce the final plates.

I researched fonts on the website www.dafont.com- Brilliant for text based projects!

I found tracing paper to be useful tool when doing an etching plate, as it allowed me to reverse images without any hassle and removed any chances of mistakes ocurring.

Completed Prints

Here are my four completed prints, using etching.

2nd Livity Meeting

After meeting with Sam and his team at Livity HQ, I was really encouraged to take my project further. Once he and his team had looked at my work, they were really pleased with the outcome. Sam said that my designs reminded him of Mehndi (score!) adn suggested that I started thinking about placement. My response was that it would suit a publication (eg magazine) as the statements followed in a sequence. However, Sam thought it'd look better if I actually went out in festivals and offered to do henna designs on people that had the 'rub it in' slogan hidden among the design. this was when i decided to research henna design further.