OUIL505 - Study Task

Kazuno Kohan

In a search for book covers made using traditional print methods I came across Kohan's work. She is most renowned for her childrens book illustration, her highly rated book: 'The Haunted House' being made front to cover using Lino cut.

This is a story telling printmaker, and alike Kohan's work (if I do look at some local history stuff) my work will need to tell a story. Being a childrens book 'The Haunted House' uses simple text to tell the story alongside Kohan's bold Lino cuts.

I admire Kohan's bold and clear explanatory cuts being highly appropriate to her audience - kids. My work usually concentrates on darker themes and I think employing my bold printing techniques could still be appropriate to aim at an older audience in tandem with more complex text.


Dusan Pavlic

Although Pavlic is another children's book illustrator I can draw some comparisons between his practice and how I want my work to look for this module. His drawings reflect some rather dark moods as my Leeds research so far does.

Again narrative is a key element of Pavlic's practice as for this module it will be mine. His distinct characters in this Alice in wonderland drawing are aesthetically quite scary and I would think are aimed at a slightly older audience than Kohan's work. I would put this aesthetic down to the rough textures and limited colour palette. I've used printed textures to this effect before and plan I to experiment with them across this module.

Joe Mclaren

I was drawn to Mclaren's book cover designs due to the nature of his process - Lino cut. The book covers he designs target audience is adults. The non-fiction books are a great reference for me and my practice, historical pieces demanding some accuracy. 'The Secret Life Of Buildings' cover is an especially attractive example of a printed image and exceptionally reflective of the books content.

Recently my print work has been rather basic and one could argue that narratives are loosely applicable to it. If I work with print in 505 it will need to be more obviously and accurately representational of the historical information.  

Melissa Kitty Jarram

Jarram is another printmaker. These illustrations are internals for fictional books. I was worried that my work would be restricted by the some of rather mundane local history and making epic images such as these Linocut dragons would not be possible. Luckily a little of my very early research surfaces some great opportunities for image making such as 'Headingley bear pit' and Leeds's infamous 'gay canibal'.

This map of Jarram's caught my attention as a map is a very visual method of communicating factual information (although this one is based on made up information). Could I print maps as a way of explaining some of the historical events I research? This could work well within some kind of pamphlet.

Edward Wadsworth

As mentioned previously some of my research could concern the industrial revolution. Wadsworth was an artist working in the early 1900's and he made images documenting some of the industrial revolution. His Lino cuts appealed to me as he used very bold shapes and some interesting representational characters as I have previously in other modules.

Wadsworth is also of relevance being from and basing his work around Leeds and the North as I might be. His study of these terrace houses says a lot about the scale of the industrial revolution to me. I am yet to cross my print work with anything scale related, maybe a bridge I will have to cross if anything architectural comes up.