Overview of the assignment

The overview of the project Myths and Legends was mainly composed to get the students inspired by Greek myths and Native American legends and then base our interpretations and our designs throughout printing and carving that was finally done in the printmaking lab. Our first print was related to Greek mythology, in my case, I chose Prometheus and Cetus. The assignment was to draw some designs for the characters we chose yet, Cetus, the monster of the see, had such an interesting story behind its peculiar appearance that I also decided to draw some sketches for it. For our second print, we had to choose a character from Native American legends, in my case; I choose Alabama, “Why fire belongs to man” as in a way it connected with Prometheu’s story. (Further explanation in How the myths and legends influenced my concept)

How was the process?

The process of printmaking happened during class as we needed the assistance of the teacher to use the machinery and utensils. For the first print, first, we had to soak the printmaking paper in water for less than 10 seconds flipping it on both sides, for the second print we left it around 10 minutes soaking, the difference: the second one (10 minutes soaking) soaked most of the ink giving the drawing a fussy look, while the first one (10 seconds soaking) was able to show thinner lines with detailed designs, yet sometimes it was to light as it didn’t absorb as much ink as the second one.

An etching needle on an acrylic plate was used to carve our designs after drawing them on paper. On the plate I used oil-based ink, we had to spread it equally through the acrylic plate with a small rubber knife and then cleaning the extra ink with tarlatan and then cloth before applying them to the soaked paper.

Finally, I had to lay my plate first on the printmaking bed along with my paper on top of it, covering both with heavy newsprint paper and rugs, I proceeded to roll my paper through the printmaking bed and peeled back the rugs and newsprint papers to reveal the finished print.

printmaking bed

How the myths and legends influenced my concept

I think the choice I made in both, the myth and the legend correlates in a way to one another, For Prometheus (the Greek myth) he stole fire from the gods in order to give it to the humans he created by mud, he knew that fire would make the humans care for themselves with food and warmth. Despite the punishment he received from steeling the fire and giving it to the humans, he saw fire as a source of energy, power, and control. On the other hand, Alabama (the native American legend) showcases how fire used to belong to the bears, then, one-day humans feed it wood, when the bears were not there and since that day, fire belonged to man. Even though both stories come from completely different cultures, fire has been represented as a source of vitality and destruction, in Alabama; bears (wildlife) are scared of fire, while in Prometheus, it shows fire as a reward for humanity. This is why in my designs I tried to use as much strength on carving the acrylic plates to show the intensity that fire has, as a tool of destruction and of power, both designs have a rough touch and a lot of pigmented ink, in a way I wanted to show the depth fire carries within.

Overall experience

My experience with the etching technique was unexpected, at first, I really thought it was similar to drawing with pencil, in some part you had to use more pressure than in other ones, yet, it really surprised me how hard you had to push downwards if you wanted to get clear, thick lines on your prints. I think that creating shading wasn’t as bad as you could carve thin lines on top of one another, yet some of my drawings were in a way cartoonish and carried bold lines surrounding the main elements, even though I couldn’t get the preciseness that I would’ve got with a pen, I was still fascinated by the fact that one etching plate could serve you like a photograph that you could reprint it as many time you wanted and in all colors, you could imagine.