Cynthia Kingsley-Smith
Illustration



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//YEAR3COURSEWORK WEEKLY BLOG//


//SEMESTER ONE - PROJECT DEV//
STATEMENT OF INTENT
    → Skills Development Brief
        →  Prelude: Summer Project
       →  WEEKLY 1: PEACHES.
       →  WEEKLY 2: TYPESETTING
       →  WEEKLY 3+4: RESEARCH
       →  WEEKLY 5+6: WOODCUT
       →  Bonus: Digital Thumbnailing Technique.
       →  Development Reflections
    → Creative Conscience Brief
        → Hope is an Act of Resistance: Overview
       → Research
       → Developments
       → Outcome  
COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EVALUATION

//SEMESTER TWO - CMRC REALISATION//
   → Responsive Printmaking
        → Commercial Realisation Begins
       → Research
       → Week 1: Silkscreen Planning
       → Week 2: Initial Silkscreen Results
       → Timeplan!
       → Weeks 6+7: Lino Designs
       → Week 8: Review, Plan, Further Prints
       → Week 9: Newspaper Task
       → Week 10: Final Developments / Outcomes  
   → Cheltenham Illustration Awards
        → My Aims
       → Week 3: Gelli Printing
        → Week 4+5: Lino and Digital, Outcomes!
→ COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EVALUATION - 2


→ Reflective Practice Academic Writing
        →  RP1 _ Learning Plan
       →  RP2 _ Reflective Diagrams
       →  RP3 _ Inputs and Outputs
       →  RP4 _ Rich Pictures
       →  RP5 _ Design Philosophies
       →  RP6 _ Thematic Essay
       →  RP7 _ AOI Masterclass
       →  RP8 _ Getting Started as an Illustrator
       →  RP9 _ Specialism Review
       →  RP10 _ Journal / Magazine Review
       →  FINAL SHOW PREP & REVIEW

Research 1



I found a great deal of inspiration for my intial prints from these textile-based protest pieces by Sarah Gonsalves and Malissa Lalanjeira - while they are much less illustrative than what I will be producing, I think they are a fantastic example of how effective use of typography, layout and simple, concise messaging are key formal elements in creating protest art due to having high potential to be emotionally moving whilst maintaining a broad social outreach. In addition, the inherent softness and malleability of fabric provides an additional contrast against the harsh directness of the message - I think this further elevates how effective these pieces are at provoking action.



In addition, I referred to Printmaking Second Edition: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes for inspiration and potential tips or tricks that could improve my technique and workflow.

Additionally, as I am looking to do more complex addative and reductive relief prints this semester, I researched methods of transferring designs between Lino blocks for layering. Previously, I have used tracing paper with a graphite sheet to do this - but this has a distinct disadvantage of being vulnerable to human error and easily being misplaced by a few centimeters, which makes this unviable for precise or multicolour designs. There are many methods to do this, especially revolving around acrylic medium and inkjet printing - but I found that this method is both more expensive and time consuming than I’d like. Instead, I will try printing my own design onto a thin plastic sheet such as Mylan and then printing that onto my lino block. This should be effective as the Oil based-ink should not prevent addition layers of ink sticking to the block without cleaning like water-based inks would and the plastic will not absorb any of the ink which often reduces the quality of transfer. 


READING:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/29/ice-knitting-protest-immigration - 29th jan 
Printmaking Second Edition: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes - 1st feb
https://thecuriousprintmaker.co.uk/clear-pvc-printing-plates/ - 3rd feb
Transferring a Lino Block by Offsetting for Multiblock Printing - 3rd Feb

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