in the studio

I'm so not ready for #printoctober to be over! Printmaking will continue, although it is sort of nice that I don't feel like I have to do it. And yet, I'm still doing it...

This week began with monotypes. These are all 4" x 6" and this is just some of them.

Then I moved on to collagraphs...I'm still working on the blog post about how to do them. Next week, I'll have it completed. These are all trial proofs.

I reprinted the plate below in an edition of 8, changing the colorway slightly from the trial proof.

There will be more printmaking...

The Intimate Persuasions show closed tonight. It was a great show and I look forward to working with Brabant Lenting in the future. There is so much going on this month! Next weekend are the openings for two group shows I'm in: Artistic License on Friday at Studio 659 and SLAC 4th Anniversary Show on Saturday at Paul Henry's. The 16th will be the opening for the new works at Angel Hair and the 24th is the studio sale at Renditions Studio. So busy! And that is a very good problem to have.

#printoctober: monotypes, part 2

Earlier this month I shared a post about monotypes, which I was working on for #printoctober. That involved painting onto a (glass) plate with gouache or acrylic paint, and then printing the image onto a piece of printmaking paper. This is additive printing, because you are adding
material onto the plate.

monotype, printed with acrylic paint

You do not need to cover the entire plate. You can also just paint/ink sections of the plate and print that. This is watercolor pencil drawn onto the plate and then printed with damp paper. It didn't work as well as I'd hoped it would, on a prairie piece, but the text came out okay. It has a slightly ethereal quality about it.

watercolor pencil monotype

watercolor pencil prairie monotype

Monotypes only yield one print. There isn't a second print identical to the first, and there isn't an edition. It's a one of a kind print. Last week I printed a different kind of monotype. This involved inking a (glass) plate, covering it with paper, and then drawing on the paper.

Here's what you need:

a plate, I used a glass I pulled out of a picture frame
ink
a brayer (aka a roller)
paper
pen or pencil

Roll out your ink and cover your plate completely.

not exciting, but seemed important to show

Lay your paper over the plate, and draw on the paper. Try not to put any pressure on the paper, other than the tip of your pen. Rubbing will leave a mark. This is good for shading, but not good if you don't want it there, so be careful. 

don't forget it's got to be backwards!

When you are done drawing, lift off the paper. You really only get one shot at this, but it is not difficult to lift. But once it's up, you can't put it back down, so be sure you are finished.

bad print, on printmaking paper

Here are a few more I've done over the last week.

You can also do subtractive printing. This means you start with a full plate and remove bits of ink, and then print. 

what can I say, I love the blends

Remove ink. I used toothpicks and q-tips. I was also printing with water soluble ink, so I took a wet brush and painted into the ink and later wiped some with paper towels.  

initial removal of ink with toothpicks and q-tips

final print

Here's what I learned:

If you are drawing through the paper to transfer the image: thinner, smoother paper works better. The printmaking paper was too heavy to transfer cleanly. I tried the printmaking paper both dry and damp and saw no difference. I switched to a much lighter weight bristol, and that worked well.

Another artist recommended making a cardboard window that could go around the plate, to keep your hand from resting on the plate. This is a really good idea, but I haven't made one yet.

If you are using subtractive printing, clean off whatever you're using regularly. The toothpicks, etc, pick up small globs of ink.

None of the less than stellar pieces are being trashed. They will be used as a basis for something else down the road. I also printed a small amount of the red-yellow blend, as rolled, with no markings, to be able to print over later.

This could really be several posts but I'm running out of October for #printoctober, and I still want to get to collagraphs and multi-plate printing. Hoping to get that done and organized in the next couple of days. Otherwise #printoctober will be turning into #printnovember...

in the studio

I don't have a whole to show for this week in the studio, because I spent most of this week in the kitchen. As crazy canner lady. But there's been apple pie and cakes and applesauce and apple butter and apple juice (are you sensing a theme?) and persimmon juice which will make either a fantastic or terrible jelly. 

I spent a lot of this week just sketching out some ideas, most of which haven't actually been put into place.

Earlier this week, I did some relief printing from styrofoam meat trays. There is a blog post with in progress pics and details on how to do this here.

I finished out the week working again in monotypes, but a different version of what I had done previously. This involved rolling the plate, covering it with paper and then drawing on the paper. I'll have a blog post on how to do this next week.

I didn't quite have the paper centered, which was not a huge concern for me at the time. I'd just done a whole bunch of them very unsuccessfully and was trying a new paper to see if that would bring an improvement. 

Both of these prints are part of the same idea. And while I thought, after the foam print, that maybe linocut should be used for them, there is something good happening in the monotype. The downside, of course is that monotype can't be printed in editions. 

More work on theses ideas next week. 

And more canning.

in the studio

I started this week finishing up before. After loading in 5 paintings at Angel Hair the previous week, I realized I needed one more piece there. So before is now complete and installed and ready for their opening tomorrow!

before, acrylic and ink on canvas, 40" x 60"

The rest of the week was spent working on monotypes for #printoctober. I switched at the beginning of the week from gouache to acrylic and have just about gotten to the right level of how much paint is enough, without being too much. It's a sort of fine line. The last image is a ghost print, which is printing what's left on the plate after a print is pulled. You can see there's residual paint to print, but the image isn't really there to be a worthwhile piece. It can be reworked with drawing or painting, and that is probably what I will do.

Other printmaking ideas to tackle: collagraphs, watercolor pencil monotypes, paper litho, inocut, styrofoam plate relief prints. And, a small etching press is on its way to my house so apparently more printmaking will be in the future after this month's #printoctober is done. If you are interested in seeing other printmaking, I recommend you check out the #printoctober hashtag on twitter.

in the studio

This week has been another long week. Began by starting a new piece! yay! This has to be done in the next couple of days because it's getting installed on Wednesday...no pressure. Here's a bit of the evolution of the piece. buh-bye roots and growth, say hello to before.

how do I get back to where I was before?

Someone on twitter decided that #drawingaugust (which I missed doing but enjoyed checking out) and #paintseptember really ought to flow right into #printoctober. I signed up. I've been thinking maybe to get back to it. The chances of me doing this without some sort of challenge are pretty slim. I have no press. I can't find my brayer. Or my woodcut tools. (which I never liked anyway) And the idea of doing one print a day for a whole month is really unlikely unless I go the monotype route, so I trialed one of those. The top image below is the plate on the left and the print on the right. The lower image is the following day's work. I repainted the plate and pulled the print from the floor so I could apply more pressure on it. More coming about this next week.

Also this week, History Repeats came down from Intrigue Spa in Dyer and all the newer paintings went up at Angel Hair in Griffith. before will be heading there next week. Once I finish it. Before Wednesday.