I will be in New Orleans this weekend interviewing and I thought that in order to get ahead I would concentrate on making my photolitho plates for the coming week. The large 16 x 20 blocks will not be arriving until today or tomorrow and so I will be unable to print on them until the beginning of next week. I am pretty sure of the way in which this should be done. I have checked the pressure on the etching press using a scrap piece of wood and will only need to shellac them after the printing is done so I am all set. I am very excited to begin printing on the blocks and start experimenting with this new process. I am happy with how the plates themselves were exposed and I think that they will hold the ink very nicely.
This week I was also fortunate enough to meet Jenny Schmid, a very respected printmaker who happened to go to undergrad at the University of Michigan. She was a visiting artist for Endi’s print class and I was able to talk to her for a long time about her process of creating photolithos. She was very interesting to talk to and I learned a lot about the mixing of inks and rolling up my plates. It was also nice to talk to someone who focuses mainly on photolithography and is really excited about it and its possibities.
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| The Pathetic end of Machismo Jenny Schmid |
I have finished two plates that are going to be printed when the blocks arrive. I printed one of these plates in a light blue on Rives BFK in order to see whether color would be an option. I choose the blue color because everyone seemed to be attracted to the images on the plates themselves and I thought this would be a nice compromise. It was the first time that I worked with mixing litho inks and I’m glad Amanda was there to help because I would have never known to included magnesium carbonate. This made the ink a lot less greasy and actually made the rolling up of the plate much easier. I really like how the prints turned out and I’m glad even if they are just for my own collection.
I plan to print on the blocks as soon as they arrive and I hope to have a couple done by the beginning of spring break.
(30 hours)
I love where your work is going! The value contrast and abstraction of the block forms is working really well...My favorite is the very dark one with the light triangle in the top right corner... it's an interesting and compelling image. However, I'm not entirely sure about the blue color. I know you chose it because people were interested in the original plates, but it seems a bit awkward... I would consider trying out other colors and seeing what they do to the image.
ReplyDeleteAnna,
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about how this is going. I'm eager to see the prints on the wood. Not sure about the blue. I think it's probably not dramatic enough. You should try black again and perhaps some other colors. You might try a brown or a sepia color too. Good luck in New Orleans!
janie
Hey girl, I am really liking the compositions and perspectives of your plates (prints?), although I do agree with Katie and Janie in terms of the color, I don't think the blue is dark enough... also playing around with different colors will help. Can you add more than one color when printing? I'm excited to see where you're going with the prints... will you make more plates once you've finished these? It might be nice to explore new building block compositions. Great Job
ReplyDeleteI'm excited that you decided to print on wood! I think even though you're not using wood carving, printing on wood will still make the same reference to wood blocks used as an adult. My favorite image above is the second from the bottom. I like how the light comes in from the right almost wiping out the image. The way all of the images are exposed looks like they're being lost. I kind of like the blue ink. It just looks a little muddy to me. I think it would look nice if it were a more vibrant blue.
ReplyDeleteHi Anna! I agree that it sounds like it’s a great solution to print on wood. I like the image where the color bleeds into the bottom of the page and where the light comes into the top. It would be great to see an overlap of color while you experiment with other prints, is that something you have thought about? Are you looking to produce prints with one color? I’m excited to see how this turns out!
ReplyDelete