It's Pictures, All The Way Down

This is one of the few that I pulled any significant number of prints of, and for some reason they are mostly brown. Why did brown make me happy? Does anyone really want a brown print? Looks OK framed, although I see now my mat is off center.

Although this is a favorite design, it doesn't print as well as I would like. Practice...

The paper isn't really yellow; someone played with the color correction too much.

Now in blue ...

... now in green.

This one is larger, the paper is 30x40cm. (approx. 12"x16").

Love this one, even without glitter.

Same green as the green-on-yellow-paper below, but on white paper. Bad lighting decisions.

I have several versions of this print, and I love them all. Seems like every day, I choose a different one as my favorite. Maybe I should print more, and see if I get more favorites...

Possibly one of my most important designs!

This is printed on fabric, will try this as an embroidery pattern.

Green ink on soft paper. It was not a bad print, although I think more intense ink will be in order next time. This plate actually makes a nice emboss on soft (wet!) paper. I have one with no ink, just imprint, but it didn't photograph very well.

Possibly my favorite of the glittered prints.

Also possibly my favorite of the glittered prints.

This one looks so bad in the picture, and so good in person. But also reminds me that some of these could make excellent embroidery patterns.

Did you know you can get a glitter sampler with 24 colors??  :-)

The glittered prints are surprisingly difficult to photograph.

There was a batch of prints that, because of the paper I used, never actually dried. So I sprinkled glitter on the very-tacky ink, transforming the prints from one kind of tacky to another. I actually quite like them, but they need to be mounted and at least sealed in plastic, possibly framed entirely. Otherwise the universe will be consumed with glitter, and become both fabulous AND ridiculous.

A plate in progress, a labyrinth in progress, a bunch of Other Stuff. The brown thing in the lower right corner is the bag containing my giant graphite stick.  

The Press. (Thanks, Aaron!!)

Drying rack / plate storage / other. 

This is a 9"x12" block printing plate, not yet cleaned after pulling a print. The plate actually looks better than the prints for some reason, having a little trouble getting the ink to transfer evenly. Wrong paper, I think.

Someday I hope to get better at photographing the glitter to some advantage.

The paper chest, with 2 glitter prints on top. The problem with the glitter prints is ... well ... the glitter. Mostly.

Turns out a giant graphite bar is awesome for proofing plates without getting inky! (Thanks Chris for giving me that!!) The red one was dry-proofed with a crayon, but isn't as clear as the ones done with graphite.

Some of the latest.

More from the inky depths of my studio...

Madness!

I ordered the necessaries today to mount about 50 prints. Still need cello bags and mat board for a proper 'ready to frame' presentation. But I am excited about this. It's always been my belief that presentation is 9/10 of professionalism. Sure, technical skillz are nice, but looking sharp is super important.

Also worked on some prints today. I think I might do some greeting cards. And ... uh ... I forget the other thing.

Cool story, bro!

:-)

Embossed!

Printed in pressure on wet paper. No ink.

... with ear goggles for size reference.

More From the Grotto

I started to get some images of some of the prints today ... and discovered that everything was wrong. Still got a few shots, but not nearly as many as I have printed designs. Will have to come back to that project, with some mat board and mounting tape and a bright overcast day, and a LOT more patience.

That said, here are a few little tastes.

A tiny print, don't think the image is even 3" on a side. 

Close up of the tiny print. This image looks grainier than the actual print does. Did I mention, everything was wrong?

One of my recent favorites. Have done this in several colors / color combos. Can't decide which way is up, which is usually a sign that I have done something right.

Detail from the one above. 

This one is another favorite. That plate got changed many, many times, and reprinted after each change. This was my favorite iteration, but I didn't love it at the time, so I only got one good print pulled before it went under the knife again.

Same as the one I posted yesterday, in a much more ... painterly execution. Probably not finished yet, I think I want to add some highlights and outlining by hand. 

Short show & tell, I know. Next step is to get enough mat board to get them all mounted, so they look like something. Maybe even something other people would want.

Printing Progress.

Block print. LDPE block, Speedball ink (elderly), generic printer paper.

My studio is gradually filling with prints. Some are much more interesting than others. This is one that I made yesterday, and love. This may be the first one that I have had little interest in re-working the block after seeing the print. I really do need to try some new ink, though. What I have seems to be almost totally lacking in whatever keeps it workable. Gum arabic? Water? Magic beans? No idea. The New Ink Smell has escaped.

... on the bright side, Akua water soluble intaglio ink actually makes pretty good block prints. Sadly, I only have black at the moment. And at $20 / pot, it is likely to remain that way for a while.

In a totally other direction, el Jefe suggests that things like this would make fantastic stained glass panels. In fact, I think he is right, and I will see about revising this into a glass pattern ... in my free time.

This just in...

I was printing yesterday, and came up with some good stuff, some intriguing stuff, and some crap.

Here is one of the neat ones:

Grey ink block printed from LDPE on printer paper.

Some were block prints, some where intaglio. Some of the most intriguing were attempts at block printing in 2 colors. Even without much in the way of registration, they looked neat. Also, I printed the above image on a piece of white muslin, and that looked pretty cool.

More pictures to follow, but since I was here and this picture was here, and now you are here, posting it seemed like the right thing to do. The sad story about how the studio flooded will have to wait, too.

Busted!

Tonight at the bowling alley, a woman on the team we were bowling against came over and said, "Are you drawing our butts? Because it looked like you might be."

I had to admit, that, yes, actually, I had drawn some butts. Then I flipped back to those pages and showed her the quick sketches I'd made of her. She went away laughing, so I guess that was all right. I really should be careful around people who routinely throw 15# weights around, though.

Recent Works On Paper. With Paper. Whatever.

Various permutations of block printing and embossing. The embossing made my brain tingle a little more than the printing, but where they are combined, that was pretty sweet, too. Not as easy to see in these photos, which were made with a telephone.

A heap of attempts. Some were more rewarding than others. It is difficult to tell if the ink is dorked, it was just too hot in the studio, or I don't know what I am doing. Or, you know, All of the Above.

These are cool enough, I figure they deserve large size! The two images were made from the same embossing plate, but the 2nd one had more carving done to it before going through the press. 

The purple is the same plate, block printed. I think this was one of the first prints I pulled with block printing ink. I tried intalio first to see if I liked it (yeah, yeah, I *know* that is not correct usage!) and I did like it, but the photos of those prints are pretty much impossible to decipher. 

Dry Point Pt 2

I made this plate today, and printed it this evening. I am pleased. (Photographs this time, rather than scans. Much better!)

First run, on heavy heavy paper.

Second run, on super light paper.

Hard to say which is "better" until they are at least both matted, if not framed. Both have pros and cons. Harder to see the pros of the 2nd print in a photo, in person it is the cleaner print. (Light conditions not exactly studio quality.)