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.)

More Printing

Although things here have been a little chaotic, and also much, much too hot and dry, I have managed to get myself out to the studio a bit, and pull a few more prints. I think they are getting better, but I am no Master Printer. Yet.

This is the first print I have pulled of that acrylic dry point plate (that I posted about a couple of weeks ago). It is not so much composed as it is a collection of line sizes / weights / directions / etc. A sampler, if you will. There is so much new in this process for me that I most likely will claim every print as a test print for the next 30 years... This one looks especially funky because it does not fit totally on my scanner bed, and I did not want to mash it down, so the left side curved up and away, and seems blurry. In the actual print, it is not.

Revisiting these blocks. 

The two prints above are reprints of the same one I posted last week, with different technique, and the addition of retarder. Those both were beneficial changes to the process, I think.

This last one, however, actually has had a bunch of new cuts done to the block since last time I printed it. I tries printing this on top of prints I had already pulled (with the old cut), but this is a linocut, and the linoleum has become tremendously warped -- makes alignment / registration difficult. This print looks a little funny because the upper left corner is slightly over-inked, but also because this is a mixture of blue and black inks (plus retarder) just to see how that would go. I kinda like it, except the over-inked bit.

Some Printing

I have been trying to get these into my Flickr account, but for some reason, I can't remember how to get into Flickr. So, I am just going to post them here, for now. In a strange moment of obstinacy, I have refused to buy ink to print that plate I posted pics of (last post). Mostly because there is already a quantity of block printing ink here, and I do have blocks, and I am lazy and cheap.

Fear not, I *will* get that intaglio plate printed, and there will be more to come, because that is definitely the correct technique for my style. Until then, check out these:

Linocut on rice paper.

Linocut on heavy handmade paper.

Woodcut on handmade.

Linocut on handmade.

Detail of linocut.

Woodcut on heavy paper.

Sadly, some of the worst images are my favorite prints. For reasons I don't really understand, scanning prints does not produce results as effective as photographing them ... which I am not currently set up to do. Will have to work on that, I guess.

I have many irons in the fire, these days. Possibly too many, but that beats none. I am still working on those crochet cephalopods. Thinking of making an abstract coloring book. Have a couple of woodworking projects just on the verge of start-ready. And, of course, I have a serious backlog of finished projects to catalog and perhaps post for sale. All of these things take time, and energy, and focus, and life loves to challenge those resources. Sometimes I think about an artist retreat or something, where I could hole up and do nothing else, but (drumroll please) haven't even had time to look into that.