Experimenting...

02/29/2012

So recently (as of last Friday, I believe), I've been working on an edition of prints for the GMU Print Guild's Share Print Exchange, of which what is left over is going to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Arlington Food Assistance Center food bank. So this edition is going to a good cause! Here's a link to the AFAC's website: http://www.afac.org/

This edition had to have a theme relating to the not-so-dark sides of hunger, sharing, and food or anything in that genre. I'm not too original, but I knew that I wanted to do something bright, colorful, and relating to food, so I did a still life of what I found in my house: bananas, pears, oranges, baby carrots, and apples. I set up a still life I liked and photographed it and I based my print off of my photographs. It wasn't until late I realized that it kind of looked like a smiley face. Wow. Hopefully it will be subtle enough that it's not a blatant smiley, but then again it's supposed to be a bright, happy print, and if sneaking in colorful shapes that make up a smiley face will do it, then so it shall be!

Quick pastel sketch of the still life with my initial color idea I washed over with a brush.

My translation of it to tracing paper. It was at this stage I realized how... happy... this print is.
Also I like how this looks on it's own.

At first I was thinking of constructing this composition with a tetradic color combination, but as I was using yellow, orange, and red, I started leaning towards having an analogous color scheme and making the shadows and last layer a red-violet. Although I imagined using a purple at first, but then I remembered this ghastly colored print I did a couple years ago that was yellow and purple, which I assumed would work as complements, but it was too jarring, so I'm hesitant to use purple for this print, but maybe with the orange and red, purple wouldn't be as bad.

Naturally, I've made this print way too complicated for myself. I initially thought it was a smaller edition size, so making 5+ layers was no problem given the timing. But then the edition size was upped to 30 and then deadline moved from April 1 to March 12. So I got moving! I transferred the drawing to the block with sharpies and then shellacked it. The shellac naturally made the sharpies bleed (I expected that much), but also I'm reusing a block I had initially drawn on at school and decided not to continue with, and painted over that with a grey or white acrylic wash, so the texture was already strange. The layer of shellac I put on was thicker than I thought, or could see in the dim lighting of my garage, so after propping it up before it was actually dry, the shellac dripped down and dried, kind of creating an additional texture I didn't expect. 

Here's the block with the drawing pre-shellaced!
You can also see the grid of lines I drew for registration purposes!
Those lines are very, very useful! Especially with my stencils!

In planning this print, I knew I didn't necessarily want to build it one layer at a time since I figured that would take longer to dry and carve. So I decided to make a series of stencils that I would use instead. So I made stencils for a white layer (I was using BFK Rives tan paper), a yellow, an orange, and a red layer, too. I coated both sides of the stencil with matte medium before I cut out the stencil, which, thank goodness, has helped it be a much stronger stencil, and by coating it before I cut it, it's less smoother and less sloppy than if I coated it after I made the cuts, and it made cutting it out easier.


The white layer! You can see that some of the paper ended up tearing. Mostly because I painted the medium on it directly with the table under, so now my table has a ton of medium/paper stuck on it that I mistakenly tried to use a razor and denatured alcohol to remove it. Whoops. The lessons I learn from this!



The yellow stencil! Yay banana and pears!

So here's my leftover shapes from the stencils. I'm really considering making something from this, I love the assortment of curvy shapes!

Another decision I made was that I wanted to hand print this. Mostly because it's a hassle to print my thicker woodblocks at GMU since I was told not to use their press blankets but mat board, which I found left odd impressions on my prints with my print, Angie at Night I showed on my blog earlier. So I printed the white layer there! I'm only printing 36 and I'm keeping my expectations low on having a "perfect" edition, since I'm not only hand printing, but I've also decided to mix my colored inks using oil paint. Which brings me to even more experimenting (beyond stencils!)

Set up for my first layer. Unfortunately the white layer came out much fainter than I wanted and so for my future self, I advise myself to put plate oil or something in it so that the ink spreads a little more and appears more evenly opaque, if that's the effect I want.

After the white layer I painted another layer of shellac on it to smooth out the surface, and I carved out what I wanted to remain tan and white!

Carving! You can see the shellac lines on here more clearly. It showed up prominently in the white layer. I went back with sandpaper and steel wool to try to make it more even for the colored layers, but because its in that first white layer it will show through. At least it kind of looks wood-like and goes with the grain so it doesn't appear completely out of place!

Set-up for my yellow layer!

So I decided I will print the yellow, orange, and red layers at home. And I don't have yellow, orange, nor red printmaking ink. I tried to research online if I could use oil paint (I mean, I've used oil paint for monotypes before, I'm only guessing I could use it for relief!). A quick google search led me to a website that suggested mixing the oil paint with a transparent base to make it more usable for reliefs. Also a side note: I'm not sure if I would ever use oil paint for my ink if I hadn't shellacked my woodblock first; it may soak into the wood or something! Which could be interesting, too.  

I needed the ink to be less oily and loose, for oil paint is even looser than color etching ink. (Hmm. there's a joke in there somewhere.) Anyway, for some of the pronto plate lithographs I did at George Mason, we mixed in magnesium carbonate to make the ink stiffer, which, I don't understand the chemistry completely, but I figured that this pure white powdery substance both absorbed oil and worked as some kind of additive or binder that didn't detract from the ink's properties too much. I looked at the price of the magnesium carbonate they sold at Plaza and decided it wasn't worth investing in yet, so I just bought the transparent base and the cheaper Plaza oil paints so I don't use my nice Gamblin oil paints for this potentially risky ink. Also, I think when I went to buy these supplies I figured I'd print the edition at GMU which has magnesium carbonate, but then I didn't think to get some while I was there printing the white layer.

Sorry, the last paragraph is just leading to this: I decided to add baby powder to my ink. A quick google/wikipedia search for the chemical properties of talc vaguely gave me the sense that baby powder is very much like magnesium carbonate, and in fact, talc sometimes comes from magnesium carbonate, depending on the grade and how it's extracted, since it comes from varying geological sources. But mostly Talc, or baby powder, is a magnesium silicate, and is apparently not soluble in water, and is apparently used in paper making, paints, and cosmetics. So I figured this could still work for what I wanted, although I'm nervous that about the "fragrance" ingredient in baby powder and I wonder if that will effect it.

Unlike the white stencil, in which I used to block white ink from getting on the paper, I rolled the ink on top of the stencil to ink part of the block. I think this in itself looks neat, with the carved lines, sharpie lines, and the staining from the prior drawing/staining I had.

At GMU I initially used a brayer and paper/plastic to roll over the paper. At home I'm using a rolling pin over a piece of red craft felt I've had for years, which I think has been helping. It's a little squishy and more flexible than paper so I think It can sink into some of the carved out areas effectively. And then I've rolled my rubber brayer over just to be sure, and it's been working!

Some of my prints from yellow layer. I don't have a drying rack so I just set it out on my table and bed. I've considered stringing ribbon across my room and using clips to hang dry them, but I haven't figured out the best place to do that yet.  

So I'm also nervous about using oil paint because I know the oil has the potential to spread out from the inked areas as it absorbs into the paper over time to create a darker halo of sorts. It's kind of like when you first learn about how lipids, or the grease in greasy food, get absorbed on a brown paper bag, it's the same principle.

Orange stencil after I was done!

Several of my prints after the third printed layer! It's starting to come together!

So, using oil paint also means that it takes it longer to dry. So, waiting 24 hours wasn't completely long enough, hence, the yellow ink residue on the block, but at the same time it didn't look like it affected the prints too much.

After the orange layer! You can also still see stripes on the table from my mini matte medium disaster. Hmm "Mini Matte Medium Disaster" sounds like a really artsy band name, and oxymoronic.

So I finished this print before dinner. When my family and I got home, I came to find that one of the cats must have gotten in my room and laid on my bed near my pillow... on top of my prints. Four of my prints were dented! And had cat hair in the fresh ink. I'm convinced it's from our cat Sherlock based on the hairy evidence.  I shall look for ribbon and clips, but I fear the cats would try to tear that down, too.

There will be more pictures to come when I finish the print! Two more layers to go! Must finish it before I get my wisdom teeth removed next Monday and figure out when I'm going to deliver them! 

Also... for those of you who read to the end, I have heard back from two grad schools: one rejection, and one acceptance with a little $. I'll share more later!

Recent(ish) projects

02/20/2012

I believe in my last entry I mentioned that I got first place in the Washington Printmaker's Gallery Excellence in Printmaking juried show! Here is a link to their blog about the awards:  http://dcimprint.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/excellence-in-printmaking-awards/

At the moment, I'm still unemployed, but I'm waiting to get my wisdom teeth out so that I won't have to get a job and then say "whoops, I need to leave for a week or two". I'm keeping busy with two commissions and practicing my viola for the upcoming MSO concert on March 3. I've also been going through all the papers in my room and organzing them. Having lived at the same house and having the same room since I was 3 years old, I keep finding all sorts of things I can't believe I've saved all these years! It's definitely been a trip down memory lane, what I can remember, at least!

Here are pics of recent projects:

I made my boyfriend a valentines card again this year!
I got some new stamps recently and crafting cardstock that was on sale!

At least this year I remembered to write something in it and sign it!
And I purposely hand-wrote a lot of it and made it look imperfect because last year I had to convince my bf I didn't buy the card and hand it to him.
Also, Its a pop-up! Book arts class taught me something! Ha
P.S. I love bone folders. They make creases so much more crisp and fun!

I forget if I showed this on here recently or not but I started a painting on one of those warm days.
I'm not sure I like it enough to want to continue working on it,  but I don't want to leave it in this state! Because I started off with a lemon yellow gesture drawing, everything looks kind of acidic or citrus-y, especially that sky with yellow still in it... anyway, I'll get back to it... eventually.

So my boyfriend took me on the perfect date to a BYOB 3 hour painting class in Old Town Alexandria he got a good deal on Group-On!  I didn't bring a picture to work from.... so of course I painted him painting! It was fun, but I definitely reached a point where I had too much "inspiration" and felt unmotivated, that was until I heard there was only so much time left.
I need to go back and round out the head and clarify a few areas,  but for looking like a blobby mess at first and the three hour time-frame, it turned out suprisingly well, as others in the class just had to tell me because they had doubts on whether it would work out at all!  Don't get me wrong, it looks pretty messy, sloppy even, but it was also BASIC acrylics, so it had a lot less body and was drippier than I had gotten used to with oil paints.

The other week I was like "OMG, I've been depressed and haven't made anything good lately"
Which, I know, it's false, but I haven't made enough of anything to be happy with myself and my lack of production.  So, naturally, I set up a mirror and hung up a patterned skirt behind me (the swirls), and made a self portrait woodcut!
It came out suprisingly dreamy and contemplative, kind of the state I've been in as of late.
I had some errors I attempted to correct with putty (trying not to be afraid of using it!). I even built up the putty at the bottom which gave a nifty grain for the table!  Maybe it's about time I attempt some collographs!

So I took the woodcut to GMU print shop the following day and attempted to hand print the blocks. This is one on this shuji gami paper I had. I also printed some on tan BFK Rives.  It came out much cleaner-looking and crisper if I over-inked the block and soaked the paper for a little bit. I also mixed a brown-black ink so it's not just straight-out-of-the-can black. 

Recent Pics of Recent Projects

02/10/2012

Recently I almost tossed out the backing of a large sketch pad and I thought I should find a use for the spiral/
All of the sudden I had an idea to use it to hang necklaces. So, I just pinned it and its worked ever since.
And of course I organize them by color!

Last weekend I won first place at the Excellent in Printmaking exhibit at the Washington Printmakers Gallery!
Four of my prints are in the show that is there for the month of February!

On a completely different note more to myself, if this kind of thing ever happens again I should take off my coat and put down my purse.
And lose forty pounds but that's another thing all together I'm trying to do before grad school, if I make it, that is. 

A re-shoot of some of my work for grad applications. That's a bunch of print outs of my work on the table I was using to figure out the order of presentation for my portfolio slides.

I used this kind of sectional frame for the first time. For that larger piece in particular I was nervous that it was too flimsy once it had the mat and glass in it, however, I don't expect it to fall apart any time soon.

I got a print rack for Christmas, which I have turned mostly into a blank canvas rack.
I also got that sweet polka dot robe for Christmas, too! Win!

During a visit from my boyfriend a month or two ago, I started this drawing of him.

Naturally I took pictures of the piece along the way to see the progress!
Sometimes I feel as though using photographs is cheating.

But then again I don't really think it's cheating too much. It's a tool.
Although, there is that danger that it will look too much like a photograph...

Well, I made a few more changes after this state, but this is practically it.

I did my best to leave lots of markmaking to make it distinct from a kind of photographic copy of any kind. It's more fun to make that way anyway, aside from the expressive autographic or calligraphic kind of qualities.

Also, I know, the chair is super uneven, but I kind of saw it that way.

While I made many self portraits  in college, I discovered my eyes are uneven. And if I close one eye, then switch to use just the other, everything shifts diagonally. And I see color slightly differently.
That may be why I kind of see space differently and have a bothersome time with drawing in-proportion, on top of my astigmatism.

While cleaning out my room two to three weeks ago, I found my first woodcut from High School!
The week before I had found the HS orchestra t-shirt design based on this, too!
And then I proceeded to pull my back muscles by carrying that full box beneath it from my room to my basement, and couldn't really move for about a week!