Multiple Plates

I've been playing around with multiple-plate etchings and it's an interesting process that yields interesting results. There are many printmakers that use this process to register intricate work with aquatints, overlaying color fields to create new colors from the overlapping colors.

For me this process is a way to experiment with multiple plates each done with a different etching technique, to yield overlapping and varied textures rather than focusing on complex color mixing. The print above was created with 2 spitbite plates and a softground key plate. I like the effect of the spitbite with the linear drawing of the softground plate.

As usual, printmaking leads me on paths to all kinds of experimentation and sometimes I wonder if I will end up settling on one technique for all my work. But, I hope not.

Working through it

There's been alot of things going on in Spider Ink land and it's been tough to squeeze everything I want and need to do in between everything I have to do. Sometimes when the schedule gets crazy like this I have to find a way to carve time out when I can just create in the studio and shut everything else out for a while. The problem is that my muse doesn't always show up on schedule and the creative juices that were flowing freely one day might not be there the next when I've got the time to do my artwork. So what's an artist to do? Well, as a good friend advised me, you've got to just work through it.

My way of working through my creative slumps is to take a huge sheet of paper and do a large charcoal drawing or sketch. Standing at an easel in front of a 3 foot piece of paper helps loosen my arm and I use my whole upper body to move and create the marks on the page. It gives me an uninhibited freedom to get the ideas flowing again. And the charcoal never ceases to make beautiful and interesting marks. It works like magic on me, I feel transformed and back in the "groove" again.

The reclining sheep above was one such drawing. I have since used this drawing to make a soft ground etching which I will post later once I have the print finished. I'm planning to make it a 2-plate print and I'm very excited about how this is turning out so far. In my future related post I plan to discuss my process in creating the 2-plate print using soft-ground and spit-bite.

Pronto plates and Z-Acryl

A friend of mine, fellow painter and printmaker, Kevin Kall, sent this link to me and I thought I'd share. There is a wonderful video demonstration by Mirka H showing printing process with a Z-Acryl plate. I just wish there was a closeup image of the final prints made. I am curious about this process since it allows one to make lithographic prints on an etching press and with a lot less complexity in preparing the plate then with traditional lithography. I haven't tried this myself but I'd be interested if anyone who has would like to leave a comment and/or more links related to this process.

Etching techniques that I like: Part III (or yet another use for the litho crayon)

For this Hudson River landscape, I used a technique that Bruce Waldman (check out Amie Roman's great post on Bruce over at Burnishings) showed me that involves drawing with a litho crayon directly onto the plate (without a ground coating). The plate is then open bit and the image comes through the texture of the crayon's marks.

As I've said before, I love the freedom and freshness of the mark that comes from using a litho crayon. It is conducive to creating bold and loosely drawn images that have been traditionally uncharactistic of etching printmaking. I find it especially useful when drawing landscapes where the subjects don't require too much detail and can benefit from the "life" of the line.

Etching techniques that I like-Part II

I don't believe that I've discussed soft-ground techniques before, but it's fast becoming one of my favorite ways to etch a plate. I've spoken about the use of litho crayons in etching in a previous post as well as my penchant for sketching and I'd like to expound further on how useful I find litho crayons (and pencils) to be on a soft-ground plate. The above etching was created that way. Though it's rough and I will be working further on this plate and will add color, I like the way the freshness of the line and the immediacy of sketchwork is evident. And using a zinc plate can make a "dirtier" print than a copper plate which also adds to the feeling of a rough sketch.

The way I created the plate is that I drew the image on vellum while it was on a zinc plate so that the litho crayon's marks would be seen in the exposed parts of the plate when etched. I love the freedom of line and the variety of tone that the litho crayon yields when drawing with it. It allows me to "sketch" on a plate more expressively than when I use other tools for that purpose. I also find that if I decide to aquatint the plate in the next stage and fill in subjects with tones, the outlines disappear and the effect is more seamless looking.

I'd love to hear from people who use tools in the etching process that were designed for another purpose entirely. I am such a fan of experimenting with different acid resists and ways to manipulate the process to yield results that are unusual for etching prints. I'm experimenting right now with sharpies as an acid resist and I hope to post more about that soon.

A new acquisition

I just acquired an etching press last week and I am printing to my heart's content without having to be at the mercy of printmaking workshop hours and lines waiting to use presses.

It is taking me some time to figure out how to set up my studio in a way to make the printmaking process go as efficiently as possible. But I am well on my way to getting it all down and hopefully, I will start creating editions (and unique prints) with the ease and speed that I could never achieve in a public workshop. While I am in the midst of this studio transition, my posting to this blog may be a bit sporadic in the coming weeks. But I plan to be posting regularly after that with new work and new insights into the processes I am currently exploring as well as the ones I have yet to discover.

Experimenting with brayers

I'm planning to get more involved with monoprinting and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of effects I can get just by using a brayer loaded with color. I had started a bit of this while working on some woodcuts (as seen with the gourd print) and I am fascinated with the process of combining monoprint painting on a woodcut plate as well as on the customary plexiglass plate.

My friend and mentor, Bruce Waldman creates amazing monoprints with a variety of textures and techniques but he draws the images with the edge of his brayer. The line is so expressive and there is movement and energy in every one of his monoprints. I have been awed by the mastery, spontaneity and strength of the lines in Bruce's monoprint work and when he told me that it was done with the edge of a brayer, I was amazed and inspired.

The thought of the use of brayers to draw and make marks on a plate has opened up many possibilities for future work in my mind. Not just for working with brayers but for using all kinds of tools to create textures and lines even if that was not what they were originally designed for. It is yet another example of how versatile and flexible printmaking is. The seemingly endless possibilities lead to yet more possiblities. So much to try, so little time.