Saturday 12 January 2013

Monoprinting & a Printmaking Class


Made some more prints in the week using a variety of papers this time, above - printer paper & in the middle a peacock end feather  resist on a Bible page, the little Bible I rescued from the floor at work when we had a charity bookshelf.

brown paper & gesso with my lovely fennel seed head, book page & gesso with the ghost print of fennel, another ghost print of fennel inside an un-crispy fern resist on cartridge paper & more practising on brown paper. 


 More undefined ferns on book pages - wrong paper, too old plate, mix of ink? I'll have to keep practising :)


 Tools of the trade - Corrine had a link on her page to Carolyn at a Colorful journey who works with 'Gelli' plates & she used something that was described as 'shutters' & I thought I was sure I'd seen some 'packaging' at work that would give a 'shutters' effect. So I had a look - there on the shelf, helping a row of inter dental brushes to stand up neatly in the toothpaste department was a tiny tray, above, top right. Perfect, I thought ;) Typically, I don't seem to have included a sample print.


 These above show the deterioration of the plate, the first is just paint , no shapes, the next a week fern & the last a more distinct end feather & thyme seed head. 


So I stared my Printmaking class again - this is the one I started 2 years ago at West Highland College & the teacher had a bad car accident - it's taken her 18 m to get back to work part time, but this class is being run by another teacher. We got straight into choosing an image for lino printing. I was looking thru a book by Picasso & the image below the fish is what grabbed me but after roughly drawing it I just imagined how many lines I'd have to cut, too many for the first one!


 The top fish is inspired by a watercolor fish I saw in the Picasso book, mines nothing like it, I just thought 'fish'! I drew straight on to tracing paper, didn't even notice then the fish above is 'rubbed' onto the lino by tracing over the tracing paper drawing. I'll define it a little more then cut. I started out thinking I'd leave my drawn lines as the inked part, half way thru I decided I'd cut out the drawn lines so they'd appear white, or whatever color the paper is. Not trying to save my joints, or anything ;) Love taking an open mind to these classes.


from  Three Acrobats, Picasso

I tried to draw a seagull from one of the books - it wasn't moving! if you put your finger over the leg it's a perfect seal - I'm coming on.


This is the sketchbook I made last time, got very excited when we got to the printing stage by taking prints, well just picking up paint, really, when the others were cleaning their plates. Well, why waste the ink? I think teach thought I was mad.



some intriguing Chine Colle, above I thing I got the glue on the wrong side but I like the effect.


Mono printing, the first one is drawing from the back, the 2nd on the plate


 ideas for my lino

The layout i used - teach told me i was getting my money's worth with this one (gulp!) this time I've kept simple...I was just so excited 2 yrs ago, that when we were asked for an image for the following week I ran into the garden & drew anything I could find, desperate. I was so proud to be drawing 'real' things for the first time & amazed at where it all lead me. so I'll take the sketchbook to class once I've added a few pages for this class & add my sketches. There's a section for handouts & instructions, too. I want this class to work for me. such fun to be 'back at college' & getting a little guidance along with other like minded people.

17 comments:

Anne Huskey-Lockard said...

So enjoy seeing the printing process.
It has been YEARS since I have done any printing; monoprint done on glass with oils.
I enjoyed it and for the life of me, don't recall why I did not pursue more of them at the time.
I am now inspired to look up more on simple printing processes!
Nice work!

XXOO~~
Anne

jan said...

Enjoyed reading your post and looking at your lovely printing results. x

Suztats said...

Interesting print results.
Have fun at school!

Anonymous said...

Lovely sketching and printing Emma. I was playing with printing myself today, using up all the leftovers on a painted piece of cloth and building layers for a future piece. It is ever so much fun and sucks you right in so the hours go by and you don't even notice. xox

Heloise said...

Lovely collection. I really love the last bottom right seed head, you have drawn it at a great angle.

Jill said...

Your enthusiasm is bursting from the screen. You have created some great pages, looking forward to the next instalment.

Beverley Baird said...

Love watching your process. Such great prints.
There is something about printmaking that I just love. Have to do more!

ju-north said...

Love following the development of your work!

Cas Holmes said...

lovely to see your exploration casx

Victoria said...

Beautiful post..such gorgeous art and wonderful creations..inspiring blog!
Victoria

mano said...

I love your prints! :-) mano

Maggi said...

Really enjoyed seeing all the different printing techniques here. Fantastic results.

Kim Henkel Creations said...

So much to see, and what fun you have been having! All looks great! It is great to finally be getting the course you signed up for so long ago. Do keep us posted on how it goes.

artymess said...

Great prints Emma .....x

Anonymous said...

Wow, your enthusiasm for the course and all your activities really shines out! I really love the fish though. He's fabulous!

Robin Mac said...

Stupid me, I have looked at the heading several times during the week and thought you had not posted anything new! How wrong I was, the prints are all so interesting, you have been very creative, I look forward to seeing lots more results from your course. Cheers

Parabolic Muse said...

oh, you keep learning and learning and stretching. isn't it fun to learn new stuff? when i look at those monoprints it just makes me happy. i don't know anything about gelli but if i learn something else right now my head will explode. already, i'm having trouble with capital letters. here's the deal: i love the colors. and i have a collection of brown paper which is now going to find use for itself. you've inspired!!