Experimenting with colour

I tend to think in tone rather than colour so while my current collagraph plate is under construction I thought I’d experiment with drypoint and monoprint, trying to get away from ‘realistic’ colour.

Not the most successful prints but I’m hoping what I’ve learned from the process will help me combine monoprint with the collagraph later on

New Year, New Print

I’m working on what I hope will be a new set of prints based on local architecture, starting with a viewing point from the Chinese Gardens at Rivington.

Painting...

Followed by charcoal....

Looking at structure....

Combining digitally to explore possible colour ideas....

Editioning and Monoprinting

It’s one thing to use up scrap and leftover papers to work out an idea in rough but I’ve no idea what I was thinking when I decided it would be a good idea to use gelli plate monoprints to produce an edition of 12 books.

However, many prints later, I have now made 24 large envelopes for the covers and 72 small envelopes and 36 prints to make the inside pages.

 All I have to do now is assemble them all.

Oh yes, and then make more prints to cut up to put inside the  small envelopes

Bits and pieces

The end of November is when the drama society put on our pantomime (this year it was Cinderella). This means not much else gets done.Though I have had another go at CMYK separation gum arabic prints using my own and photoshoped family photographs for the image. The technique seems to be working but cumulatively the colours are too dark. I think I’ll try the same images again after Christmas but next time I’ll put quite a bit more extender in the ink to make it more transparent.

Mixed success

I finished the plate, a combination of silk aquatint, tile cement and various adhesive tapes....

printed it in blue....

 then tried inking a la poupee with viscosity printing. 

The technique needs working on but I think I am starting to get some indication of light and shade across the image.  

Ticking over

We’ve just come back from holiday so not much work has happened recently. Though I have signed and delivered my contribution to 20:20

 and have started a plate which I hope will develop using silk aquatint as part of a collagraph.

 And now its time to go and build a sleigh for Cinderella! Yes, its panto time again.

20:20 completed

6 artist proofs whilst getting the inking and registration right and 25 finished prints for the Hot Bed Press print exchange

 I managed 31 prints from the plate before it started to disintegrate.

Version Two and Seeing Double

I’ve been playing with the ‘Letters and Alphabets’ book again. I decided to explore the envelope motif more. Still using scrap prints so the colours need further consideration. Trying to make something that will be editionable (is that a word?).  

I’ve also been plate making. I signed up for the 20:20 print exchange run by The Hot Bed Press.  I wanted to do this with collagraphs but am not sure the plate will stand up to that amount of wear and tear - I have to produce 25 good prints. So to be on the safe side I have made two.

Never throw anything away

I’ve signed up for another book exchange with Artist Books 3.0. The title of this swop is ‘Letters and Alphabets’. I am playing with the idea that letters make up alphabets, which we use in written communication, which we send as letters.

I have also agreed to do a demonstration as part of Preston Art Society's exhibition and had been planning on making a collagraph plate. But I decided yesterday that gelli printing was probably more interesting to watch, certainly more colourful, and that I could use the sheets of prints produced for this book edition.
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After thinking about structure (the book has to be a 63cm accordion) and subject matter I decided to make envelopes for the covers of this book. This also means that I can put card inside to make easy stiff covers.
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I thought that it would be appropriate to use stationary papers rather than printing paper so I dug out old sheets of gelli prints done on printer paper to see if it would be strong enough and started playing.

But I also found discarded prints from an ALAW project (exploring how little of the letter is needed in order for it to read as a letter). I added them.

And then I found letters that I’d cut out as part of another ALAW book exploring looking through.

It’s a bit garish (though it’s growing on me) and it might be a bit labour intensive for an edition of 10 but it’s definitely a starting point.

Adding Silk Aquatint

I wanted a way to add softer edges into the print so I decided to try silk aquatint in the view through the window rather than cutting the objects

and still exploring viscosity inking