Week 2 June 1-5

For Week Two I attended a Monotype workshop at Mixit Studios with Catherine Kernan.

http://www.catherinekernan.com/

Throughout the workshop I learned about:

Akua Inks, how to use them in general and about manipulating viscosity to achieve effects.

An Adaptive Monotype practice: Leaving room for accidents, creating lots of beginings, and layering to pull out images.

Planning Monotype layers by taking cognates.

Unorthodox Woodcut printing techniques, transfering woodcut imagery to pet g plates or other woodblock plates and taking negatives.

The Basics of Chine Colle.

The materials used were:
Akua Soy Based inks.
Transparent Base
Blending Medium
Magnesium Carbonate
Release Agent
Pet-G Plastic Plates
Reves Printmaking paper
"Rice" Paper
Newsprint
A variety Mark Making tools.
A dremel for etching
3m568 Adhesive Film for Chine Colle-

Day One
Arrived at Mixit at 10 Am

Catherine demonstrated trace monotype and manipulating viscosity.

I practiced the techniques on small plates.

I've gone over the principles of trace monotype in previous posts.

I'll give a quick explanation of viscosity then use some examples to show how I gained an understanding of how to manipulate it.

Viscosity is a term referring to the consistency of the ink. By varying degrees of viscosity you can control how the inks stick to the plate and each other.

The controlling principle is:
Looser inks reject stiffer inks.

You can loosen inks by adding transparent base or blending medium.
You can thicken inks by adding magnesium carbonate.


Here are a few examples.

 

So after having done a couple trace monotypes I immediately wanted to combine trace monotype with viscosity. I tried to trace monotype and lift ink off the paper then roll over with a stiffer ink to fill in the gaps. That resulted in the fainter lines in the background. Trace monotype didnt really pick up enough of the ink to achieve the dersired effect. The clearer lines come from scraping away ink directly, not using a sheet of paper to lift it off. This is a thick ink rolled over a thin ink, notice it only filled in areas that were scraped.

 

These are examples of what you can get if you roll a looser ink over a stiffer ink. The loose ink will fill in areas which you have scraped away. But it also will stick to the areas which haven't been scraped away, effects vary depending on the relative viscosity of the layers.

Important Note: All the interactions of viscosity happen on the plate before it is printed. Anything already on the paper does not reject the ink on the plate. When layering on the paper viscosity is unimportant. Inks are transparent and value and color will affect how the print looks on paper more than viscosity.

 

These are examples of stiff over loose viscosity layering.

Relase agent can be used a buffer when layering ink on a plate. It is looser than any ink.

This is how I arrived at the bottom image.
-Printed the green.
-rolled plate with release agent.
-Fresh marks to lift off release agent
-rollover on plate with orange.
-rolled with release agent.
-fresh mark lift off release agent and unerlying ink.
-rollover with red.
print-

As you can see. You can use viscosity to layer ink on a plate before you even print.

Left Mixit at 6:15 pm.

Day Two
Arrived at Mixit 9:40 Am

Quickly jumped into doing larger scale work. Experimenting and playing with the inks.

Painted on the plate with different tools using loose inks. Left blank space and used a variety of tools to scrape away inks and recreate negative space. Then I rolled over it with a stiff blue and printed it.

Took the dirty plate and rolled it with release agent then scraped away areas and added inks. Then rolled it with a stiff red which filled negative spaces.

In the second print I achieve more dynamic spatial interaction. A quality missing from the first print. The light shines through the back. Ghost layers of the last print flow through and the motions of the lettering are more articulate.

I again used the dirty plate and added inks to it to print this faint layer. I wanted to replicate the light shining through effect I had in the last print.

I overlayed with a dark red layer, Quickly carving into the red overlayer.

The mark layering is interesting in this one. But the color scheme is very two sided. The whites don't shine through, they are cloudy. The red left side is overwhelming.

I coated the plate in release agent made some fresh marks and printed the ghost.

Just a new begining.
Left Mixit at 4:30Pm

Day Three.

Arrived at Mixit at 10 Am

Started by printing a new layer on my freshest ghost print. Trying to pull out botanical forms form the marks already present.

Then took the ghost of that plate, but not before adding some fresh marks to the release agent.

After this I changed my angle of approach. Built a collograph up with Mitacious Iron Oxide then taking the cognate.

Taking the cognate. I printed my collograph with a dark ink. Then Increased the pressure of the press and printed the fresh print onto a piece of newsprint. This gave me a print which lined up with the plate. Which I then placed under the plates for subsequent layers. Making it easy for me to line up the images.

The Cognate- in the foreground.

Then I wanted to print a plate I thought I had already prepared with release agent. I rolled it with a stiff red ink and ended up with a almost completely red plate. I had only put down a small amount of resist (blending medium and transparent base mixed to protect areas from an over roll)

I made a few marks and almost printed it that way, but Cathy stopped me and told me to reduce more, and not to get hung up on only having one way of marking the plate.
I was having trouble getting the stiff red off of the plate for I started using blending medium to loosen the areas I was trying to reduce. I spent a few hours on the plate, employing the reductionist approach reminiscent of woodblock prints. I was taking away the ink to leave blocks in the desired shapes; something I had never tried before.

I ended up with this plate.

I left Mixit at 5pm

Day Four

Arrived at Mixit at 10 am

I continued on the plate I left the overnight. I used resist to protect some areas of the plate then did a roll over of an olive brown color and wiped away some of the brown. I printed it on the pink and blue print.

 Then I inked my collorgraph with a warm dark purple and printed that on top.

 I decided this print was complete. Completing a print I had put so many layers on and spent so much time on brought on a feeling of exhaustion and relief. And I was stuck contemplating what direction to move in next.

Day Five

Arrived at Mixit at 

After sleeping on it, I decided to create new types of line on my collograph plate by etching onto the plate with a dremel. I experimented with this option drawing more flowery shapes onto the plate. Then because the etching marks are hard to see on the clear plastic, I inked the plate. I wanted to see how it looked printed and wanted a guide for further etching so I printed the cognate.
I wasn't particularly please with the print or the cognate. I felt tired with the flower imagery and debated starting fresh by painting a new plate. But Cathy talked to me out of it, by suggesting that I morph the image into something else, maybe by flipping the plate in a different direction. I became interested in the upside down version of the plate and began drawing on the print pulling out shapes and making figures.

I decided to try and replicate the drawing on my plate by using both mitacious iron oxide to add to the collograph and the dremel to etch finer detail into the dry iron oxide and the plate itself.

Here is what I had when I left the shop at 5pm. I look forward to continuing this project in my independent studio time.

I'd like to thank Catherine Kernan for being such a helpful teacher and guide throughout the workshop. I would have undoubtedly made much slower progress without her knowledge, advice and encouragement.

Key Points

Akua Inks- The only rule is to pay atention to the materials and what they are doing. Getting to know the materials is how you will be able to manipulate them. Using viscosity is easier when you are observant not when treating the inks formulaicly.

Adaptive Monotype practice: Give up some control, Leave room for accidents and temper expectations, creating lots of beginings, no print is ever finished until you want it to be, and layer to pull out images.
Morphing the existing plate into a new image is an exciting way to generate ideas.

Planning Monotype layers by taking cognates. Tape the cognate under the clear plastic plate. That Way you can build on the image without having to reverse it in your mind.

I will discuss these more once I get the chance to try them out in my own work:

Unorthodox Woodcut printing techniques, transferring woodcut imagery to pet g plates or other woodblock plates and taking negatives.

The Basics of Chine Colle.

They were demonstrated by Cathy but I have not used them yet.

I will also discuss traditional Japanese woodcut techniques which I learned about at the Hokusai show at the MFA this Sunday.

Week 1 May 19-22

Day One: Tuesday May 26

Arrived at Mixit at 10 Am and met Randy Garber.
http://mixitprint.com/
http://www.randygarber.com/

I showed her photos and all the sketchbooks I brought back from Colorado with me.
We discussed my work for quite a while.
I explained my recent obsession with learning the figure and we decided to start me printing some collograph featuring figures.

Randy showed me a book called, Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1965
The Bay Area Area Figurative Artist label encompasses a wide range of artists but the focus on expressionistic color was a connecting factor in many of the paintings featured in the book.
The blocky color patches and interplay of color temperature proved very informative for the collographs.

Collographs are made by gluing material to a plate and can be printed as a relief or an intaglio or a combination of the two.

I made my plates with an adhesive and carborundum.
Printed #1 with Gold Silver Green and Black

#1

#2 Was printed by applying a release agent to the dirty plate to loosen the ink and produce a ghost image.


I printed more than twice but several times of the plate stuck to the paper and the print ripped. Which was frustrating. Randy explained that every press is different and that even the weather/ humidity can affect the printing process. Unpredictability is part of the printmaking process.

Left Mixit at 4 Pm.

After my time at the shop I went to a figure drawing session at a local arts school.
It was a two hour session, these are the longer drawings from the session.
I want to continue to refine my understanding of the figure through drawing and translate that understanding to more complex compositions in printmaking.

Day Two: Wednesday May 27

Arrived at Mixit at 10 Am.

After looking at Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1965 more the night before, I was decided to use color patches to ground my figures. I chose a palette and immediately began printing the two collographs I made the day before. One of which I hadn't printed yet at all.

 

I continued with the plate I was printing on day one, inking areas with different colors trying to create light and depth. The lower image here is a ghost of the upper one. The white patches on the right are the result of the paper taring when I peeled it off the plate.
Because this kept occurring, I started using dry paper to print the collographs instead of the standard paper soaked in water, this eliminated any tears from the rest of the work I did that day.









With this collograph I experimented with the ghost image more.
After the first print I was unsatisfied with the figure and build up the collograph by adding more carborundum.

After the second print I wiped the plate with release agent and added more ink to my dark areas to achieve a high contrast ghost image. These last two are my favorite collographs that I made, I think the concept of the color patches grounding the figure in a setting works here. I'm pleased with the way the collographs allowed me to respond to the Bay Area Figurative Art.  The ghosty quality of the figures and the almost random sense the marks have interest me.

After printing the collographs, Randy taught me the trace monotype technique.
I painted a plexi glass plate.

Plexi Plate Painted

Then I layed down a piece of paper on top and drew on the back of it. This picked up the wettest/thickest ink marks on the plexi just from putting the paper down. Then I picked up more ink by using tools to press down the paper. There was still a lot of white space after I removed the paper. So I painted the plate with a brown color and a couple strong marks to counter the purple which is in the lower left corner and printed the plate through the press. It didn't register.

Left Mixit at 4pm.

Day Three: Friday May 29

Arrived at Mixit at 10:30 Am.

On Day Two I discussed what I would do with this independent studio time with Randy.
The idea was to continue with the trace mono type and experiment with trying to translate a drawing to the print.

I began the morning drawing in my sketchbook to get ideas. Then I made my drawing for the project on tracing paper.

After making the drawing I began inking the plexi with a single color, laying down the paper and using a multitude of tools to pick up the inks. All while trying to go around my lettering or follow my lines. Then inking the plate with a different color and repeating the process in an attempt to layer the colors.

Using a drawing as a starting point really slowed down the process of the blind tracing compared to my trace monotype from Wednesday. Also my layering approach was slow and resulted in me spending several hours on one print.

I had a conversation with a printmaker in the shop, Joel Janowitz. He was working on monotypes while I was doing this. He advised that instead of spending so much time on one print I should try to experiment more and produce a bunch of prints to gain more of an understanding of the process.
I will definitely keep that in mind. My projects from days one and two were more successful than day 3 and I was definitely experimenting more and playing with the plates, adding release agent. This layering of the tracing approach I was practicing today took a lot of the fun out of seeing what happens quickly when I put the plate through the press. If i had experimented more with the painting of the plate I could have quickly traced parts of the drawing lifted ink off of the plate and reprinted it and had a new starting point. Instead I labored the same print, repeatedly redrawing from the same starting point and not advancing.





Left Mixit at 5pm

Over the weekend I read sections of Monotype by Julia Ayres and The Complete Printmaker by Ross/Romano/Ros, to familiarize myself with monotype techniques before next weeks workshop.

I also visited the Roman in the Provinces: Art on the Periphery of Empire exhibition at the McMullen Museum at Boston College.