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.
No comments:
Post a Comment