"small"

Illustration Friday "small"

I guess you can see where my mind is at this week. Only a few more days until summer vacation begins, and I'm definitely ready for the break! Looking forward to having more time to work on my art projects. I am taking another printmaking course at the NH Institute of Art this summer, and have some ideas for new pieces. I was able to etch a Solarplate last week. but didn't have a chance to print it beyond a test print. A Solarplate is made by exposing a drawing (drawn on acetate) and a specially coated plate to a light source. The emulsion on the plate responds to the light, and hardens the areas that are not the image. Those areas blocked by the drawing are then washed away by gently brushing the Solarplate, and rinsing the plate with water. The trick is getting the correct exposure time by doing several test strips. I ended up only exposing the plate to light for 30 seconds. What's nice is that you can get a very detailed image that picks up all the values and lines of the original drawing.

Airborne

I hope this image is clear because I had to take a photo of it with my phone, as it was too large to fit in the scanner bed. It's my Illustration Friday interpretation for "Airborne."

Busy week as the school year winds down! A couple more weeks before summer vacation, and I'm definitely ready for that!

White Mountain Stream Block Print

I finished the new block print, that I had been working on for a while, of the White Mountain stream. I explored some new techniques, and am happy with the way it came out. Because the top and bottom halves of the image were very different in color schemes, I found that it worked better to print them separately. It kept the print from becoming too dense with ink layers.

Here is the plate after I completed and printed most of the rocky areas in the foreground of the image.
The upper part of the picture was mostly green tones, while the bottom was mostly grays and browns.

 It wasn't too difficult to keep the top and bottom separate, as the rocks created a natural line between the two halves. For the final layer on the print, I was able to use a dark greenish-black ink, to tie the whole thing together.

 There is a little sheen at the top of the photo, as the ink was still wet when I took the picture. I did have to print the top layer several times to get the dark value that I wanted. I used Akua inks, an 8" x 10" easy-cut block, and Rives Light paper for this project, and printed this edition by hand, without a press.