Printing Drypoints

Today i went into school! Yay! Yesterday i was really motivated to go in and do heaps of work, but surprise surprise i bike all the way there to find the printmaking studio is shut because a teacher is sick! Hopeless. Why dont they organise someone else to come? And apparently i dont have enough experience to work in the studio by myself. Im looking forward to this 24/7 access business when i get back!

I had a go at printing my drypoints today. First i printed in black and white as seen below. It was an effort as i have not done drypoints since first year. I am not entirely pleased with it because there are some areas where it does not hold the ink. I am not sure whether this is due to poor inking technique, or whether the plate has not been scratched deeply enough. More so, i think the black and white image is too boring! It needs colour!

So next i experimented with colour! Red against blue. I played with the same technique that i used for my photopolymer with inking the figure in red, then rolling a transparent blue over. This did not work as well as i thought. For the roller kept picking up traces of the red patterned figure. I showed the technician and he thought that the blue was too blue, he thought that the red and blue were competing against each other too much, and the blue was almost overpowering the red, which isnt normal because red usually comes forward and the blue recede. I thought this was an interesting point, and it would be good to further investigate this. Perhaps printing the figures in red, and when dry putting a blue over it so that it overpowers the red. The technician also suggested making the blue lighter and more transparent to create more space in the image..which i would also like to achieve.

What i really like about these images is that they have no frame. the print goes beyond the paper actually. I think that this is appropriate as it gives a feeling of space and that there is more room outside of the print for the figure to move in. These prints are just experiments so im making them on a small scale, but they really should be alot bigger. It would be great to make some huge huge ones..with heaps of sky..and these tiny figures to show their insignificance to the space they are moving in. What also could be interesting..coming back to my photopolymer images...these figures are still grounded so it works to have them in a box..but it could be contrasted in the same image with birds that go outside of the box. This would show a 'boxed in, restricted like earth' contrasted with the birds and their territory (the sky) which is dominating in space.

My next experiments, seen above, are done with the same technique. Except i tried using a lighter transparent blue, and in the second i mixed up a more orangy red which i think i like better. I used a larger roller and was able to get a better coverage of blue. I still had the same problem with the roller picking up the red ink, so i used my mull and rubbed it on the plate to create a texture in gestural horizontal movements. This blended in the red and blue more, and sort of creates a bit of movement in the 'sky'. Which i really am pleased with. It is an example of tight controlled mark making (the drypoint) against a more gestural background! I like!

My next experiments were attempting to create a flat background of blue, using a woodcut block. This took a bit of time, learning how to use the presses (totally different kind to the ones at otago). And trying to get the right amount of ink on my block to get even coverage. In the end i got some good coverage, and also played with dribbling some ink in horizontal movements, and also splattering some ink with turps in it. Below are two experiments. Im really pleased with them. I think that i will continue making some more gestural monotype flats like this, and then print my drypoints in red over top of that.

When cleaning up, i decided to make the most of the ink again. By adding turps i pressed some paper in and got some cool effects. I am interested in using these as backgrounds, and drawing my images into that by hand. Im not sure if felt would work over ink, but maybe those lithographic pencils or chalk. This is also because im not entirely sure how the next drypoints will turn out. It seems that drawing by hand is far more controlled because you never know fully how your prints are going to turn out. Maybe i can shop for some of them. Below are examples of the paper pressed in the ink.

I also took some more photos of the inking stone which are also interesting as photos. It would be interesting to sometimes play with photoshop and some how layer my images onto these gestural photos. But i have no idea how it can be done. But it would be cool to make photographs that are entirely done by hand, but are fully made from printmaking techniques and not photos from reality. Im beginning to enjoy using my camera more..i was fed up with it earlier in the year. But im enjoying being spontaneous with it!