Journal for the Trip

I've been hunting; without success, for a good quality watercolour sketchbook and decided to make one up myself. And also wanted to continue with practising bookmaking, so it was a duel intent. Found the paper for the cover amongst some prints I made only about 8 years ago. It was worthless as a print but I'm quite happy with it is a journal cover and it has a nice heavy textured feel to it - ignorant of the ins and outs of printing ink at the time, I used acrylic paint and some linocut images layered into an abstract pattern.


I am heavy-handed with paint (watercolours usually flinch when they see me coming) and find ordinary sketchbook paper too lightweight to take a hammering.

Birds on a Wire Series

Have been busy with the gelatin prints and am starting on a series with birds - tentatively entitled Birds on a Wire.

The studio looks chaotic but hopefully out of the mess some good work will emerge.

The two little birds I began with are morphing into other images, ideas are forming and I am out and about with the camera trying to get the shots that I want to develop into stencils for the work. I am interested in using the four images above for an artist's book - I have about 25 now in this series and they would be a good size to adapt for that.

Gelatin Print VII

Still exploring gelatin printing and today changed the format for the images - due largely to the fact that the gel was starting to break up at the edges, so I masked the worst bit of the plate and carried on until the cracks became too large to work with.

I have reduced the bird stencil down in size for these smaller prints and did try to get some more birdy photos this morning but Maria and Luigi - our resident crows weren't hanging around long enough for a family portrait.

At the end of the session today, I began printing onto newspaper and got some good results with that - the gelatin seems to happy to grip the newspaper, so I will now be searching for some good newspaper articles to print on.

Gelatin Print VI

Really struggled today with printing second colours and ruined some really nice images from yesterday. Salvaged these two circles and manipulated the bottom one digitally to see if I could enhance the birds. The original was quite ghostly but I liked the composition and didn't want to lose it by doing another horrendous overprint! So I'll keep it in the digital library. I am still clueless about file format for the web and the bottom image looks very pixelated when enlarged - sorry!

Once the circle started to crack I cut a square out of it and turned it over to get a bit more use out of the plate and got about 20 small experimental prints out of it. And I have just about run out of paper.

Gelatin Print III

I had intended to spend the day printing but my mistake over day, date and time for the workshop lunch threw that out of the window. Anyway, I enjoyed the get-together and seeing the work and managed to salvage the afternoon to myself and got about 15 prints - some better than others.

The gel is now on day three and holding up quite well - beginning to peel away from the glass plate a bit - but still viable. This is real progress - the plates I made with the previous 'recipe' lasted about 4 hours.

Gelatin Print II

Turned first print on its side and overprinted with circular gel plate
Second print
Gel plate with impressions left by placed objects

First print taken
Inked up gel plate with assorted items laid on top

Just figured out how to load multiple images! Not too sure why it has loaded in reverse order but here is some of the output from the day - the gel plate (bottom image)was first inked up using water based printing inks and a roller, then I laid a variety of stuff on top of the inked plate - ribbon, leaves, bit of lace, rubber bands. I placed a sheet of cartridge paper over the top and gently hand rubbed the back of the paper to obtain the first print. No need to go mad here just a smoothing over the back of the paper really.

Then I removed the items and placed a second sheet of cartridge paper over and gently rubbed the back of the paper to pick up the imprinted images left on the gel.

The top image is the last one of the day when I have overprinted one of the first prints I took with an image from a circular gel plate.

I have used 130g cartridge paper for this print run.

Work in Progress

Eventually got into the studio late today. I have some building work about to start on the house and that needed some preparation but the fog began to clear this evening and I've been working on some ideas for prints (one shown here).

I was interested to see an item in the newspaper today about David Hockney using digital imagery for his new work and particularly his iPhone to 'paint' images. It is something I have become increasingly fascinated with, in preparing images for the website or blog. "The Computer is a terrific medium..." said Hockney and I have to agree. It is becoming an increasingly important tool for my work. The ability to keep pushing the boundaries of an image and also to retrieve the original when it goes horribly wrong is brilliant and it often gives me the courage to try something new and different.

Hockney says he messages his iPhone paintings of flowers to friends.

Gelatin Print

Working today on a gelatin print I made a couple of months ago. I used powdered animal gelatin to make this and want to experiment with the vegetarian brand to see if there is any difference in the setting properties. I have been using GIMP to change colour and testing some of the filters - this is very slightly manipulated using IWARP. I like the fluid quality of gelatin printing. It is very gentle and floaty. You need a fairly solid gel and water-based printing inks. (I will get around to putting some techniques on the site asap - if anyone needs any information before then give me a shout).

Lunch and then some painting.

Sentinel

Looking at some of the images printed yesterday. This one started as a photograph taken a couple of weeks ago. I like the way the print changes the character of a pretty ordinary photo and gives you so much more. I have faced the fact that the world of photography is safe from me! I had the idea that this single plant looking out over the frozen field is a sentinel waiting for Spring.

From one photocopy, I am getting maybe one decent print and two for the bin. Some of the lighter images may be useful to keep as background for something else.

Coming Up Roses - Part II and Dead Birds

Spent the day experimenting with gum litho lift. The image on the left, that I was going to abandon a week ago; photocopied in black and white and re-printed, has taken on a new life and the separate elements are working far better now.

It was a mixed result today with quite a few surprises. The little pansy image did not work out well at all - I know I promised to post the outcome but it wasn't strong enough to scan, so will do some work there to see if I can improve it.

Some of the best images were from magazines, the dead birds came from a National Geographic magazine - this might be the print quality, sharper images? I quickly ran out of photocopies , each one had a short life of maybe two or three prints before it started to degrade and there was probably one good one.

I am finishing the day looking at other suitable images to take to the photocopy shop tomorrow.

Photo Lift

A photo-collage showing the end of the working day in the studio ...and its looking a little more normal with bits of paper and images that I am currently working on strewn about.

I have been experimenting with gum litho lift today. That is the coating of a Xeroxed photcopy with gum arabic and using the lithographic theory of oil and water not mixing to produce prints. I think that's it anyway. Oil-based inks rolled onto the coated photocopy attract the ink to the darker photocopy ink and is resisted in the lighter areas.

The results were variable - and are hanging on the line drying. The first few were poor and then I began to see some interesting developments, which I can build on.

I do like printmaking in that it often opens the option to take images that have not worked well in one medium and develop them in an entirely new direction.

The Gum Arabic Arrived

After a severe bout of internetitis in the last few weeks, I have finally recovered enough to get on with some serious print work.

Yesterday, I moved on with A Sense of Place project, after experimenting endlessly with the bottle in the window idea I found it kept running into a blank wall and came back to this little image of the pansy - I really like its simplicity. The initial scribbled drawing began before Christmas and has been rumbling along in various guises since. The combination with the pansy leaf seems to work well.

I am now working with hue changes in Adobe and have run off a series with subtle changes and on different papers. I will experiment with printing onto canvas this week.

And back to the title of the post. I have been meaning to get around to some gum litho lifts for ages and at long last got around to contacting the suppliers. That is the plan anyway. I think I will see what happens to this little image during gum litho lift and report back with the image - good or bad!

A Sense of Place

I am taking a sabbatical from college for a couple of terms but will continue with the collaborative project A Sense of Place, as there is quite a bit of work already, so I should be able to manage without a problem. Also, having started it, I am more than a little curious to see where everyone's journey has taken them based around this theme. It is very loose, so where the threads will go is anybody's guess. There are some examples already on the a-n Artists Talking, Project Blogs,The Regional Print Centre at Yale Wrexham - A Sense of Place.

http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/projects/single/489034

I have posted the initial line drawing of the view through the window on a-n blog and the bottle and roses image . I think it will be a good idea to wait and see Kate's image before I move on now with another piece.

Fabulous New Work

I wish!...there was an inch of ice on top of a bowl of water left in the studio during the week. After attempts to heat it up and several layers of additional woollies, I managed a couple of hours in there before I gave up for the log fire - so no fabulous new work today.

I have started experimenting with the images that are accumulating for 'A sense of Place' - to mix using Adobe Photoshop - printing them out onto various supports and adding paint to see what - if anything came up as a 'good idea'. I have become quite fond of this little image and it prints out quite well. Some were disappointing when printed when they look great on screen. Lots of recycling for other projects - again.

And then I thought I might change the blogsite around a bit - huge mistake - it was not happy. The header image that I thought was a bit too large vanished and refused to re-load nicely and we had this big row. It is back but something is not right, I will let it have the last word for the evening - I give in.