Experimenting with Mont St Michel print

This is why I love printmaking: you can start with a core image, or component of an image, and experiment  in dozens of ways to find the complete look.


In November, I proofed the first plate of another two-plate linocut of Mont St. Michel. In December, I trialed a number of combinations with a second color, using a plexiglass monoprint plate to ink, etc.

Starting with a simple, solid roll-up..

Printing the ghost of the roll-up achieved a subtler color. In some ways, closer to what I envisioned...

While trying to find the right shade, I pulled out the color in the middle-ground...

Also tried printing color in only the sky...

Finally pulled out the carving tools and cut the second plate

Numbers

Earlier this semester, I started another etching book, similar in structure to the Belize book. The subject was numbers, represented in symbol with the name written out.

I intentionally left the etching as a simple line drawing so that I could experiment with monoprint. I did a handful of books (will post later), but also printed the individual numbers on paper scraps, seen here.

As a bit of a nerd, I guess I have a thing for flashcards, so there was something really appealing about making these little cards.

Belize book

In the spring of 2009, I started a somewhat ambitious project of printing a small book using a single plate. With twelve 3x3 squares on my planned plate, I selected some photos from the trip that Anthony and I took to Belize in December 2007:

I did a simple line etching and then watercolored the print, which adds quite a bit of labor.

Once printed and watercolored, the print is cut into strips and glued together into one long strip that can be folded.

I used a monoprint for the cover and added the title with chine colle.

Random mono series

With only a couple days left in the semester, I didn't want to start another big project and I had been itching to play with colors, so I decided to do a couple monoprints:

Using the same image for the Float plate, I created a quick drypoint etching on acetate. I made a little hummingbird stencil and loosely rolled out some bright colors (ohh do I love red):

I kept working the ghosts, playing with the effects of dripping oily inks across the plate:

Stencil Portraits - Dad

I decided to give the stencil technique another try to make sure Megan wasn't a fluke. Using an old photo of my dad as a young man, I made a similar series of monoprints:

Stencil Portrait - Megan

Okay, I got a little ahead of myself with the drypoints because there were actually a couple sets of stencil monoprints that I produced before picking up the needle.


Using a photograph I had taken of my friend Megan, I created a stencil that I could use to print both the positive and negative space.


I experimented with several configurations. The print above is an inked stencil printed over a ghost with some added texture near the edges. Below is using only one half of the stencil, allowing the roller marks to show.


Using some of the ghosts that I had created, which lacked contrast, I began printing over the background with a fresh roll up (below):


I think of the print below as the most successful, mostly by accident. The skin area is a single ghost from a red roll-up and the black is a fresh roll-up onto the stencil. The background is a ghost of the background added to the print above, printed on top of the original ghost (that created the skin color). So, basically this is where trial and error got me:

Bamboo

We're fast-forwarding a bit here to post-college (which was a bit sparse on the art front, and whatever drop-in figure drawing sketches I had I can no longer find). After getting settled in SF, I enrolled in printmaking classes at CCSF's Fort Mason campus.


That semester happened to be monoprint, so I experimented with some stencils and was pleased at the time with how some of these bamboo prints came out. Plate size is 8x10" - sorry about the crooked pictures!


I think my favorite is still this one (below) with the inked stencil over a solid ghost: