Sunday, April 27, 2014

BarenForem Exchange 60 prints.

This weekend I printed an edition of block prints for a barenforum.org print exchange.  I'll be exchanging block prints with 30 other artists from throughout the world.  I try to participate in at least one exchange per year.  On a cold rainy day when I print indoors I set up on kitchen counter.  The counter's at just the right height to stand up and print. 

this is my test proof using Graphic Chemical water soluble ink on resume quality bond paper.  The lines were crisp and sharp and would have printed beautifully on the Reeves BFK light paper that I had planned to use.  But the ink would have taken too long to dry in the rainy weather we had this weekend.  So I decided to print them using the Japanese Hanga Technique.

This is result printing Japanese Hanga style.  I used Createx Burnt Sienna pure pigment mixed with rice paste and printed atop Black Ink's unbleached mulberry block printing paper.  I don't think this paper was sized so even on the smooth side the medium was absorbed into the paper, blurring the lines.


Saturday, April 12, 2014

Snakes, Knives and a Spaceship...

It's Been a while since I've blogged...so here's a little update on the projects I've begun for the new year and a few hold over's from last year...

YEAR OF PRINT EXCHANGE
Year of the Snake inked plate waiting to be printed.
My snake went out a year late.  I had the plate carved for a year but other projects kept popping up and delaying its printing...so I printed it up with my Horses...

PRINTMAKING TOOLS

Back in the November of 2013 I blogged some under-paintings I started while volunteering as a Teaching Assistant for Mick Sheldon's Color Theory Class. Below are the finished acrylic and digital paintings.
 Baran
 Blue Digital Gouge
 Brayer
 Etching Needle
 Green Digital Gouge
 Maru Bake
 Orange Digital Gouge
 Twisted Needle
 Violet Gouge
Vintage Brayer

I'm currently carving plates to make 10x10" woodcut prints of six of the above images.  Once I've printed the editions I'm planning on cancelling the plates by doing encaustic paintings on top of them.

Here's a sketch for the woodcut print I'm about to start carving for a print exchange with fellow printmaker members of the www.barenforum.org group.
It's inspired by a passage I read in the book Agents of Ki by Anna Erishkigal. The book hasn't been formally published yet but you can purchase the previous books The Chosen One and Prince of Tyre in the Sword of the Gods series at Amazon.  They're available as printed and e-book versions.