Tag: lithography

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School daze

Huh. I really thought I had posted more of my adventures in litho printmaking, but apparently not since my last post was July 24. I really am trying to keep some momentum going here in Elfiniland…

Anyways, I was on a mad litho printing run for the rest of July and into the first week of August. I was listening to a lot of Ghost (prepping for the concert on Aug 10!) and had a bit of a theme developing:

RIP Ozzy. If I recall correctly (and that is a big IF!) the plates for these prints were all done with india ink and heat set.

I tried printing a couple plates that I ran through my laser printer instead of drawing directly on the plate. The plates looked good, but I had some trouble getting nice prints from them. I’ll have to try this method again to see if I can get better results.

On Aug 7th my oldest and dearest friend Erik came out from Detroit for his annual visit, and we planned a trip within a trip and did a speed run to San Diego for Erin’s first concert!

Ghost in San Diego. Photo by Ryan Chang.
Bakersfield. You can see the crazy building behind their eyes!

An absolutely crazy 7 days full of way too much laughing and freeways!

And then the fall semester at Sierra started and I’ve spent the last 3 weeks screenprinting.

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Blackened feathers falling down

For today’s litho* experiments I used a Pentel Arts Pocket Brush Pen** with a new ink cartridge, and Dr. Ph. Martin’s Black Star India Ink. And because I was using ink, I did heat-set these plates.

The plate on the left was drawn with the India Ink. I used the dip pen to outline the feather and then a brush to paint on the ink. The plate on the right was drawing with the Pentel brush pen.

I started by printing the brush pen falling feather plate first. It took many prints on newsprint to build up ink on the plate, but I managed an okay print.

The first test print of the India ink feather grabbed all the ink!

I switched to the good paper and then made 4 prints. After the first print which is obviously over-inked, I switched brayers, laid down less ink and stopped running the plated back through the press a second time and got better prints.

So, the brush pen and the Dr Martin’s India ink and both viable options for making plates. I’m really excited that the lines made with the dip pen showed up. I don’t really like drawing with Sharpies, but I love love love drawing with ink. I think I might just stick with the India ink for awhile while I work on getting the inking and printing of the plates dialed in.

*Pronto Plate Lithography. Please don’t make me type that out every time.

** I should get a 2nd pen just to keep an almost empty cartridge in because that makes some amazing dry brush textures. I also didn’t know that they had gray and sepia cartridges. Want! I’ll pick up another one the next time I go to Blick Art Supplies.

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No heat for you!

So far in my barely started Pronto Plate Lithography journey, I have been heat-setting all my plates in the oven. 3 mins at 250 degrees. Yesterday I decided to see what I could make work without heat-setting the plate. I decided to test Sharpies, my Zig marker, and a china maker.

On the first plate I used the Ultra Fine Point Sharpie to make my drawing. I then grabbed the standard Fine Point Sharpie and went over the dark areas and some of the lines.

As you can see, the lines drawn with the Ultra Fine Sharpie didn’t pick up any ink. I wasn’t surprised as I think that I had the same issue on one of my earlier plates. So after a couple attempts on newsprint, I set that plate aside as I didn’t think it was going to get any better.

The second plate was drawn with the Zig calligraphy marker. I used both ends and then went in the china marker to shade some areas:

For the third plate I only used the china marker:

Yeah, that works.

In fact, the china marker works almost too well. That plate picked up a lot of ink!

So what did we learn? Toss the Sharpie Ultra Fine back in the drawer. There is no need to heat-set a regular Sharpie, the Zig marker, or the china maker drawing. And the china marker drawings need fewer passes of the charged brayer. Those babies are gonna take a while to dry.

Next up – brush pens and india ink. And I’m still trying to find a ballpoint pen that works.

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Prints Charming

Whether it is photography or printmaking, I am always making prints. My friend Christopher always makes a joke that someday my “prints” will come – a riff on ‘Someday my prince will come.’ He’s like that.

Well, he has finally found his true love and is getting married next weekend! I can’t think of any princess jokes that would apply. Maybe something about if the shoe fits… I don’t know. They met at the dog park … ??

Yeah, there is no good place to go with that so I’ll just leave the bad jokes to him and just carry on being so damn happy for them.

I’m thinking about that joke today because of this:

A rack full of drying prints that I’ve made this week! 12 that I made just this morning. Erin has forbidden me from singing Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”, but I am. Happy happy happy.

I’ve recently switched things up (who’s surprised?) and have started making collagraphs. When I made collagraphs in the past, I had built up the surfaces on the base and rolled the ink with a brayer and printed the plates as relief prints. Now I am cutting into the matboards and intaglio-inking into the recesses. I seem to have found my peace with the tarlatans and wiping plates. Who knows, maybe there are etchings in my future?

And then there are the lithographs. After the Pronto Plate Lithography workshop I took last month, I immediately ordered all the things I would need to do this process at home. After testing several different pens, markers, and ink, it seems the china marker is giving me the best results so far:

::insert happy dance here::

I’ll keep experimenting. I know there is a pen/marker that will give me the thin lines I want. I also need to get some toner powder. And for the pronto plate-curious, I am heat setting my plates in the oven for 3 mins at 250 degrees.

Hit me up if you’ve got questions or advice! I am wingin’ it here.