Ready For Proofing

The momentum is flowing here in the studio and I've made it all the way to this point with my plate in a mater of a couple days.  For something of this size and detail, I think it's pretty good pace for me!




From this point I'm ready to do a first proof of the plate and then make the necessasary adjustments to values from there.  At this stage I think things are looking pretty good and should only need bumping of tones to get them where I want for the finished print.

Tomorrow I'll start work on another plate which is about 6 times larger than this one~

I'm Back!

I'm Back!

Thanks to a serious onslaught of freelance work, the move into a new home, and a baby.... it's been a good long minute since getting the opportunity to make anything! ;  let alone post about it :)

Anyways,  I'm back in attack for the next 3 months as I prepare for an upcoming exhibition late September.

As of 2 days ago, I've begun the process of preparing the first of a body of print-work I'm expecting to complete for the show.

While the show may or may not be exclusively mezzotint work, I'm staying true to working in this technique to start, and we'll see if thing diverge from there.  This small 4x6 plate is the beginning of what i'm hoping will be a series of  6-10  small prints in the same vein.

I'll be starting in on 4 larger 30cm x40cm plates next week that will follow the same tangent as this print completed earlier this year.



Enjoy!

Boat boy

I began work on the image for my most recent plate this week. I'm still fully developing my ideas for a series of work , but this is the first sneak-peak of what's to come.

Finally!

So i finally nailed it! After 3 laborious attempts at completing this print I finally got a good proof and I'll now print the edition. I'll leave it at that... What a relief!

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Time to get cookin'!

Well clearly it's been a long time... in fact one might have thought we were  done!   It seems that both of us got way too caught up with life and making things that there simply wasn't any time left to get on here and blog about it all, but guess what!... we're back, and have lots of things in the works for the winter months.

I'm going to hold out on posting anything about my current project because it's actually a V 3.0 remake of my Tortoise-hare mezzotint from about a year and a half ago.  Long story short was that it was completely botched from the way I originally prepared the plate, and subsequently that showed through in the final print.  Currently I'm in the final stages of getting the image scraped out onto a newly prepared plate and should have some better results and some images soon.

It's funny how such epic failure (maybe not so epic, just time consuming) can be a great point to make some major strides.  I realized that I needed to get better rocking on my plates and it needed to be even, and a strong, and save my wrist from strain.  I devised this little device to help me out from here on in.  It's actually a very simple construction but it works like a charm and not only saves my wrist, and gives great texture to the plate,... it cuts my prep time in SIGNIFICANTLY!  

I'll leave on a hight note with lots more to come as we push towards the colder months, and the new year! 

The ups and downs

After some troubles with my Hortoise plate,... particularly in the print stage I managed to cut my losses and understand where I went right and where I went wrong with the making of the print.  While everything looked good on the copper itself, when the time came to print, things just didn't go well and unfortunately the results were nowhere near what I had envisioned them to be.  That said, a learning experience all the same.

Following this however I didn't loose perspective of things... I made another stab at a large and ambitious mezzotint  project and what I had grasped from the first time around I was able to apply to this latest print.  Below I've posted a couple shots of the plate,... inked and non-inked.  The print itself is drying so i couldn't put anything up online yet, but I'm quite happy with the results.

Time out for play

So often do I find myself getting distracted when i'm working on a large and intense project.  Eyes start burning, and the mental energy to continue working at such intensity is on the verge of doing me in!  Well, not literally.

Anyways, I've found that the absolute best way for me to keep focused and get shit done is really just to do more stuff... but different.  Keeping a lot of different projects on my plate really helps me to dig deep on the big ones and get them done without breaking down and throwing in the towel.

I think there is nothing better than picking up a few scraps from around the studio (wherever that may be) and just making something from it. This week i saw a few pieces of rogue metal lying around at school and couldn't resist taking them on as 2-3 hour projects... enough time for me to prepare the plates, conjure up some random shit to put on them, throw 'em in acid and see what comes out on the paper.  Albeit, these are certainly not great works of art, but I think they are fun to put up on here in keeping with the daily ins and outs of working on art.

Big Shit

So in the mix, i think this particular print i have been working on has had little or no attention up on here,... and rightfully so as it is the project i go to when i need a break from doing more intensive projects.

Originally I started this plate because i had a huge piece of zinc and i just wanted to try out different techniques on it.  With that as the basis for starting it developed slowly over a couple months with about 7 different kinds of printmaking technique involved... many of which were just a first crash course attempt at learning.  I had not image pre conceived, and nor did i start with a sketch prior to touching the metal... most definitely a step in a new direction for me, particularly since I generally work with all my ducks lined up or atleast assembled before hitting the metal.

That said, it's funny how something so spontaneous, and almost stupid can turn out much better than expected. I refer to it as "my big shit"... simply something large and for lack of better words "shitty" that i work on to keep making, but to not feel overwhelmed in working on..... a place to freely make mistakes and a place where those mistakes can potentially become great points of learning!

Here's where it stands now... with hopefully more to go into it.

A sneak peek behind the scenes in the Apothecary

It's about that time for another release in the Apothecary.  I have been toiling away over the weekend to come up with my latest creation to give you all a little peak at what's to come once I complete my ongoing work on the 'Hortise'.  Like all other images from this series, this one will also be rendered as a mezzotint. Enjoy!

As Promised

As Promised, here is the print from the litho stone I wrote about in the last post.  I also added a layer of fondino colour for the glasses.

A bit of a break to make something different

After a bit of time away from working... and especially after such intense work on my mezzotint plate I was back at it this week with a few smaller side projects and a lithography workshop at school.  I thought it was a perfect opportunity to just do something totally different and work in a much less controlled way. With a fully prepped stone just begging to be tainted with ink and pastel I came up with this....  a great memory from a great night on our summer vacation in Ireland,

I have since printed the stone with some additional work that I'll post in the near future.  In the mean time enjoy the fruits of my labour this past monday morning!

150 hours in

The weather has been good and hot here in Italy! Which means even more reason to keep on trucking along with this current project and stay cool in the shade of the indoors.  I'm about 150 hours into the plate and this is what it's looking like.  In about 25 more hours of work I should be ready to pull a first proof and see where to go from there. Luck for me this is the bulk of the work in this first stage and then everything starts to move faster and easier from that point on. Subtle blends of tone and strong highlights will really start to take shape at that point.

Summer Studio Sessions

Just because school stops doesn't mean the studio closes!  I've been doing my best to keep working hard even though I've been doing lots of R&R and travelling around Italy. Since the school studio has closed for the summer I'm somewhat limited to the kinds of work I can be doing at home,... nothing toxic, and pretty much no printing.  I have however been going steady on prepping copper plates for future mezzotints. Its been a lot of hard work that has not only been physically tiring and time consuming, but has also started to take a bit of a toll on my right arm.  I've ordered a Rollerblade wrist-gaurd to combat the strain on my wrist as well as a tennis elbow brace to help stabilize my elbow as I rock.  All of this is more preventative than anything and will hopefully allow me to make these kind of prints for a long time to come.

I'm lucky right now that even though the school studio is closed, a good friend of mine has access to another print studio for the summer and has been kind enough to give me free access to proof and do small amounts of work after hours.

Most notably I managed to complete the rocking on my large 30cmx30cm plate for the Hortise as well as the initial tracing. These steps are always the most dull steps the process so now its all just fun and games as I work to make the copper come alive with an image.

On the side I've been making a few small plates for fun... nothing worth of writing about, but surely they will get filled with imagery soon!

Fugu Papilio

The Fugu Papilio  one of the rarer species of ocean dwellers.  Feeds primarily on small bits of plankton and aquatic pollens.  

I Managed to finish the plate and pull some good prints for this mezzotint this past week.  Really happy with the results, however it was a real challenge cleaning the plate for print.  Those familiar with mezzotint will know that when you ink the plate you cover the surface entirely with colour... in this case black.  The entirely inked surface is then wiped very gradually and delicately with tarlatan cloth to remove excess ink.  There exists a very fine line between an over-wiped plate and one that is not wiped enough, and somewhere between those two extremes (not extreme at all) is the perfect polish.  This is a really difficult point to arrive at, and takes a great deal of practice to achieve and to recognize that point.  When looking at a properly cleaned plate it will often look much much darker than what it will look like on the paper... and for me it proved to be the barrier to overcome with printing this plate as I would consecutively over wipe and have results that would render at texture that was far to strong.

Sadly, this picture doesn't quite do justice to the print....  however, so is the nature with most photographs of prints and paintings.  In the case of  this photo the texture appears far grainer than it really is, in favour of showing a relatively accurate representation of the tonal values.

Enjoy the Fugu Papilio

The Apothecary Grows!

Here is my next concept rendering for the apothecary mezzotint series....

I think this one will be a little ambitious, but I already have the plate rocked, so I get to start soon! That said, because the studio is shut for the summer it won't actually come to life until the fall.  I'm hoping that this one will be joined by another in a larger 2-plate print.

First Proof

After about 60 hours of work burnishing work (on top of another 10 to prep the plate) I have finally arrived at my first proof of my current mezzotint.  Because this image is quite detailed it takes quite a while to reach this point.  It's far from done, but all of the basic elements are well starting to take form and from this point on this start moving much quicker between proofing. 

I also nailed down appropriate ink for this plate which was based on my last mezzotint.  I used 70% Charbonel #55981 black and 30% Transparent base.  I also used the better of the 3 presses we have access to in our studio... something that i think will work to my advantage as I go forward with this print.

From here i will start to soften the overall shading and start to bring in more refined texture. I'll also have to create the floor element which has yet to be developed.  With about 30 more hours this print should be good to go to edition!!!

More from the Apothecary

On the heels of Sacha's last post I thought I'd put up the progress on my latest mezzotint plate.  It's a HUGE challenge for me, and will take a lot more time than the last mezzotint I did. So far there has been about 35 hours that have already gone into this plate and I have yet to pull a proof. Hopefully in the next couple days I'll get a proof and can put it up then.

Canis Mykiss

Well after a hell of a print session last week the dust settled and I was left with the Canis Mykiss.

I had number of struggles along the way which all stemmed from one large problem off the bat.... I changed presses.  In theory one press should be the same as the other, but also in theory it shouldn't. In this case the press that I had been proofing on before going to my final prints was much different and because of this it was a battle of adjusting inks, press blankets, pressure, and then ultimately realizing my folly.  Sadly, because of the nature of mezzotint and it's limited number of prints I was only able to get about half of what I had originally planned for this edition.  That said, this particular print is only the beginning of a large body of work that I'm starting to dip into, and it functions as a great point to learn and take the next print to the next level!

The Apothecary is Growing

Just as I have finished the plate for the Trouthound mezzotint (soon to be proper named according to it's genus), I have also finished the next addition to the apothecary.  I have yet to formally give this guy a name, but it will soon have one! In the mean time, have a look...

The March Of Maruice Del Taco

I was involved in a silkscreen workshop this past week and i thought it would cool to post a little something that came of it. It wasn't my first experience with silkscreen, but that said it was my first formal training with it.  I haven't done a lot of work with silkscreen and paper before and this gave me a chance to do just that.

Here is the original drawings on vellum. The 3 different layers are overlapped to see what the concept for the print is broken down as the necessary separated layers.  I drew this with black marker, ink and litho-crayon.  After the screens were exposed separately using the vellums.

Below is the final print... The March Of Maruice Del Taco!