It has been a while since I posted anything here, but I have still been working away on my Collagraphs and even a small Lino print. The Collagraphs have been proving troublesome and I have  been forced to fiddle, adjusting tone and detail in search of the  image that was in my head in the first place.  As always printmaking is not a straightforward process and comprimises are inevitably made. For the last month or so I have been working on plates that measure 20 x 17 cm aiming for the Finnish exhibition and now I feel the need to work on something larger. I have some large sheets of lino ready to work with and my sketchbooks are full of images I'm itching to develop into prints... most likely reduction prints again. I can't resist them.
I've posted a few of the prints I've produced below. The first is printed in Sepia oil based ink which I felt was too "black". The next I added red to warm up the Sepia, better I thought. The third is the initial inverted "line drawing" stage lino print.
 
Back in FDPW today experimenting with my mice images which I traced onto acetate and cut out to use in monotypes. It was rather fun inking up the perspex plates with the background colour, then inking up the mice and deciding on their placement in the image. I used a small square plate, then a larger rectangular one to include the cheese for the mice to cavort on and around. Finally I tried using two of the square plates, trapping the two mice forever out of reach of the cheese! The only downside was the cleaning up of all the rollers at the end.
 
I tried printing all four of my mice collagraphs over the weekend and was encouraged by the results, patchy as they were. The wiping of the plates is critical as there's really not a lot for the ink to cling to - way too easy to wipe it all off, especially on the light areas which perversely appear dark on the plate. Just when I think I have the knack, the next one disappoints. Such are the joys of printmaking. Perseverance is the key as always. Here are all four in various states...
 
I thought I'd post the plates for my recent mice Collagraphs to give an idea of how this new version works. Rather than being stuck onto the plate the various Lascaux products are simply painted onto the plate, so there is no relief element. Rather it's a case of some holding ink and some not, with variations in between. They are inked as intaglio and the wiping is the tricky part. It is remarkably easy to wipe off too much ink, leaving a pale image. Or of course, too little wiping which leaves a dark image with little detail. Very difficult to see what is left on the plate - perhaps  stronger lighting would help. The first proofs of two of these plates are on my "Collagraphs" page.
 
This week I've been working from my sketchbooks, transforming drawings of mice done last weekend into collagraphs.  I prepared four MDF plates, filing the edges to protect the press and blankets, then sealing them with a few coats of  hard ground (Lascaux). The images were developed using pastelground for the dark areas and stop out for the lighter parts. I was reasonably pleased with the intial proofs, though as always more work is required! The first two were printed using Burnt Umber, the other two with a combination of the Umber and Raw Sienna.  Anyway, have a look at the results on my Collagraph page and see what you think.
 
After struggling through the snow and ice I made it to the Workshop eventually and set about editing my collagraph "Dog and feathers" using the Lascaux Pastel ground to darken areas. As that was left to dry I sealed a new "old style" collagraph using hard ground, left that drying and worked on a neglected linocut, proof printing it. It needs more work, but the two colour print was interesting. Then I printed the "dog dance"  collagraph as a relief print and was pleased with the image. I printed it again, wiping the figure to lighten it. I think it has possibilities, to be pondered over the Christmas period...
 
Our fourth and final week with Carol and Robert, concentrating on Etching using the Lascaux products they developed.  We worked on copper plates using combinations of hard or soft resist, wash resist, stopout, aquatint and plate backing. All modern takes on traditional products and all safe, washable in water or Mystrol.  The aquatint was sprayed on using an airbrush, all the other painted on the plate.  Once the images were complete, the plates were put in the acid bath for around 30 minutes. My plate still needs more work, but I will proof print it on Tuesday to see what it needs.
I think it will take a while to process all the information of the last 4 weeks, covering screenprinting, collagraphs and etching, positives on PVC. I'm sure I've forgotten a lot already, but using their books as reference, I'm sure I'll be incorporating their methods into my work. 

Toray Plates

 
For the final night we were revisiting the plates we had created on the course. I decided to concentrate on the Toray plate I created last week. The original image had been of a misty day on the promenade in Leven, Fife. I had used my Canon Pixma 610 to print it on to tracing paper, but the inks were not opaque enough. After several test exposures we settled on a short exposure of 4 light units. Those using a photocopier or laser printer needed an exposure of 9 light units. In developing the image I was trying  a bit too hard to rub the image into life, but got one of those "happy acidents" where I rather liked the image - despite it bearing scant resemblance to the original.
I also printed a lithograph of my original zebra linocut. After the trouble printing the Omega plates I wanted a strong black and white image to try. It turned out fine, though I prefer the linocut by far.
 
This Wednesday went a lot better using  Toray plates, a silicon coated photosensitive piece of tin. The image has to be on acetate or tracing paper which is then exposed using a lightbox. A protective film is then removed and the plate developed and a purple dye wiped on to show the image clearly. You can feel the slight difference between the developed and undeveloped areas. After a quick rinse and dry the plates are ready to print, using Toray inks which are stiffer and more rubbery feeling than traditional Lithography inks.
The possible pitfalls in this technique are that inkjet prints are probably not going to be lightfast enough, so laser or photocopies again. Then a test strip is necessary to work out the optimum exposure for the image on the lightbox. The developer has to be applied gently with a lint free pad as it is very easy to remove the silicon surface and whatever marks you make will print.
On a positive side, the plates are very thin and can be easily embossed with textures, so plenty of scope for experimentation, combining photographic images with drawings and textures.
I've posted some of the images from last week. None were as I'd hoped, but they were attempts to see if I could reproduce watercolour effects. Obviously needs a lot of work and trial and error yet.
 
Just back from Dundee and a frustrating evening. I do not know what was going on, but we all had great difficulty with our prints tonight. From too pale to too dark, roller marks, water marks, blocking up - just about everything that could go wrong did. So the mood was not quite as buoyant as last week, though we did eventually get a couple of decent prints by the end. Obviously, this process is going to take a lot to master it - maybe "instant lithography" was a somewhat misleading title for the course...