A few more trials, colourways and experiments with the White Hart.
Probably the best print, with reasonable registration.
I added a few gold leaves to this one.
It will be my P&L New Year Greeting.
I think I will cut the plate one more time and add one more darker colour before I am finished with it. The more I print the more possibilities come to mind … but I have to move on.
I returned to the White Hart yesterday. However I realised this piece of lino was damaged so is not printing well. It was a spare piece.. and now I know why. It’s so important to ensure the lino is dead flat or ink rolling and printing is a nightmare and this has a dip in the middle.
But I have printed some and will use them for experiments.
I printed a few different colours of the first cut, then over printed the second cut with different colours again with very interesting and unexpected results.
White Hart and Willows, reduction print 6 x 8 inches
A bit more playing around to come..
A couple of years ago when I first started exploring the local tracks I saw a muntjac deer. I hadn’t seen many of these curious little deer before and it appeared out of the bushes up on the track by the railway line. It was very pale against the dark foliage like a little ghost. It delicately stepped away into the undergrowth again. I thought it was quite lovely. I made a very small note in my sketchbook at the time..along with a couple of terns.
Muntjac deer… and terns July 2011
I remembered this pale image yesterday when I was wondering about another small lino to use up the scraps. And I then thought about the White Hart, the emblem of Richard II and an auspicious beast for the turn of the year. A sighting will bring good fortune. It seemed a good subject.
My lino cut cannot compete with the exquisite White Hart of the Wilton Diptych, Richard’s most beautiful portable alter piece, but I decided to use it as my starting point. I wanted to keep the familiar heraldic pose.
First thumbnail
Pencil Rough. I altered the front leg to make a better silhouette
I altered the angle of the head to be more engaging.
First cut of the lino and first test proof. It is going to be a reduction print so I have to be methodical and think about what I am doing.
More tomorrow and for the next few days, I think.
Just one of those weeks with constant interruptions. It’s just the time of the year I think. For me, printmaking really needs some thought and is quite a slow process. It’s not yet as easy as just picking up a pencil or a brush. So progress on the dragon print based on the sketch of my lost ceramic piece is slow.
I made endless roughs and sketches and could not come to a conclusion. I know what I would like to achieve ( but I think that’s probably a bit of a mistake with printmaking) but am quite a way from that yet. So in the end I just got started with some experiments and I hope something will emerge.
I have some basic cut out shapes using the easicut stuff so I can experiment with placing them at random and sort of “assemble” the image.
Basic design and first cuts
Trials and tribulations…..
.. but I like this bit!
I always tell my students that if one square centimetre of a piece of work is Ok then it’s a success.
I have some small offcut pieces of lino and while I am trying to work out the dragon print ideas I thought I would try out some different printing methods. With a Year of Beautiful Beasts coming too I thought a few small animal prints might be good. So I am going to use the offcuts to make a series of odds and ends.
I realised I have not really made the white of the paper work for me yet so sketched a design where the white would be a distinct shape. It’s really playing with positive and negative and light, mid and dark tones. I tried different coloured mid tones. It is very interesting how it changes the emphasis.
Initial Sketch with Print Stages
The lino plate with a single black print of the lizard
I am rather fond of this lone bird which of course was obliterated in the second cutting of the block. I can always do another.
Lizard and Bird: pursued by Small Ancestral Pterodactyl
a reduction lino print : size 2.75x 5.50 inches
The pigs are back with a few more printed up for cards..it’s that’s time of the year!
This combination started off as a bit of a mistake but worked out much better than I had imagined so I decided to make a few more. That, to me, is the joy of printmaking. I am never quite sure what I am going to get
Blue pig
…..and then a few more colours…
They are delightful.. even tho’ I say it myself.
When we moved here we bought a little cherry tree. Year one, it had 5 cherries. A crow hopped down from the roof one day and ate them all. I watched it carefully assess each cherry and leap up with an aim that was true and unnerving. The crows great flapping black body almost engulfed the tree.
Year two, there were maybe thirty cherries. I managed to pick 10 for us. The rest were stripped by our lovely thieving blackbirds. I had jotted down a tiny note for a print in my sketchbook.
The note I made while sitting on the sofa and watching the cherries disappear.The blackbirds worked in pairs.
I had started this lino in the summer and was not too happy with it. It was too busy for one dark colour so I decided to jigsaw it. It needs some more work and some more thoughts about the colours and backgrounds but has possibilities.
The jigsaw plate inked up and some trials.
I wonder how many cherries we will have this coming year. Our blackbirds are very happy, healthy and legion!
I printed some more pigs today. This time a yellow plate first then a circle of a deeper yellow, then what remains of the original plate in deep blue.
Sunny pig: Image 3 inches square
I now have a nice batch of about 20 cards. Some I printed directly onto the paper cut to size. It’s very tricky to get them right. Some I printed on different papers, trimmed them up and tipped them onto the card. I like both of the colour variations and there are many more possibilities. I have learnt quite a bit about overprinting and quite a bit more about the virtues of being patient.
Sunny pigs on my desk
and a Perfection of Pink Pigs on Dad’s old desk
So here is the pig again, this time a tiny vinyl block just 3 inches square. I am planning a reduction print of 4colours. And wanted it to be quite simple.
Drawing on the Vinyl
I had roughly thought about the colours and jotted them down. I then went over the main lines with felt tip, because the pencil will disappear, and starting to cut away for the areas that will remain white.
I made a simple registration plate and started the first colour.
Pink for ears, nose jacket collar and trotter.
I am trying to print quite a few because this will be a reduction and I am finding my success rate is a bit low.
Third and fourth colours were varied both in success and in colour. The more times you print the more the chance for errors.
Four colours, which I think is probably a little too many for something this size.
Four colours, the red colour printed through a mask: Very fiddly.
The images are 3 inches square
I hope to get 10 useable prints in all which is not too bad! It has taken two days in all. I am sure I will get quicker!
I have bought a few basics for etching. Some small zinc plates, some hard and soft ground and a scraper/burnisher.
But for etching on metals you need lots more stuff and I had to read up how to do it again. A file for the edges, a hot plate (or the cooker :) for warming the plate for the application of the ground and a roller for applying this sort of ball ground (which I don’t have). Then there is the etching solution.
I found an old file of Dads and filed down the edges of a small 4 x4 inch zinc block which I bought from the very nice people at Hawthorn Printmaking who have supplied lots of my printmaking stuff, the etching chemicals and lino and inks and a roller etc. They are a great company.
You bevel and polish the edges to stop them cutting into the paper and the blankets and in order not to have a black border. It should be a smooth bevel… mine was a bit rough.. but I think it’s all in the technique.
After that it’s degreasing the plate with some Comet and then my very hit and miss application of the hard ground. I don’t have a roller I can sacrifice so tried to brush it on.
It started off much too thick and so chipped when I scratched into it, so I tried again. Then I thought it was too thin.Then seemed too patchy. In all I started drawing different things on this block and then reapplying the ground 4 times.
Eventually, it just had to do and I made a sketch of my Pig in Jacket. It’s a little porcelain pig which I had for many years. Sadly, along with almost everything else I owned it was lost 3 years ago in the fire. But because of the pig project I looked out a photo. He is very sweet and deserves a really nice drawing or painting which I will get round to soon.
The next step was taping the back of the plate so that it doesn’t disintegrate in the etch.
Sketch, and patchy hard ground with the drawing
Next I made the etching solution which I had to look up online. It’s basically copper sulphate and salt. It’s the first time I have ever made up an etching solution, the only other times I have etched a plate the tutors had a nice acid solution made up.
This is classed as “ non toxic” .. but should perhaps be called less toxic. It’s a beautiful blue green liquid and when the plate went in I had no idea how long to leave it in or what would happen. I gave it about 10 mins and took it out thinking it was a complete disaster and that my patchy ground was a failure..but.. to be honest it wasn’t too bad!
The green etching solution and the hard ground being removed.
I removed the ground to reveal something like the image I had expected with a few strange additions. It’s a bit of a mess because I had started drawing into the ground a few times so there are some odd scratches here and there which don’t really make sense but, actually, I was amazed it worked. Another bit of printy magic.
I was rather too keen to get some images printed and made a few really poor pale prints before realising I would have to tighten the press much more and leave more ink on.
Eventually by 5 o’clock I had a few prints left on the table and lots more in the bin.
The Plate and the Pig
My Pig in Jacket…with a bird which seems to have a strange lasso thing round it’s head. Either that or the pig is wielding a small hacksaw.. Hmm…who knows.
I want to try some more etching and so thought I would print up some of the old USA plates to get me going. I had made them in Florida at an evening class run by David Hunter. David’s work is classic, detailed, precise and lovely. I learnt a lot in just a term.
Here is one of his etchings called Fisher Creek. It is the quintessential Florida waterline with elegant white egrets slowly flapping along past the strange knees of the Bald Cypress trees. He achieves a lovely range of tones in his prints which can really only be seen in the originals.
Fisher Creek 12 x 6 inches. See more of David’s work on his website here
The plates were one of the few art things that made it back to me in the UK. The USA customs “took” all my watercolours and best brushes. I guess these plates were not immediately useful!
So here they are, the Bee, Jessie my old lurcher, and some decorative plates which I combined with the bee. They seem Ok, except for some oxidisation spots here and there but they are fine for some experiments.
Inking up an etching plate is so different from lino. I remembered using bits of card for applying the ink and then scrim and tissue to clean up. Wiping away is an art in itself as you can clean up too much, or leave the ink patchy.
Then the paper needs to be dampened and then blotted and I had to make a different sort of registration plate and adjust the press.
Also I was using oil based inks which means more cleaning up.
The 5 prints I managed were varied; some over inked, some not inked up enough, one single bee not too bad. None really perfect. It’s a learning process.
This plate was made with soft ground and impressed leaves. (I think this technique is rather frowned upon by purists!)
This is a combination of the bee and the ginkgo
Here are the five prints two Jessies, and the Bee and Ginkgo combos plus the plates.
I am going to try different sorts of plates, acrylic, paper and maybe, when I feel ready some copper. Tomorrow I am attempting to prepare a zinc plate. It will be interesting!
