More solar plates

As I said, the photocopy situation is solved. A friend suggested we go to COFA Digital Print and Copy where their business is printing and they have properly maintained machines and a very helpful lady who actually understands what solar plates are. It was a breeze and a fraction of the cost of Officeworks. So I had some great new images to print on Sunday. There were NO issues making the plates. They exposed perfectly.

So now I’m the Bin Lady. I must say I think my bin images come out best. This top one is inked up a la poupee and has a very faint yellow colour roll.

The next one is not a bin, surprisingly but some pipe-things that were very bright yellow in real life. I did two versions of this with a colour roll with a blend. The other one is red at the front going to yellow at the back.  In both cases of course, the cool colour is receding.

Then next I have one of my favourite images – the bent bin. This bin actually is green, so I inked it up in green & the rest of the plate in burnt sienna. Then I did the colour roll on top with the blend echoing the green on the right.

The last one is these tube-things. Just inked up in black with a colour roll of red to yellow. These things were very red and rusty in real life, so next time I’ll ink them up in something with a lot of red in it.

Solar plate etching

The thing about solar plate etching is that the photocopying is so important.  Earlier in the year, when I did the course, I did the photocopying in the office. However when I looked at the acetate outside in the light, many of them were unusable, because the photocopier just wasn’t up to scratch.  This time I went to Officeworks. Mistake. You can’t do your own photocopying and you can’t stand over them to see if they have the right settings.

This was the first time I’d made solar plates at home by myself, so it was a bit scary. Luckily I read the instructions and got a clean piece of muslin out for if the plates stayed sticky in patches when I washed them.  Sure did – well two out of three. The bin at the top was less dark and it came out fine, but the others were not so good. However I like the wheels one, so I’ll make another plate of that one – do another acetate.

These were printed at the end of August and all that day we did viscosity printing, with stencils. The top one has had the centre part masked and a very light yellow colour roll, then a blend on a different roller. The ‘wheels’ has had all the background masked while the yellow roll was done. The bins at the bottom had the centre bin masked while a blue  colour roll was put on. This plate was made back in March and I’d previously inked it up a la poupee.

I was printing again on Sunday, and have the photocopying issue solved, and finding making the plates really easy. Decided I prefer to do a la poupee, even though it’s slower. All these images are from the Heritage Shipyard or ithe surrounding shipyards.

Drawing my books

I always have a big pile of books (or two) beside my bed.  Inspired by this drawing, and again, in search of inspiration for the ‘journal challenge’ I drew some of my books. I was on a ‘B’ page of my altered book of dreams, so I left the original text about the meaning of a dream about books.

See the third book down – the biography of Patrick White written by David Marr?  Two nights ago I went to a this talk at COFA, and heard that David Marr keeps his piles of books in his lounge rather than his bedroom. It was a very interesting talk for many reasons. There was one philanthropist, one writer (David Marr) and one collector, speaking on the subject of ‘Why Art Matters’. I went along because David Marr was going to be there. Last year I heard him speak about the Henson case about which he has written a book. He is so intelligent, knowledgeable and witty.

Question time was particularly illuminating. A question was asked whether art for an upcoming art festival should be written about in ‘academic language’ or whether it should be in ‘plain language’ so that the punters could read it. It’s good to know that such esteemed and highly educated people as the speakers share my loathing of artspeak.

I’m not sure, but it’s possible that this talk may later be found on COFA Online

My drawing was done in a big rush with an Artline pen over Gesso, with Tombow pens for the colour, and watercolour crayons for the background.

Chillies in acrylic

Another journalling spread of chillies on black gesso. I’m not finished with this chilli theme. I’ll do some more small ones for studies and then a large painting. It’s far more vibrant in acrylics than the Conte crayons, and quicker too.  In using an altered book, I’m glueing pages together and removing some, so that it doesn’t get too thick when I gesso all the time. This means that the pages have a bit of a ripple sometimes, and that the gutter is very pronounced. This means it always has to be worked around in some way. This is why I have a border down the side of this page, otherwise my gutter would be down the centre of the centre pot.

I’m still not convinced about this ‘art journal’ business. I am just pressing on till the end of September in the hopes that I create some good habits that I’ll use in my sketchbook. My ‘main’ sketchbook is handmade from Stonehenge paper. Nearly all the pages have been prepped in some way – mostly by just sloshing on a wash of whatever is on my palette when I’m painting. So that is not new – I just want to write more, though without turning it into a diary, and to compose the page spreads with more thought.

Drawing from the fridge

Persevering with the journal challenge. When in doubt I look in the fridge. I’d realised ahead of time that I would be short on inspiration and in a rush, so I shopped accordingly.

This is another gessoed page in my altered book of dreams. I drew very fast, almost like blind contour drawing. I used  an Artline pen (which I’m starting to prefer over the Pigma Micron) then coloured with watercolour pencils. The background was done with Aquash watercolour crayons, blue & yellow, then wet. Note that the collage has gone by the wayside. I’d had to get out too much stuff and spend too much time sorting through it. I’m 100% decided that collage in my sketchbook must be relevant, like this one. Then it’s easy – you have the stuff on the day & just glue it in.

Chillies in pastels

This is a spread from the journalling challenge. This time on BLACK gesso. Earlier this year, Mignon Parker came into the office and did a demo on black gesso and I’ve been longing to try it ever since. (Mignon is doing a free workshop at the Derivan Open Day, but sorry, it’s full).

Just after that I spotted some gloriously coloured pots of chillies outside the local florist, photographed them with my phone, and have been longing to draw them ever since.

This is conte crayons and conte pencils, two layers. Unfortunately the fixative spray deadened the colours a lot. Not sure why. I haven’t had that happen before, but then in pastels I’ve always worked bigger. This is a first study for a painting on black gesso. There’s second one done, but haven’t had time to put it on the blog yet.