Solar plate from drawing….

I made this solar plate from a drawing I did at the Australian Museum. At first I traced it onto architect’s drafting film, the way I did with these pomegranates. Unfortunately I over-worked it, which was so obvious because the original was much freer. I threw it away and instead did a photocopy onto acetate.

This has been inked up in black with a raw sienna beak, then masked across the bird while a blue colour roll was put on, then the blend was rolled over the top. It did start with a red crest, but didn’t really show by the time the print was made.

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.

Solar plate etching

A couple of weeks ago I went to David Wilsher’s exhibition on an old ferry at Blackwattle Bay. David, who teaches drawing at the Sydney Community College was successful in gaining a residency on this old ferry. What a treasure trove of images in that area. I took many photos on the day, but the sun was high in the sky, and a week later we went to take photos at 9 a.m.

The last two Saturdays, I did a solar plate etching course with Seraphina Martin. Fantastic! Last week we made four plates and this week we printed them in various ways. The first and second ones  have been inked up a la poupee (different colour inks on different areas).  They are also both photographic, with a bit of Photoshop, then after they were printed onto acetate I worked into them with a stylus.

The last one has been inked up  in a dark brown  and viscosity printed. The first colour roll (the blue) was masked with torn paper, then it was rolled with a blend.  This one was drawn onto architects drafting film with Liquid Pencil, then some stronger darks were put in with a very thick propelling pencil.

I am really pleased with these three. Now I know the process I can’t wait to get some more solar plates and make some at home.