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.

Two more royal collographs

Two more collographs from my British Royals series, others of which can be seen  here and here. The one in the green dress is Mary Queen of Scots. She was pretty scary looking when I did the first proof. However, I then added some Matt Gel Medium to her face, with a little Burnt Sienna added. That meant that I could see her features & what they were likely to print. Previously I’d just used Gel or Impasto, which was a bit silly of me. Mary’s face, hair and hands were inked up in Raw Sienna, then  the dress in green and the chair and underskirt in blue.  I did a yellow colour roll and then a blend, of which I had the reddish- brown at the top. I then wiped back her face and hands.

Ann of Cleves was printed on a different day, with different colours on the rollers, but still a yellow for the first roll, then a blend with pinkish-red at the bottom. She has been inked up initially in Prussian Blue and Sanguine. ‘In the flesh’ the sanguine looks marvellous.

Printmaking is over for the year now. What a shame. I will miss it.

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.

Mary and Henry – collographs

Last Sunday we had another Printfest day, with teacher Seraphina Martin, viscosity printing collographs. Here are two from my new series of Royals. These two are the ones I’m most pleased with.

Making the collograph plate of Queen Mary was the most interesting. I used Impasto Medium to paint her face, and as I was doing it, it became obvious to me that Queen Mary’s bone structure is so like Princess Anne’s.

I can remember the day Queen Mary died. I was in the ‘office’ of my father’s furniture shop, and he explained to me that the reason that there was only dirges on the radio was because the old Queen had died. How times change!

But the other interesting thing about that is that my fathers ‘office’ was also used for furniture finishing, and it smelt of wood shavings and shellac. Now I am using shellac to seal my collograph plates – we’ve gone full circle.

Henry looks evil, doesn’t he? I’ve got another one where he has a green birthmark- it’s worse. I found by trial and error that the portrait ones work best if the faces are wiped back after the colour rolls.  I didn’t do quite so many prints last week, as I inked up the portrait ones a la poupee (see glossary) instead of inking up the whole plate with the same colour.  So I DO have more to show you, but no time to scan them at the moment. It’s been a busy week.

Fortunately Seraphina has extended the Printfest (yippee, yippee) and will be having another day late in September. I’ll try to finish my plate of Queen Victoria for that one. She’s wearing the same tiara as Mary.

Royal collographs – and the plates.

This print is a new one made from an old collograph plate that I made when I was at the Sydney Gallery school, maybe 5 years ago. This image was mostly made using impasto, on a base of mat board. A paper serviette was cut for the ruff collar, a piece of textured paper and a sticker for the headdress, and some minute sequin-type objects to decorate the dress. The hair and the fan are also textured papers.

You can see better on the collograph plate. This is the reverse image on mat board that one inks up and puts through the printer with the paper.

I’m now  doing a series of royals, but the only print I’m satisfied with so far is the new one of Elizabeth at her coronation.  This one also uses impasto, but a lot of stickers. Those gold ones that you have to pick off the backing paper- the ones that sometimes say ‘happy birthday’. I think you can probably see them quite clearly on the plate. The snood is fine Japanese paper with a grid texture, and the dress is fine paper that has a silver and white swirly print. (You can see that effect best on the bodice.)

I’ll be reprinting some of my other new ones (Queen Mary, Henry VIII, Catharine of Aragon) next weekend.

Finally ….more collographs

It’s over a week ago that I did another Sunday printing collographs with Seraphina Martin. Another terrific day. I had NINE new plates to print. Some of them are from my ’ships and  shipwrecks’ theme, and others are my new theme ‘queens & kings’. There are such beautiful textured papers about, and not all of them are organic in style, so they’re not all suitable for the ships. I have the Gloriana plate that I love, so I decided to do another series in that dIrection. I  printed all nine new plates. Some are better than others. Portraiture, of course, is not easy. Some of the ones I printed are definitely only ‘proofs’. I will have to ink them up ‘a la poupee’ to get a better result. (See glossary).

I wonder what other people think about ‘tinkering’ with prints, when they’re not wholly successful. If you’re at art school, being assessed on your printmaking skills – well, then its unthinkable.   But how about now – when I’m only doing printmaking for pleasure. The paper is expensive (I use B F K Rives) and the prints are perfectly all right give or take a bit of coloured pencil.

Anyway, these prints have not been tinkered with. They’re how they came off the press. I’ll have to post the ‘royals’ next time.

No time to do it now.