Printmaking

YEAR ONE DAY SEVEN

I didn't take many pictures today.  I thought I had. 

Print room induction today, and introduced to a practice I believe was called Callographing.  It took a a while to get going, as we were making plates from Enviromount, a cheap form of mountboard. The thing with this material is it is made from three distinct layers, so when you have your shape cut out, you can then dig down to those layers, creating different textures as the different qualities of it's construction come to the fore.  And them you can do all the more 'drawing' stuff on top, score lines, make holes, pinpricks.  It is surprisingly malleable.

Then the plates needed varnishing, and let alone for an hour or so to set and make non-porous.

I think I struggled with the initial shapes, I tend to find bold simple lines and not the more subtle textures that my fellow students were able to produce, and then I compounded my error by adding too much ink to the plates on the first try.  I had to stop for a little bit there, and let my mind almost reset and process what I'd done and learn from it.   After watching the rest of the groups first run prints being made, while they started the second runs, my time was spent trying to clean the plates rears of ink.

So I came into my second run late, and it was a more successful try.  After that, I started experimenting, first on a piece that had been created yesterday instead of onto a plain sheet of paper, and then by reprinting onto the same sheet multiple times with the same image, getting a cascadeing and fading effect that I kind of liked.

I'm considering returning at some point later in the week if I have chance.