Allo, Allo, Allo, wot's going on 'ere then?

I had some adventures with the copper today.

I printed out the little copper etching of the carpet bag and was pleased that the softground had not completely wrecked the plate. To be honest, I am quite chuffed at the result. I took a quick proof and did a little burnishing to highlight some areas. I think the background just needs a dark aquatint for drama, then I should be ready to print my edition. This image is my pulp adventurer's carpet bag, a parody of Phylius Fogg's travel bag from "Around the World in 80 Days", by Jules Verne. I think I feel comfortable calling my character "Lady Penelope Pinkerton-Smythe". I think that sounds like a woman that does not put up with any fuss and nonsense.

The softground is quite subtle after all, phew!

Here I have applied the aquatint using paint. In the past I had used a pretty toxic powder that would settle on the plate (and in the lungs probably), then be melted on. I seem to remember setting fire to this substance in the past, hmmm good job there are alternatives.

I had two goes at applying the aquatint, the first was too even, typical! The times you want it free from blobs you get them, now that I wanted some nice random blobs they did not want to oblige. Second time was much better.

The green area is where I am using Stop Out to protect the image from the ferric chloride. The unpainted areas should get the tone from the aquatint.

I also took a proof from the balloon etching that I am making a start on. This copper etching is taking longer to form. So far I have dipped the plate into the Ferric Chloride twice after working and reworking the plate. Lady Penelope joined Phylius Fogg in his balloon as they travel over Paris.

I messed around with the camera so sorry for the shadow.

I think it might be fun to have Lady Penelope take various adventures around the world and/or through time. I have a few ideas about how she might make statements about various cultural changes of our contemporary lives as seen through her eyes.

Cheers to Lady Penelope Pinkerton-Smythe, may she have many extraordinary voyages!

Encaustic Monoprint Technique

Today I visited a printmaking friend's studio. Amy is experimenting with encaustic monoprints. I have never heard of this before so I was excited to have a demo. Here is the basic process: 1. Heat up the homemade heat box. 2. Rub the beeswax pigment sticks on the metal surface of the heat plate to melt them. Create a design on the plate with one or more colors. Step 3. Lay a piece of rice or rag paper face down on the painted design and cover with newsprint. Burnish. Step 4. Carefully pull the paper away from the heat plate. Steps 5-6. Clean the heat plate with paper towels. Add more color to the heat plate and repeat the process to add patterns or more color to the print. The smell of the wax is yummy and the pigments are really thick and rich to work with. I had a little play to get a feel for what the print is like (image below). Now I want to build a heat box and play!!

Peacock Paintings/prints

I'm working on the peacock paintings at the moment and some relief prints. I am slowly filling in the shapes and colors of the paintings, starting from the top and working down with each color. I'm grouping them with my 8 color reduction cut relief print. Also a feather linocut and painting, both in their early stages. The linocuts below are variation experiments based on the imagery above. It still feels like I am a long way to completion, but hopefully they will pull together fast at the detail stage.

DeMeng Workshop

We made crazy vehicles in Michael DeMeng's workshop. Here are a selection of some of the works in progress: Here we had a critique with Michael discussing everyone's progress. I loved this steampunked up critter! This is the cool studio by the harbor that we worked in for four days, pretty cool view! Later in the day we had a project with Tracy and Teesha Moore with a bunch of artists from different workshops.

Cricketts Inky Art Blot

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