Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Garlic print update


I started printing color #2 on the garlic last night. This was mostly a test; I used some "reject" prints first, and then used one or two that were close to being reject.

 

Results are mixed. The colors look great together, and I like the overall effect, but proper registration has been tough. This print has more tiny details and thin lines than had the giraffe print, and I didn't leave room for mistakes (with the giraffe, due to the nature of the shapes and how I carved them, very slight registration problems weren't as noticeable.) Being a millimeter off makes a big difference.

 

The hardest part, though, is the ink. The only thing I've ever used is Speedball water-soluble ink; it's the only thing I've seen at any local stores. However, every printmaker whose opinion I've heard has been sort of down on those inks. At the very least, I'd like to switch to oil based, because the drying time for water based ink is so short that it makes the work sort of frustrating. It's also supposed to transfer better, which I would appreciate.

 

I won't be doing another reduction-cut print for a while. If I can generate a little art supplies capital, I'll get some better ink and better paper, and then I'll do it again. For a while I'll just stick with single-color prints, though.

 

I don't want to sound too down on the garlic prints, though. It's tough work, but I'm optimistic about the results.

 

(photos to follow sometime soon)

 

1 comment:

  1. Registration is certainly the bane of multi-colour printmaking. It's worth investigating different registration methods until you find one that works pretty much consistently. I have found very good luck with this one; however, if you hand burnish your work, you'd have to carefully flip everything over. It does work - all of my students used it at my recent Williams Lake workshop, and the registration was consistently very good.

    Many WetCanvas printmakers swear by Printmakerguy's pin registration method. I have used it, but I'm lazy, and it's a lot of set up work.

    I'm looking forward to seeing the results nonetheless. Thanks for popping by my blog - of course, please link away.

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