Friday, June 11, 2010

If there is only one god........Epiphany



I have never really liked watercolor or painting for that matter. I love what other people can do with watercolor but for me its hard to work with, finicky and has too many of its own opinions on the way things should be, i like a little more control so i have changed gears. I mean the wood already has its input then you add watercolor to the mix and i hardly have any say at all. Then it just popped into my head ^%&$#** WATER SOLUBLE CRAYONS **(*&&*! I used to make silkscreen monotypes with them. They are heavily pigmented, water soluble, lightfast and will sit on top of the wood instead of soaking into it and its more like drawing than painting. Neocolor II Aquarelle Artists' Crayons are ones i have. In addition to changing to the crayons i also changed the way i print the block. Instead of spritzing the block now i tape the paper into place on the block with gummed paper then fold it back and moisten the paper with a sponge flip back onto the block and print with a baren. I get good coverage the first time so i don't have registration/paper stretching/buckling problems anymore. I might have gone too far with "sprinkles" one the ghost print but it was fun and now i will keep all the sharpening shavings in containers for possible future use.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

If there is only one.......day two



i printed one print and one ghost print today. i didn't add any more paint to the background. the ghost print colors seems to be more consistent so my paint thicknesses probably need to be thinner still to get an even look on the first print. widening the lines helped keep paint where it was supposed to be i think they could be wider still... next print.

If there is only one god then what happened to the other ones?


Artist: Viza Arlington
Title: If there is only one god then what happened to the other ones?
white line woodblock print on Rives BFK
image size:18X24 inches

I used Beech for this and its so darn hard i decided to use a wood burning tool for the lines but even that had a tough time cutting through. i used a bit too much water on this one plus my lines are too shallow and thin so i had some running together. I also think that i laid down too much/too thick watercolor for most of the colors. I went back and widened my lines last night but haven't printed another one yet so we''ll see if that helps. since these prints take so long to complete the learning curve is also slow. I should probably make some smaller pieces to practice on but i guess i just like doing things the hard way. why else would i have even started these white line prints? They are so not efficient and kind of go against everything "printmaking" but i can't stop for some reason.