Colligraph Project

The other two projects in print making class did not bring me as much satisfaction as this one.  I am a former farm wife, which can be a detriment in the process of creating something that needs fine tuning.  I tend to work fast and hard to get the job done.  Such as with picking fruit or a canning project.  I think this could have come out better had I been more careful and thoughtful about the outcomes.  If I had tweaked them, I might have had a whole set of really nice prints.  But, all in all, I am the happiest with this project.  I did get five final acceptable prints and three good artist proofs. 

The process begins with a photograph which is scanned into the computer and printed out on regular paper.  We took a piece of mat board and painted it with Wintergreen oil, and inverted the paper onto it.  The winter green oil takes the ink off the paper and transfers it onto the mat board.  We then took our razor knife and cut out the darker areas.  We also built up lighter areas with paper cut to fit.  I added sand to glue for the leaves.  I used oregano  for the foreground texture.  I later used a puddy type product on the second run.  The first set of prints had a sink hole form appear in the lake.  I glued string for branches.  After we finished adding the textures or subtracting paper layers we coated it with elmers glue mixed with medium and then sprayed it with a majic gloss finish.

Calcium carbonate is added to the ink to make it thicker and stickier. The ink is mixed with the calcium and then applied to the plate.  Next we wipe it off.  Sadly, I have a photo of the tarlatan below.  The tarlatans are stiff cheesecloth which are used to remove excess ink. Prior to printing after you have removed the right amount of ink, we were taught to do a "palm wipe" with the edge of our hand.  This is to remove any lines that the tarlitan might have created.  We used Reives bfk paper, which is not cheap!  We needed five final prints.  The paper is soaked and blotted.  We created a newsprint  template to set the plate on so that the print came out centered on the paper.  We ran it through the press.

The plate became totally black, with applied ink.  See the sink hole below(on a final print)?!

Minus the sink hole with texture added on the bottom.  I think that I applied to much ink on the lower right corner. The above photo is not straight in front of the camera.  The subject is Kershaw Park.

Ceramics 1-Progressing Nicely--Coil and Slab

These are the "coil method" projects(two-fold).  One was to have the coil shape as part of the design, which is below(the bread basket).  The other was supposed to demonstrate the joining of the coils, with the coil shape not as obvious(ship/bowls).  These coil viking ships have been fired and  glazed, since this photo, - but not  fired a second time, to my knowledge

  I drew a sketch of what I wanted to do prior to commencing the project.  The little pot did not resemble the sketch enough so I started again.  I went back and completed the first attempt. This  second completed project was not for a grade.

 This picture shows the pots prior to their first firing. (Leather hard, approaching greenware)  The pot on the left is for the assigment.  There is a sail motif on the other side of the ship/pot.

This, above, was trashed.

To be sure that drying is slow, we add plastic to thinner areas, to keep in moisture.

I painted this with slip, to many of the areas where the sections join together.

This is my bread basket.  This is also prior to the first firing. (greenware stage)  When this was created, the top of a kettle was uses as a form.  My first attempt was trashed as I forgot to line the inverted lid with plastic, to facilitate removal of the piece!

 All three pieces survived and progressed to being bisque ware.  I offered my retired father the chance to choose the color of the basket.  Glaze was applied prior to Thanksgiving vacation.  It should be reddish orange when I check it out tomorrow--Unless, of course, there was no firing.

Our next project is also two fold.  We are using the slab method.  One is soft slab, which I do not have a picture of.  I draped a soft slab over 3 spheres, a tennis ball, a super ball and another middlesize ball.  After it firmed up I attached tiny ball and worm shape figures on it. It resembles an enlarged bacteria.  I am excited to see how it will come out.  I will have fun picking out colors.  Above is the hard slab method.  It is an impression of the front of my hous.  It is not an exact replica, but it is close.  

The Self Portrait In Oil

 This is the professor's example of her "self".  This was a demo of a "couch" procedure.

People told me this was not that good--charcoal on canvas preliminary drawing.

Nobody liked this one either- This is an imprimatura- as I did not understand the "couch" procedure.

This is the second attempt at the charcoal preliminary drawing, which is sprayed with fixative, prior to the green earth painting.

My attempt at a couch.

Coming along..many say it is not really a good likeness.  We are still using a limited palate.  Five additional colors, to the four we had for the last project.

I will finish the clothing, and take away the top of the eyebrows and possibly darken the white of the left eye.

My instructor helped change the complexion to be less like a zombie and I was also told to warm up my hair and soften the edges of my bangs.  I changed the background color.  Finished!!!