PainterWoman

The art of Printmaking

Wednesday, 16. July 2008, 18:28:59

The results of this process are very enjoyable to me, however, to continue, I would have to have a small press which can be very expensive. The one at the school was about $4000. There are smaller, table top presses and they run about $500. I could also continue this by rubbing w/ a special tool but the results are not exactly what I want. I can't press hard enough it seems.

The artist will paint their image or design w/ printer's ink or paint onto a piece of plexi plate or aluminum plate. The plate is placed on the press table, then damp paper is placed on top of the inked or painted plate, a piece of newsprint placed on top of that to protect any ink from getting on the three different thicknesses of a of type padding that is the last layer. Then you turn the handle and the table runs underneath the press. Usually you will get one good print and a ghost....sometimes even a second ghost. The ghost prints can be drawn on with graphite, color pencils or painted on w/ watercolor to embellish them further.

Relief printmaking is also a fun process whereby you draw onto a piece of wood or lineoleum, then cut away with a special gouging tool the part to have no color. I love the results from this as well but the gouging and cutting eventually causes cramping in my hands and fingers. I must take many breaks when doing this.

One of my favorite artist printmakers is Kathe Kollwitz. Here is one of her self portraits.

I did two monoprints to pay homage to another artist, Edvard Munch, and his painting The Scream, which was stolen from a museum then later found.

Here is one of my Homage to the Scream monoprints:

The rain from Spain finally cameMusic I listen to While Painting No. 1 - Vangelis

Comments

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Nicolas Borgsmidt # 17. July 2008, 10:16

Wow. Fine graphic results. In Denmark we have a lot of old hand operated maschines that were used to press water out of wet laundry. Two rolles are driven round at the end of a plate. We buy them in flea markets now. These rolls are great for grafic pressure. A lot of artists use them

Allan # 17. July 2008, 12:25

Very interesting - these are processes that I have yet to discover.

Thanks for the push in the right direction.

Good work!

Tyler Parke Young # 17. July 2008, 12:44

I am slowly getting an art education from your website. Have you finished that furniture yet? Get up! Drink Coffee! Paint Pictures! Let's Go! I should have been a Drill Instructor.

PainterWoman # 17. July 2008, 14:25

Nic, the printmaking dept. at my school had a couple of those exact machines sitting in the classrooms. No one used them so I'm not sure if they were even usable. Now I wish I'd kept my mother's old washing machine with the wooden rollers!

Alan, if you get a chance, look up Kathe Kollwitz on Wikipedia. She was an amazing artist and her bio is very interesting. The article will have links with more information on printmaking, relief printmaking, etc. I know there are a few details I left out when talking of the process....I kept having to go back and edit as I remembered things. In 'My Art' album, you will see the actual piece of linoleum and wood I cut my design out on. The pieces of tape you see at the edges of the board these pieces are glued on, were for keeping the paper straight.

Tyler, I'm glad you feel I am educating you. Sometimes I amaze myself with what I remember. The furniture is not done yet. My son said to leave the smaller dressers for them to do when they get here. And, yes, I am now drinking coffee and you should have been a drill sargeant......but my ex WAS a drill sargeant....and I didn't listen to him either.

Nicolas Borgsmidt # 17. July 2008, 16:52

You should check out them rolls at your school

Maybe you could look on the internet. We have a lot of dry rollers for sale in denmark

Allan # 17. July 2008, 16:58

I checked it out - including your works. You're good, you know!

Edward Piercy # 17. July 2008, 21:55

How do you deal with the image being reversed when it prints? I mean, it seems it would be tough when you are drawing the original image to think in reverse. I don't think I'm expressing myself very well here.

Tyler Parke Young # 17. July 2008, 22:31

Maybe your ex was a DI, but good he keep the beat on the piano?

PainterWoman # 17. July 2008, 23:50

Nic, I think I'm going to start looking at Goodwill or some salvage yards.

Allan, thanks.

I AM confident about my art....It's the marketing that I've a problem with.

Ed, I getcha. I just draw the image the way I want it, knowing it will be reversed. I would have a huge problem if I tried to think in reverse..... or draw it in reverse......now I don't know if I'M making sense.

Tyler, my ex wasn't a DI, he is old world Italian and seems mad all the time.

deborah # 18. July 2008, 02:53

when i was a teacher's assistant, we used rollers to make photocopies for the tests. you don't have to think in reverse, just copy in reverse -- i.e., you roll the print out in reverse. give me a few more brain cells and i can tell you exactly how it's done. i always did the best copies according to my teacher's deptartment! never got paid for my skills though. i think you shouldn't rule out rubber rollers either! deborah.

Nicolas Borgsmidt # 18. July 2008, 08:38

Good Idea

You might find some other stuff you need too

Tyler Parke Young # 18. July 2008, 13:25

Must be Fascisti. They are alwayst upset. I have a cousin-in-law that married an Italian and she now resides in Italy. Her husband is a Communisti.

PainterWoman # 18. July 2008, 14:04

Deb: Because I don't have the money for a press, I have the small 'brayers'for rolling on the ink and I have this other tool, can't think of the name, that has padding on the bottom and a handle. It is for rubbing the back of the paper. I could also use a wooden spoon for a more crude/rustic result because you'll see the marks of the spoon on the print.

Nic: "You might find some other stuff you need too"
That's what I'm afraid of.

Tyler: Nope, he was neither of those.....just a grumpy man,

never happy w/ anything. Kinda sad really.

I never could figure it out, even after 22 yrs.

Nicolas Borgsmidt # 18. July 2008, 19:53

I know

I do it all the time meself

Tyler Parke Young # 18. July 2008, 21:52

I would rather be happy than not. Life is tuff, but it does have it's moments, you just have to ready for them.

Edward Piercy # 19. July 2008, 18:21

What about silk screen? That's pretty cheap, yeah?

Tyler Parke Young # 20. July 2008, 16:18

On advice about "Art Stuff", I am of no use to anybody.

PainterWoman # 20. July 2008, 21:52

Ed, I don't really know anything about silk screen or if it's cheap or not.

I watched some guy put designs on t-shirts once. It looked like fun. He had a portable machine and paint, so really, anything to do with art seems to cost money.

Tyler, I know....
you can write about an artist character in your next novel.

Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 02:38

Hmm, maybe a piano player. Some parts of art will always be beyond my reach, but B&W drawings are good.

Matthew # 21. July 2008, 18:37

My brother and I created a small press out of an old cider press that we picked up at a flea market. It was a fairly simple conversion, and he did some wood cuts. I think he used it for type, too.

PainterWoman # 21. July 2008, 18:52

Mat, thanks for the idea. I'm going to keep on the lookout for things like this. I bet a good old fashioned wooden rolling pin might do the trick too.

Nicolas Borgsmidt # 21. July 2008, 19:36

A Cake roller!!

Matthew # 21. July 2008, 20:09

Maybe, though I think it would take more pressure than you can generate.

Our biggest problem was that we made the platten out of wood. The metal in the press did pretty well, but the wood bowed under pressure.

Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 21:26

How much pressure are we talking here?

PainterWoman # 21. July 2008, 21:42

I don't know how many pounds of pressure, all I know is that I cannot apply enough pressure with the small hand tool I have for rubbing the back of the paper that's on top of the inked or painted metal plate. I wish I could think of the name of the darn thing.

Using all these ideas, I think I'm going to use a cutting board on the floor as the table, put all the materials on that, then use a rolling pin (or pen?) as the press to roll over the paper. I'm thinking with both my hands and upper body leaning into it, it might work. I don't know. Time for some experimentation.

But it'll have to wait a few days. I'm still working on that damn dresser. It's wearing me out!

Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 21:46

I don't remember much from my 7th grade printing class, but I think that is called a "platen" or something like that. Get the damn dresser done.

PainterWoman # 21. July 2008, 22:13

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baren

FINALLY, I found the name of it. It was bugging me. It's called a 'baren'. The one I have has a padded bottom with a handle.

I'm going to have to leave again. I'm finding that the more I do for other people (even tho some of it I get paid for) the less I get done at my own house. I'm getting wore out and everything here's a mess and maybe that's why I'm out of sorts today.

I'm rarely this way....and that bugs me too.

Tyler Parke Young # 21. July 2008, 22:23

Any free art around here?

deborah # 21. July 2008, 22:42

there sure is lots of free advise and it is very friendly!!!!! painterwoman, this is a very good blog! you deserve an award, imo. i could make you a certificate, but i've run out of colored ink for my inkjet printer and i'm not sure my old copy of ms publisher will work with my xp machine (it was bought for my win98 computer).

i was thinking of template, but i knew that was inaccurate. what if you figured out how to stand on the device? that wouldn't work, becuase the baren has to roll . . . . let me put my thinking cap on. i'll be back!

PainterWoman # 22. July 2008, 00:00

Well, I COULD stand on it but I remember someone telling me in a class that they put the plate and paper underneath one of their car's tires and drove over it.

That was a little too much pressure though. She had a deep imprint of the tire treads on her print. Kinda neat thought! Nothing like improvisation in art.

It's the Brayer that has to roll the ink on, and the Baren is used to rub the back of the paper. Now if I can just remember those words! My print teacher would always get annoyed with me because I would say 'that rolling thing' or 'that rubbing thingy'. He threatened to give us a vocabulary test at one point because we were all saying the same thing!

The Baren I've found on the net doesn't look like the one I have. What I need to do is look at the art supply sites to get a good pic of one.

p.s. I feel better now. I showered, dressed up, and now I'm REALLY leaving for the pet food store and back to my son's to feed his cats.

scott cumming # 22. July 2008, 05:17

real art and 'marketing' don't mix very well. oil and water.

all i need to know is that i am compelled to say something... preferably something new.

kollwitz was a 'driven' artist and i always admired her skill. but it's 'lopsided'. the content appeals to an imaginary compassion... a sentimental substitute for conscience.

we use whatever we can get. we adapt to every medium. we are here to propose the principle that life is a good thing. but there is a lot of confusion about 'expression'. and there is even more confusion about when it is right to cause pain.

you have to go way back and understand the nature of art is to raise the 'food' of impressions to the level of 'beauty' or 'knowledge'.

the 'emperor's clothes' of modern aesthetics is the acceptance of any old thing. right now we are in a wasteland. because no one knows.

PainterWoman # 22. July 2008, 05:59

Scott, thank you for your thoughts.

This said it all: "the 'emperor's clothes' of modern aesthetics is the acceptance of any old thing. right now we are in a wasteland. because no one knows."

scott cumming # 22. July 2008, 06:02

right... when there is confusion about what to value, commerce collapses.

Tyler Parke Young # 22. July 2008, 13:22

"The Shadow Knows"!

PainterWoman # 22. July 2008, 14:18

But I wonder who the shadow is......

p.s. and no free art:D

Tyler Parke Young # 22. July 2008, 21:13

Why Lamont Cranston is "The Shadow". I am showing my age now, and that is for sure.

Matthew # 23. July 2008, 13:09

The lovely Margot Lane is the only other person who knows his identity... well, now we all do, but it used to be just Margot.

Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 13:47

In the early 50s, they were still playing that show on the radio, but by 1957, tv had killed all of the radio shows. Tv sucks your brains out, I swear to god.

Matthew # 23. July 2008, 13:58

Orson Welles played The Shadow (and Lamont Cranston, for that matter) for one of its 21 seasons in the US. Bill Johnstone and Bret Morrison played the title role for many seasons each. "The Shadow's" last US season was 1954.

I think you're about right - '57 was the tipping point - though there were some shows that ran into the 60's. "Have Gun, Will Travel" (remember Paladin?) springs to mind: the TV show actually spawned the radio show. The TV show ran from '57-'63, and the radio show ran for 225 episodes starting in 1958 and ending in 1960.

Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 14:01

"Have Gun, Will Travel, reads the card of a man..." My childhood was when all that stuff was on.

PainterWoman # 23. July 2008, 14:02

"Tv sucks your brains out, I swear to god"

Yes, it certainly can. There are only a few things I watch on a semi-regular basis. The remodeling shows on HGTV have taught me many things and the true cold case and the supposedly fictional crime investigation shows. The one with William Peterson being my favorite. If I were 20 yrs old again, I'd be an artist for the FBI.

Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 14:05

If you were 20 years old again, you woudn't want to work for the FBI. You would think they were dorks. Good morning to you, got your coffee?

Matthew # 23. July 2008, 14:07

Hehehe. At 45, the FBI won't take you, and you couldn't afford to work for them. They don't pay well at all. I have no clue how FBI agents on TV get such nice houses...

PainterWoman # 23. July 2008, 14:14

Personally, I think I'd rather have a dork than a suave, debonaire ladies man.

At 45, they won't take you? Sheesh, I guess at 60 they'd have me dusting their desks.

Tyler Parke Young # 23. July 2008, 14:28

They do get a very liberal travel allowance tho. $60 grand a year isn't enough money for me to be a "bulletstop".

Matthew # 23. July 2008, 15:00

I applied when I was 35, and there was concern as to whether they'd get me through the process before I turned 36 - their cutoff. And I must say, the startign salary was not $60 (that was nine years ago) - closer to half that.

Then they did the background check..

Henar # 24. July 2008, 12:25

Painterwoman, Nice post!

I also love Kathe Köllwitz, in fact all of the german expresionists are great at printmaking (I specially like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff).
I had never heard of ghost prints... that´s a nice idea, and I´m sure you can get really interesting images after working on the prints with other techniques. Thanks for the tip!!!

I had the same problem when I left school... it´s useless trying to get the same quality prints using a baren or a wooden spoon. In Spain it´s also very expensive buying a press, even a small one... I tried looking for a second hand one, but it was not so easy. Anyway, if you find any nice solution, please let me know!

Edwardpiercy, the easiest way to draw the original image and then getting the reverse is scanning it and using photoshop to make it turn over. Then print it and that´s it!
I´ve also done some silk screen printing, and I´m sorry to say that the tools are even more expensive than a press.

What I usually do is design a few prints and then rent a workshop for a couple of hours to get the printing done. In Spain there´s lots of workshops you can rent to do this. This is cheaper than buying a press.

I´ll try scanning a print and poetry book I made, using linoleum, wood and silk screen printing, and hope to have the images in my blog next monday, so you can see the nice results you can get mixing all these techniques.

PainterWoman # 24. July 2008, 13:38

Henar, thank you.

The ghost prints are fun to work on with other mediums. Graphite was usually too light but a very fine point ink pen works great. Many of the students didn't bother w/ ghost prints because it was not a requirement. I always made 1 to 3 depending on how much ink or paint was left on the plate. I knew I wouldn't have access to a press after school but knew I'd have these ghosts to work on.

We have workshops as well but we have to pay in advance for one session a week for six weeks. In a way, it is like a class because there is an instructor but he/she does not grade us and is there only for questions or to show us a technique we have never done before. I experimented a lot in one using cut up prints and collage and using texture. I would place leaves, netting, or other things on the plate after it has been inked, then the paper. Then you will have a white shape of a leaf, or the white texture of netting. Very fun and interesting. The ideas are endless.

scott cumming # 25. July 2008, 05:38

that's not true matthew. one of the requirements of the f.b.i. is a law school degree. maybe it's a government secret? why would a man who spent eight years or more after high school work for little?

if i am wrong you will let me know. are their salaries a matter of public record?

in which case i would say that things are beyond the pale.

Tyler Parke Young # 25. July 2008, 12:07

They get to carry a gun.

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