Summer I session with Printmaking Survey was both awesome and exhausting. Five weeks (give or take), and each week entailed (a) learning a brand new printmaking method and (b) creating and executing an image concept.

Methods learned, in order: collagraphy (interesting and fun but not quite to my taste), zinc engraving (very cool; would do this again if I had access to the specialized chemicals, not to mention an intaglio-style press), linocut and woodcut (planning to do some more of this on my own this summer), and finally lithography (glad to learn the process... NEVER WANT TO DO IT AGAIN).

Here, in no special order, are pictures of some of the fruits of my labors... taken with my crappy "camera" (hello, trusty iPod touch). ("Decent digital camera" is pretty high on my wish list, though below "large-bed high-quality scanner" and "graphical tablet".)

First, the zinc plate engraving, for which I did a portrait of a fictional character I'd made up for a long-running Werewolf: the Apocalypse online game. I was actually quite happy with the composition of this, though of course there are things I know I could tweak.

The first proofs, which were just line art, came out pretty nice. Adding aquatinting for shades of grey made the composition even better, though actually applying it was like painting with tar. Took some practice to "get" wiping the plate, and several sheets of tarleton were sacrificed in the process.

 

Block relief printing (linocut and woodcut) was the most accessible, though I learned that it does take some practice to get the inking and printing part right. Lots of proofs with "salty" areas (specks of white, which can be cause by (a) not enough ink, (b) too much ink, or (c) not enough printing pressure).

More animal imagery, as you can see, though in my defense, the linocut project actually called for that. The 12x12 square was the main project plate, while the 6x12 was supposed to be for practice. Hah! "Practice." I fell in love with this stuff very quickly and enjoyed the heck out of making these. Especially the werewolfy guy, since he started out life as a throwaway sketch from my Figure Drawing class sketchbook.

Really tempted to print werewolf guy on a t-shirt.

The woodcut was done on a big ol' piece of MDF (medium density fiberboard). Fiberboard = no woodgrain to fight. Also pretty cheap, though I think the linoleum is more convenient to get in smaller pieces.

Always fun to work large, though printing was kind of a pain (though not a quarter of as much of a pain as with lithography...). I'm quite happy with how the wolf's fur came out, especially. And of course the woodcut look is classic.

Finally, lithography. Oh, lord, lithography.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's an ingenious method of printmaking, and in the days before scanners and photocopiers and such, it was pretty much the only way for an artist to make many copies of what looks like a graphite drawing. I absolutely get the historical significance, and as I said earlier, I'm very happy to have learned the process.

I wish we'd had two weeks for this project instead of one, though; one week for the drawing (which due to the nature of the ball-grained aluminum plate and the litho crayons, required some very careful and methodical drawing) and one week for the printing. I draw fast (it's a blessing and a curse) and pushed myself, and I managed to get prints done shortly after class on Thursday, the only person to get prints done that early. (A few people got some done during the weekend, and everyone else was printing on Monday and Tuesday, the last two days of class.)

This rewarded me with being able to focus on previous projects' printing for the final portfolio. It also gave me all-over body aches for Thursday night and a heck of a broken blister on my left hand, at the base of my thumb. Ow.

Yes, suffering for one's art is physical as well as emotional and mental.

Anyway. Donkeys! Because donkeys are awesome and fun to draw. (I wish I could be more poetic than that, but believe me, by this time I felt creatively wrung-out.)

 

Not shown: my collagraphy prints. No real reason except that while I enjoyed the process and got some interesting abstract pieces, I don't find them especially exciting.

And that's my tale of adventures in Printmaking! Very cool, very enjoyable, very tiring.