365 Day 206

awww...our last session of relief printmaking

Tonight was our last session in the eight-week course of relief printmaking taught by Shaqe Kalaj at Art & Ideas Gallery in Plymouth, MI. Wow...the time really passed quickly!

Tonight we completed our 2-color ink printing process. Last week we printed the first color and then took our blocks home to carve out the other areas during the week. Tonight we learned to register the blocks and then print with black over the base color.




Shaqe started with Carla's print. (I missed shooting Shaqe showing us how to line the block up.)










Shaqe is re-inking a spot here.

















Now Shaqe and Carla are looking at the print that Shaqe just pulled.









Next comes the demo with my prints. I used red as my color and that ink was a lot more watery than the blue. It was a teensy bit frustrating to work with last week and my prints show it...LOL. But this is a learning exercise and I DID learn a lot from all the steps!


















Getting ready for Shaqe to come and print one of mine.


















Shaqe inking up my Blick Golden-cut block.














In the meantime, Carla has pulled a great print!

















Shaqe getting ready to line up the inked block on the first print.













Shaqe registering the block on the print.
















Shaqe burnishing the paper with a plastic spoon.


















Close up...you can see the red ink through the paper but you can also see the black coming through where Shaqe has rubbed it with the spoon.










Checking to see how it looks...does it need more ink?












Yep, it needed more ink!












RE-inking.















Shaqe pulls the completed print off the block.













Not too bad (considering how icky the print looked to begin with)!











The block after I washed it off.














Carla and Shaqe looking over Carla's prints.












ALL of Carla's prints...pretty successful, I'd say!














Shaqe looking over my prints.













Shaqe agreeing that was the most successful of mine.











LOL -- my least successful...I hit the paper with the inky brayer when I was re-inking...I knew I did it so I didn't bother with trying to fix the ink around the edges...other than that it actually lined up pretty well.








My most successful 2-color ink print.












I really enjoyed this relief printmaking class. We got a great overview of many kinds of printmaking processes. We tried out 3 types of carving materials, we got a chance to try out hand tools and electric tools on two types of wood, we pulled a print that was included in the all ages student show at the gallery, we learned a method for 2-color printing...and we got individual attention, coaching and suggestions throughout the eight weeks. Oh, we also did some critiquing and got some help with artist statements and writing about our work.

I know I definitely want to take more classes from Shaqe at Art & Ideas -- she is a really great teacher. I learned a lot about printmaking and carving and also about drawing and thinking about things in new ways.

365 Day 199

carving, printing, printing some more, carving some more

Yay -- Monday night -- that means relief printmaking class!

Today (at home) I tweaked the carving I made during the second week of class. Shaqe kept telling me to "do more" to it...to give it more texture, use more techniques, create gray areas, give it more motion, in general "DO MORE". So today I thought I'd fill up as much of the carving area as I could so she couldn't tell me to "do more"...LOL. I like how this has turned out. And -- of course -- Shaqe was right. The more I did to it, the more I learned about what has been seeping in over these weeks. I wasn't consciously creating gray areas, I was consciously trying to create some motion in the windy lines, I wasn't consciously trying to add texture...but it all got in there by the end. Bottom line, I like it.




getting ready to print at home
















the no-more-room-to-do-more linocut carving
















an early print of the initial outline of the fox/lady-creature


















a print of the carving after several weeks of "doing more" to it...a little at a time




(sorry for the blurry photos...available light from the skylight was failing in the guest bathroom...long exposure)










a decent print from today of how the carving looks now















Now...on to class!

getting ready to make prints with red ink...first color of my 2 colors of ink lesson












the paper placed over the inked linocut -- I don't know why I was kinda surprised to see the red coming through...I guess I am just used to the black ink











my 7 prints laid out to dry...that's all I could physically do tonight













Carla's prints laid out to dry -- Carla needed to leave class early tonight (no doubt she could have done more)












my linocut "after"











For the rest of the class time tonight, Shaqe gave me some one-on-one guidance for merging some of my characters into one carving...telling a story with it...creating a narrative...placing them in different ways/directions. I moved them around and flipped them to change their direction and landed on this...I like it a lot.

So I used the charcoal on the underside of the tracing paper and transferred the images onto the block...











...only it wasn't feeling "right"...they weren't coming out like they looked on the tracing paper...











...and when I made the first cut with the tool I only made a scratch...duh...I was so caught up in conversation with Shaqe that I didn't realize I was using the wrong side of the block...LOL







But it was cool because now I had the characters positioned the way I wanted them and I re-traced them as a single drawing instead of two separate ones.


And that made the transfer easier.













there...that's much better!










the initial outline of the inside of the lines -- I will carve the rest of the outline at home and then take it back to class next week -- Shaqe will help me to figure out where to take it from there









This is really cool to me...to have two characters from different pages in my sketch book "meet" on a single block for the first time. I like how these images are able to interact and form a picture and tell a story.

365 Day 192

yay -- holiday is over -- back to relief printmaking class

Wow -- it has been a l-o-n-g two weeks since our last relief printmaking class -- it felt really good to get back to class tonight at Art & Ideas Gallery!

During the time off I found a lot of images within the "automatic" drawings in my sketch book. I traced them onto tracing paper and brought a number of them with me tonight.

Tonight we started a 2-class project of two color printing...although as Shaqe pointed out, it is actually three colors including the white areas. We selected a drawing and traced the drawing and then filled in parts of it with two colors of magic marker, leaving another part of it white. Then we transferred the part that needed to be carved out (left as white) onto the carving material of our choice. I chose the harder surfaced Blick Golden-cut and Carla chose the softer surfaced E-Z-cut.

I forgot my camera at home but luckily Carla had hers with her, and let me borrow it to take some photos. Then she sent me the photos in an email. Thanks, Carla!


This is my traced drawing, in reverse, on the tracing paper...with the charcoal smudge on the underneath for transferring to the carving material. I used a red ballpoint pen to trace over the lines to transfer the charcoal image.










This is the color combo I chose after trying out several different variations of red/black/white areas.











This is the image transferred to the carving material with the charcoal. I went over the lines with a thin Sharpie marker so that I wouldn't rub off the charcoal guidelines.









Now I will carve out the areas that will remain white in the final print. I started with the smallest blade and did an outline as close to the line as possible.










Then I used the #2 blade to take out a larger amount of material. I prefer the #1 and #2 blades.



That took most of the class time. Next week we will do some printing.








The stuff I carved out.













Some of the stuff that Carla carved out of her block. She took the photo because she saw a face in it.











Carla snapped this shot of Shaqe Kalaj answering one of my million questions. Shaqe really is a remarkable teaching artist. And she is incredibly patient.


Thanks again, Carla for the use of your camera!
AND for emailing me the photos before my deadline!!!



Tonight Shaqe also brought in her electric wood carving tools so that we could try them out and see the difference between linoleum carving and wood carving. In a previous class we tried Shaqe's hand tools on Baltic birch. Tonight we tried the two electric tools with different bits in a harder birch plywood. There was quite a difference.

I am not sure if I will get into carving wood blocks, but I sure do enjoy the linoleum. And I really appreciate Shaqe's hands-on technique of showing us various carving methods. I am very glad for the opportunity to get to try things out with someone who is so skilled in that medium.

365 Day 178

another material in printmaking class

Tonight in relief printmaking class at Art & Ideas, Shaqe gave us a new material to try. It is called Blick Wonder-cut. She also had us choose another of our sketch book drawings.

I went in all excited about that super hero drawing from a few days ago. Shaqe liked it but guided me back farther into my sketch book. Good thing she did, too.

We found this page. I was looking at the page as three or four separate characters/drawings. Shaqe helped me see that the three figures could work together as a piece. They also are closer to the earlier carvings I have done in class. This will all get pulled together later as we put our series together. Hmmm...sounds cool.

So this Wonder-cut stuff...I am not terribly fond of it. It has a surface texture to it to begin with. It also smells a little like cork...and acts a little like cork. It is a little bit spongy to cut. You put your blade into it and when you pull it back the material kind of closes up a bit. Hard to describe. Also, my outline lines are waaaaay wider than with the other materials. Both the softer E-Z-cut and the harder Blick Golden-cut tend to give you the line that you carve. This Wonder-cut material is very different.

I am very glad to have the opportunity to try out so many different carving materials. I know now that I like the Soft-cut gray for some things and I like the Golden-cut for others. I know you have to be more careful with the storing of the Soft-cut because the surface can get scratched and marred. The Golden-cut gives you a more hard surface for your block. The Wonder-cut is probably good for something that I haven't figured out yet. This class is really great!

Also tonight -- I delivered my completed bear-ish guy print, matted and framed, for the upcoming all ages student show. I am very excited about this show. The age range of the artists is 5-70 years -- how cool is that! You will have to wait to see the photos from the show...opening is July 9. I will post more about it as the date gets closer...and plenty of photos from the show.




we traced a detail from a drawing in our sketch book














then we played with variations of it













then we chose the one we liked and transferred the image to the Golden-cut block...you can sort of see the surface texture in this photo...kinda sorta tiny like bumps, sort of grainy but not...the material doesn't really crumble or anything













I have carved the outlines in this photo and taken out a little bit for white areas...you can see how much wider my outlines are...the material doesn't really want to be cut a whole lot closer...it is cork-like and soft-ish...you put your blade in and when you pull it out the line expands (or something)...hard to describe

it's not a bad thing, I just don't care too much for it in comparison to the other materials










a test print of the carving...this is actually the second print after I tweaked the first version...I'm not done with this yet and perhaps I will get used to inking the surface...I know I want to give it a background of some sort...I had an idea on the way home