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Process, Process, Process.

10 Stamp inking — I used a roller (brayer) to apply the home-made ink to the rubber stamp that I’d had made from my original design by http://www.speeedystamps.co.uk

Making art involves lots of processes, especially with something like printmaking. I made my own printing ink with Nori (seaweed) paste, ground mineral pigment, water and gin. But successful printmaking depends on so many different factors – the ink must be compatible with the printing block or plate and also with the paper. What make of paper? How heavy? What sort of surface? And wet or dry? All these have to be tested. Yesterday I tried out a simple vinyl block . Today I’m showing the results of printing with a rubber stamp onto a lightweight Hosho Japanese paper.

11 Stamping — Pressing the inked stamp onto dry Hosho paper

12 Hosho dry — Didn’t work, the paper stuck to the stamp and peeled away.

16 Hosho Kathe damp — So I spritzed another piece of Hosho on the back with clean water and it worked very well.

I found the Hosho a bit too lightweight for both the block and the stamp. It’s a fine paper and crumples quite a bit when it’s damp so tomorrow I’ll show the results of working with a heavier paper.

I have put my series of drawings en plein air of ancient Welsh monuments on Artfinder. If you want to see more, please click on the image below or the Artfinder link at the top right of this page. This one is the legendary grave of Saint Elfys (Elvis) in Pembrokeshire, not for from the Presceli Mountains. Elfys? Presceli? Elvis Presley? Coincidence? hhhmmmm

Paper Geekery

Yesterday I showed how to mix up printmaking ink with powdered mineral pigments, Nori (seaweed) paste, water and gin. But that’s just the beginning. Next I had to try the ink with different blocks and papers to see what gives the best result. My first experiment was with a simple vinyl block that I inked with a roller (brayer) and printed using a traditional Japanese bamboo baren onto a lightweight Hosho Japanese paper. I tried it first with dry paper, but that was awful and the paper stuck to the ink and disintegrated. So I tried spraying the back of a piece of paper lightly with a water sprayer and again took the print with a baren. It worked quite well, much better than dry paper.

8 Baren — Printing onto dry Hosho paper with a baren

9 Hosho dry — The paper stuck to the ink on the block

13 Hosho damp Frida — Printing again after spritzing the back of the Hosho paper

14 Hosho Frida — The dry and damp Hosho papers

So tomorrow I’ll be having a go with a rubber stamp instead of a block……..

Seaweed And Gin

I have been experimenting with making a water-based printing ink, using a recipe from printmaker Shannon Yost published by Natural Earth Paint. There’s a comprehensive list of ingredients including Nori (seaweed) paste, powdered minerals and gin. The gin is for preserving the ink. Honest. 😀

2 Ochre — Measure 1 tablespoon of natural powdered pigment.

3 Gin and water — Add half a teaspoon of water and half a teaspoon of gin and mix it up with a chopstick.

5 Add Nori — Turn it onto a palette and add 1 teaspoon of Nori paste.

4 MIX — Mix it well with a palette knife.

6 Roller — Roll a small amount on a smooth surface (I used acrylic sheet) with a roller (brayer).

Stage One completed. Tomorrow I’ll look at trying out different types of blocks and different papers…….

Mountain Memorial

Here’s another drawing I did en plein air up the Rhondda Valley last week. We stopped at a viewing place called Carn Eiddil and walked to the top of a pile of large rocks to look down the valley dropping away sharply beneath and there on the slope were loads of tiny memorials. They’re mostly crosses, some simply made of wood, others beautifully constructed from metal and most commemorate people, just a few are dedicated to pets.

Walnuts And Gesso

CB5

This is the third drawing I did at Maen Ceti / Arthur’s Stone at Cefn Bryn on the Gower Peninsula this week. I used a piece of Fabriano paper that I had prepared with two coats of textured acrylic gesso. When it was dry, I sponged some of my home-made walnut ink over it. The ink pooled at random, giving a spotty sort of texture. This seemed to reflect the texture on the massive capstone itself, covered with colonies of lichens. I drew with conté crayons in black, sanguine and white.

ANOTHER RUSSIA – POST-SOVIET PRINTMAKING

oooohhh! New show at the V&A

Source: ANOTHER RUSSIA – POST-SOVIET PRINTMAKING

Stratification

CB4

I was at Cefn Bryn on the Gower Peninsula yesterday, drawing at Arthur’s Stone – Maen Ceti in Welsh. It’s a Neolithic burial chamber surrounded by cairns, truly an ancient landscape of the dead. It’s a very popular site and I’ve drawn it many times, so it’s hard to come up with a new approach, a different angle, which is what I tried to do yesterday.

I drew with Daler Rowney artists’ soft pastels onto paper I’d prepared in advance with two layers of gesso and some of my home-made walnut ink, so there was already a great deal of abstract imagery on the surface. I kept the outline of the monument deliberately sparse, sketched lightly in white and then chose colours that matched those in the landscape to work with. The paper was already streaked horizontally with the brown walnut ink so I emphasised the horizontal stratification of the land and seascape by using the pastels in parallel with the walnut lines.

I did three drawings in all at the monument yesterday, the final one tomorrow!

Arthur’s Stone

Went hunting wild megaliths today, this time to Arthur’s Stone, Maen Ceti, a Bronze Age burial chamber on the Gower Peninsula. And now I’m tired ……….. Goodnight 😀

Up The Rhondda

Travelling on the A4233 up the Rhondda Valley between Maerdy and Aberdare, there are a lot of viewing stops that are great for a quick scribble. It was quick too, as we were high up and it was cold and windy as well as bright and sunny. I keep to a restricted pallette of black, white and sanguine conté crayon into my A4 brown paper sketchbook.

Pressure And Strokes

Another quick sketch from Swansea Bay yesterday with conté crayons into my A4 brown paper sketchbook. I concentrated on capturing a sense of the atmosphere, rather than fine detail. I limit myself to three colours, white, sanguine and black, so different tones have to be achieved by varying the pressure on the conté sticks and overlaying one colour with strokes of another. The brown coloured paper gives me a ready-made mid-tone to work over, which makes life a bit easier. A lot easier really, as I don’t have to face the tyranny of a pristine white sheet.

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