Registration. Registration. Registration.

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Registration on the silkscreen frame

 

Registration is critical for a printmaker and when you start as a callow student it’s difficult to get your head around it, but eventually it becomes second nature. It also makes use of some of the boring maths I learnt in school. I did one tabletop registration for all eight of my recent silkscreens on women artists and fitted the registrations on the different screens to it. I used thin masking tape for the registration marks on the tabletop and the screen frames and wide masking tape to mask the edges of the mesh so that the ink didn’t squeeze through onto the paper except where it was supposed to.

It isn’t glamorous, but it’s important and it’s worth spending time to get it right. This screen has four of my women artist stencils on it: Hannah Hoch, Gabriele Munter, Camille Claudel and Broncia Koller-Pinell. The stencils were created with Speedball Diazo Drawing Fluid and Filler. The finished prints will be going to the London Art Car Boot Fair this coming Sunday. Please call in if you’re passing by Brick Lane 🙂

Warts ‘N’ All

frida

Here’s the last of my series of 8 silkscreen portraits of women artists that I’m launching this coming Sunday at London’s Art Car Boot Fair in Brick Lane. My final edition is of the iconic Frida Kahlo. I’ve really enjoyed doing these editions; I hadn’t done any silkscreens for about 8 or 9 years and it’s been great to get back into the technique. I’d forgotten how many things can go wrong, but doing all these over the past few weeks has brought it all back to me, warts and all. So tomorrow, signing, titling and numbering the editions, packing them in bags and getting everything sorted to take up to London.

Almost There – Camille And Broncia

camille broncia

Numbers 6 and 7 of my series of 8 women artists in silkscreen are the tragic French sculptor, Camille Claudel and the Austrian Expressionist painter, Broncia Koller-Pinell. I’ve produced each of these in editions of 25, all hand-printed in Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic pigment mixed with screenprinting medium onto a beautiful antique paper, creamy, lightly textured, medium weight, deckle-edged, produced by TH Saunders, an old British paper mill, sadly no longer in business. So once I’ve used up this supply of paper, that’s it.

These will be launched at the London Art Car Boot Fair in Brick Lane on Sunday the 14th June. I’ll be there with Dylan’s Book Bus and fellow artist Simon Dark.

Frida Blue

frida blue

And the last of the silkscreens of women artists that I am working on, the iconic Frida Kahlo. This is the first stage, after drawing the image gently onto the fabric with a soft pencil, I have painted the image with Speedball Diazo Drawing Fluid. Once it’s dry, the next stage will be to squeegee the Filler Liquid across it to form the stencil. This series of 8 women artists will be launched at the London Art car Boot Fair next Sunday, June the 14th. It’s over in the East End, in Brick Lane, if anyone’s in London on the day 😀

For The Love Of Paper

hannah

I’m cracking on with my silkscreens of women artists, completing another 2 editions today,  Hannah Höch, a Berlin Dadaist and pioneer of collage and photomontage and Gabriele Münter, a German Expressionist painter. I’m printing in editions of 25 and hope to complete eight editions to take to the London Art Car Boot Fair on June the 14th. These are numbers 4 and 5 of the final 8.

gabriele drying

I’m using Speedball Diazo Drawing Fluid to paint the image onto the screens and completing the stencil with their liquid filler. I have been using Daler Rowney System 3 acrylic process black pigment mixed with Screen Printing Medium in a ration of one third to two thirds, pigment to medium. I am printing on some beautiful handmade vintage paper by W.H. Saunders, a British mill that unfortunately no longer exists. It’s a medium weight, slightly textured creamy deckle-edged paper. Ooooh I love paper. I love it!

Lady In Blue

jeanne step 1

Head down working on silkscreen editions again today. I started preparing number 7 out of 8, Jeanne Hébuterne, early 20th century French artist who died tragically at the age of 22. I drew the image onto the fabric with an HB pencil and then filled in the areas that will print black with Speedball Diazo Drawing Fluid. Tomorrow I’ll apply the filler. I’m making these editions of screenprints to take to the London Art Car Boot Fair, on June the 14th. It’s an example of how drawing underpins my artistic practice. I try to draw every day in my sketchbook; it’s basic practice, like a musician doing their scales or chords. But drawing is more than practice, it’s vital to the process of developing my prints as well.

Opening Friday 5 June

A lovely exhibition of printmaking opens tonight at Swansea Print Workshop

drawntoprint's avatar15 Years, people and printmaking

Kindly Avert Your Gaze

Jane Jones The Red Coat monopprintA pop-up exhibition by Swansea-based artist Jane Jones

The exhibition opens with a Private View on Friday 5 June from 6.30 to 8 pm and continues on Saturday and Sunday 6 and 7 June from 11 am to 4 pm

ALL WELCOME | FREE

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A Renaissance Video

Husb has been turning my digital drawings into short videos, showing how the sketches develop from nothing to completion. I’ve been drawing on a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 using a free Markers app and Husb has used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit them. This is one I did from a drawing by Raphael. Sometimes it’s useful to to make some studies from great artists. It’s good practice and aspirational.

Artist And Bird

paula final

 

I’m cracking on with the series of screenprints I’m doing on dead women artists. This is my edition (of 25) featuring Paula Modersohn-Becker. In the next week I’ll complete editions on another 5 artists, eight in all. I’ll be taking them to sell at the London Art Car Boot Fair the weekend after next. So I’d better get my skates on! That’s Richard The Bird in the background.

Folk Heads

SONY DSC

Husb and I spent a pleasant couple of hours at the Riverside Folk Club in Loughor last night and it was a good opportunity for a scribble. Folk musicians tend to move around less than heavy metal bands, no headbanging, so I had a bit more time to draw them. I did a couple of quicker sketches at first, trying to include the guitars but they didn’t work out too well. I need to get someone to pose for a longer time with a guitar, or several poses, to get used to drawing an instrument from different angles. I switched to sketching heads and it was better.

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I drew into my A4 hardbacked sketchbook that I’d prepared by sticking ripped pieces of brown wrapping paper onto pages with a Pritt stick. I used black graphite, a Faber Castell Pitt drawing pen, size M, and white conte crayon. The music was good too and I’m not a folkie type, more of a metal head. Enjoyed it though.