10 March 2018

Another session of woodblock printing

During the week I'd cut another, reversed, set of "flying bits" and was eager to print them -
Uh-oh ... reversed didn't quite work - the idea was that they should mirror the diagonal direction, ie from top left to bottom right. Ok, this makes an "opportunity" to try something else. The orange ("vermillion") was disappointingly pale anyway...

A tiny bit of blue mixed into the orange, to tie it in with the other colours; some selective inking up; and a bit of careful registration -
Some unwanted areas of the cutaway background have appeared. Too much pressure with the baren? Sloppy application of the "ink" (watercolour, actually) is a more likely cause. Must try harder!

As for these ...
Definitely too much pressure, combined with uneven inking and hot, dry conditions in the room. Again, an opportunity to "take it farther" in unexpected ways - nothing to lose, is there?

But how to get a better result? Carol showed me how, with a big area to cover, to use the side of the brush to apply more ink at one time, and that the grain of the baren should be used along the grain of the wood. A much better result -
The "monsters" that I overprinted were too pale -
 Carol suggested "turn it over and print them again" -
Registration could be better, but the layering works.

No comments: