Print 1. Project 1: Further experiments

Here we are looking at colour mixing, layering colours and more brush effects.

Right: 130gsm drawing paper.  I started with black, white and Hansa yellow light.  From these I mixed a light and medium grey and a variety of greens from just off yellow, through to a deeper olive-green.  I then added a tiny amount of black which deepened and darkened the olive.

I used a couple of large soft flat brushes to create solid colour blocks followed by a thin round end brush to draw the finer lines.  A very fine brush dipped in olive was twisted over the yellow in the bottom corner.   The scratch marks are from a skewer, a stylus and brush ends.  I thought they wouldn’t print because they were fairly lightweight on the print plate so I’m very surprised at how fine I have managed to draw into the ink.

I realise that I have been pressing too hard when printing so this has had much less pressure applied.  Although some areas haven’t transferred at all I prefer this effect to my earlier pieces.  Obviously I’m still finding my way.

Right: 110gsm Cartridge paper. The grassed area was fully painted in, with brush flicks in various colours layered on top.  The base was then also flicked up with a very fine brush which enabled me to ‘feather’ the grass a little instead of having a solid base.  Brown, yellow and green inks were very loosely mixed and applied in multiple small dabs to build the plant heads.  Marine blue was added to medium grey to make a paynes grey and kept quite thick..  This was applied very sparingly with a large barely loaded rough bristled brush.  I’m pleased with the dry brush effect.

The amount of ink and the pressure applied seems better than previous samples.

Above: middle – 200gsm medium watercolour paper.  Right – photocopy paper.  Colour mixes are:

1. A tiny amount of red mixed with white to achieve pink, then a dot of black was added.  This created a fabulous dull greyish pink.  Here I also experimented with adding extender to see if I could get the colour semi translucent.  Can’t tell yet as it will take 2 days to dry.
2. A dot of black added to red gave a deeper shade, almost burgundy.  This has lightened a lot on the print as it has been painted over the initial pink circle.
3. A touch of the darkened red was added to marine blue making a deep blue/purple.
4. Pure white.  The intention was to see if white oil paint can be seen at all on white or cream paper.

The first print, being on thicker paper with a medium rough surface, has come out very speckled but better than I thought it would.  Some of the definition from the brush stroke work has got lost and the white doesn’t come through on the photo at all.  The ghost print has turned out very well because the first print left a lot of ink behind, being a textural surface, and the smooth photocopy paper picked it all up.  In fact, the ghost print doesn’t resemble a ghost at all.

Right: 110gsm Cartridge paper.  I rolled the leftover inks across the printing plate, placed the paper on top and drew on the back of the print paper with a 2B pencil before lifting off.

The last couple of prints have been easier as I’ve had some 2mm strengthened perspex cut as a print plate and it is working much better than my thick plastic plate which warped after the first few prints were taken.

 

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