Monday was Set-up day… some of us did not get much sleep in the days before the show ^_^…
That was the first time I actually saw the bear standing up… The foot claws and the leaves were still in the making.
The bear is growing up …
The little shadow box in the making…
This is work for the Head on group show. I am a bit frantic because I am seriously running out of time, but in between panic attacks it is actually fun. For this show I pick up the ‘awoke’ series. This is ‘The Bringer of Dreams’. I am working on one of the little boxes I did for the NZ Art Show and a 2.2m installation.
Awoke: The Bringer of Dreams, Box, Work in Progress
Awoke: The Bringer of Dreams, Box, Work in Progress
Awoke: The Bringer of Dreams, Installation, Work in Progress
Keep the fingers crossed for me that this is actually going to work out all right!
Tomorrow is set-up for the show. Puh! I did not manage to get everything done, but I at least wanted to get one of the boxes ready for the show ^_^…
Shadow Box, Detail – Work in Progress
Shadow Box – Work in Progress
I am slowly getting there … ^_^… this is one of the Acrylic Painting in progress.
Work in Progress, Acrylic Painting, ‘Fragile Shadow’ Preview
Work in Progress, Acrylic Painting, ‘Fragile Shadow’ Preview
Afternoon Tea – The Badger, Preview
Next to the ‘Fragile Shadow’ works, new ‘Afternoon Tea’ prints will be part of my wall at the New Zealand Art Show 2010 as well. This one is the badger and my favorite so far ^_^…
Afternoon Tea – The Badger, Preview Detail
Note a couple of weeks later: These totally did not work the way I imagined them. They look totally wrong to me. I will work on the idea, but these will go in the bin ^_^. See my little note on ‘Failure and Achievement ‘.
Stitch. Stitch.. Stitch… Stitch….
I am busy and a bit frantic to get my artwork ready for the show.
Work in Progress – mixed media artwork – Drypoint etching and stitching.
Work in Progress – mixed media artwork – Drypoint etching and stitching.
Stitch. Stitch.. Stitch… Stitch….
I think you get the picture ^_^…
The Visitor’s Friend (working title) – first proof
She accompanied me to the print studio today. She said she wanted a portrait with her best friend. I said: ‘Fine, where is he?’ She said: ‘Why, he is standing behind me!’…
‘Father Bear’ (first digital test print)
I just printed the first little test of ‘Father Bear’ and – for now – I am very pleased with the outcome ^_^… just have to decide on the paper. So here comes the story…
Since month (and month) I consider to produce some high quality, but affordable, archival prints from the ‘Awoke Series’. As with traditional printmaking I prefer to have control over the process, choosing different papers and playing around with colours. So I finally decided to invest some money and print myself, using a ‘professional’ printer.
Three things are really – really – important when you plan to print yourself:
In the end I decided to get the Canon Pro9500 Mark II, but the printer only gets you so far.
‘Father Bear’ (Aqylic on wood)
How do you actually ‘reproduce’ an acrylic painting on paper? Usually you literally ‘reproduce’ the artwork, by either scanning or photographing the artwork in this case a painting. This somehow did not work for me, whatever I tried looked ‘artificial’.
So I let it be for a couple of month … and some more month… Yesterday night it came to my mind that actually I do not have to literally ‘reproduce’ a painting. I could produce a digital file from scratch for printing on paper.
I decided to start with ‘Father Bear’. I scanned the original sketch (ink, water colour and pencil on paper) and a selection of wood veneers.
‘Father Bear’ sketch (ink, water colour and pencil on paper)
I kept the lines and started to ‘colour in’ the drawing using a variety of Photoshop brushes and layer settings. Based on the different grains I decided on a walnut veneer, edited the colours and brightness to match the stain I used on the plywood, deciding to not go as dark as in the painting.
‘Father Bear’ digital version.
I still have to decide on the paper, I consider the ‘Hahnemühle German Etching (Ink Jet)‘, just because I use Hahnemühle papers for traditional print making and those papers are awesome…
The costs for printing will be between $10 and $15 NZ for an A4 print with a bit of white border. This is more expensive than going to a professional printer, but at least I can be sure of the quality of print, paper and ink… (trusting the promises of the manufactures ^_^…)
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This is a follow up post on my tutorial about Drypoint etchings (…›‘How To: Drypoint on Perspex (Plexi-glass)’ ). This post describes how to apply different ink layers onto one plate to print various colours in one go. I use this technique in the ‘Afternoon Tea’ and ‘Miyu’ series. The plate is inked using Charbonel oil based etching inks, the plate is pulled using a professional etching press on Hahnemühle etching paper and now … the interesting bit ^_^ …
Miyu Shhh… No. 6
The plate is prepared like discribed in ‘#1 Transferring the artwork onto the plate’ keeping in mind that various colours will be used. For the Miyu prints all the lines should be black, so I cover the plate with black ink first, making sure that the ink reaches down into the incised lines. I carefully wipe the surface ink from the plate using gauze.
I had a quite successful day in the print studio today – after some not too successful experiments the last couple of weeks ^_^…!
I am still working on the balance between lines, colours and background tones. Other than the ‘Afternoon Tea’ prints the ‘Miyu’ prints are simplified, the colours very subtle and the background almost white.
I will remember to take my camera next Monday and take some shots, documenting how the colours are applied to the plate and carefully wiped. Both the ‘Afternoon Tea’ and the ‘Miyu’ Series are printed in one go, with up three colours applied to the plate before printing.
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This was on my list for ages! On Monday I finally made the first prototype of the third character of the ‘der Hase, das Viech und der Bär’ …I know, all of this still needs translation ^_^, I am working on it!
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I finally managed to get back to some more work on the ‘awoke’ series. I plan a series of water colour paintings. For now I work on getting the colour pallet right (trying out tea and coffee ^_^) and experiment with the ink outlines… It is very different from the acrylics on wood.
Rather than using traditional water colour paper I use 100% rag heavy weight German etching paper. I like the smooth surface and the sheer thickness. I still have this heavyweight acid free recycling paper (like brown paper), I need to test the lightfastness though… and I consider getting some veneer…
I like the techniques, very intuitive, fast and without any hassle. All you need is paper and a small set of colours. There is not much room for mistakes though.
The sketch on the right is actually from January 2009. Its a bit frightening, how few things I actually managed to get done last year…
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