Last Blog Of The Decade

What a poor year it's been for blogging.  I'm afraid I have fallen short of my aspirations.  Instagram is much quicker and easier to do and I think I've been distracted.  However, I can't let the year draw to a close without one last effort.

It's been a busy year and I've filled many sketchbooks.  Observational sketches of trees and landscapes. But every interruption means that I lose my train of thought - and so I end up going off down various avenues - heathlands, hills, seascapes, woodland.

I think my main inspiration this year has been Victoria Crowe.  Having seen her work at both the Scottish Gallery and the City Art Centre in Edinburgh in the late summer it has come home to me just how much hard work one must do to produce any meaningful work.  There really is no shortcut - as she says, there are no easy solutions or quick hits. There is only hard work, overcoming difficulties, and things that emerge from the process, the process of making art.  I realise that I should try to be more 'process-driven'.  It's that stage from sketchbook to finished work that is so important.

I thought I might focus on woodland or gardens for a bit, (a theme from the start of the year) and set about some work after an autumnal visit to Attadale Gardens.  I enjoyed loosening up the colour and thinking about bringing a figure into the picture. I came up with these two paintings which I quite liked. 

However, this avenue of thought was interrupted by a trip up to Poolewe - more sketching of amazing landscapes and beautiful colours. The Autumn colours were particularly lovely this year.

 

And then another trip to Edinburgh was looming and I was keen to prepare some new printing plates at Edinburgh Printmakers, so I had to set to work on some finished drawings on film, ready for exposure.

 I've been thinking too about how to add some colour to my prints to make them more interesting.  I have a few colours of etching ink, and I can print plates with more than one colour, but it doesn't always turn out well.  Also, thinking about Victoria Crowe's approach, she often brings in a wash of colour as a compositional device. I liked the idea of chine colle as a way of introducing compositional colour, so I read up on the technique, sent away for some Japanese papers and I've now had a go at it with some of these new printing plates. This was my first attempt using a paper with wavy line patterns  - I thought it was kind of interesting.

And then I tried a copper plate - experimenting with different colours and different arrangements.

It makes the printing process even more exciting - you never quite know how it will turn out! You have to take time to think it through before you make the print. It's certainly something I plan to try further - I have lots of ideas and I'm thinking about subtlety and boldness and what works best.  Or maybe there is no best....just different.

So as usual, there is much to consider....

An Etching Session

Sometimes I'm asked to explain what an etching is. There's quite a lot on-line about etching that's worth looking at.  However, the last time I went into Edinburgh Printmakers (Thursday) I took my camera with me.  I thought I would try to give a bit of an idea about how I make an etching.

I had decided to make this new etching using a polymer plate rather than the more traditional metal plate. The product is called Toyobo plate - it can also be called 'solarplate' - and it is a type of photographic plate.  I like using it because I can make an ink drawing as the basis for the etching.

Here's the drawing I started with.  It's an ink and pencil drawing on film (the film allows the light to pass through it and make the marks on the plate). 

I cut the polymer plate to the right size and exposed it on the light box. There are quite a few steps involved in this, but there's not a lot to see 'cos it all takes place in the dark room!

Once the plate is ready, it can be inked up. (You'll note that the image is now reversed).

Got the gloves out and decided what colour of ink to use.  This time I chose a mixture of black with brown and blue to make an interesting dark colour. At the same time I was soaking the paper in a bath of water (the ink is oil-based and has to be printed on to damp paper).

I inked up the plate - spreading the ink across the plate and then wiping it off carefully, allowing the ink to remain in the etched lines - the drawing lines. The ink also sticks to the plate, and as I wanted to achieve a good contrast between the dark etched lines and a pale background I had to wipe the blank areas of the plate quite thoroughly. I have learned that there's quite a lot of skill in inking up plates and that I have to take a lot of care.

Then it's ready for an impression to be made (the 'print' is really an impression of the plate on paper).

Here's the plate on the bed of the press, ready to roll. It's lying on tissue paper to stop the press bed getting inky.

 I then placed the paper carefully on top of the plate, drew down the blankets, and got the press rolling. Once it's gone through the press I finally get to the exciting bit....I lift off the paper and see how the print has turned out. Here you can see the finished print and the plate.

The prints are all laid out on boards to allow the paper to dry, keeping it pressed as flat as possible.  It's quite a challenge to get the prints all looking as similar as possible. You can never get two prints looking exactly the same - that's part of the charm of etchings - but we all try to get them looking as close as possible. These are not bad for me!

So that's it really. Quite a lot involved in making a print, isn't there? I feel that I'm still learning the skills, but that I am improving with practice.

I'll pick these prints up next week once they are dry.  Hope you like them!

Preparation and Experimentation

The highlight over the last week (apart from the Macmillan exhibition) was going to Edinburgh Printmakers - again. I like the discipline of working there - I feel the clock ticking. However, I think it's good to vary what you do there - I think one can get a bit stale trying to cram too much printing into one session. I now think this as on this session I spent most of my time printing from a plate I had already made. I decided to have a go in two colours - using a warm red-brown as foreground, and a cool azure blue for distance.  It turned out a bit like this (this is not the full size). I must say the colours look quite subtle in this photo. I think the actuality may be a bit brighter/greater contrast.

 I'm not sure if I like it more or less than my initial print in soft black - which looked like this.

I am thinking that printing in two colours may make it more appealing, more saleable, but personally I like the purity of the black ink. I think the marks show up more clearly. However, I don't think one is better than the other - they are just different. What do you think?

I also made a new plate. Thought it would be a good idea to do a couple of prints of Edinburgh buildings, so I re-drew this Cockburn Street building - based on a sketch I did last week before the cold weather set in! It had to be Cockburn Street: I spent so much of my previous working life at the bottom of Cockburn Street...

I then re-drew it again, this time on film. I'm wondering if I've been a bit too tight with the drawing - that's always a risk when I draw buildings.  It's ended up looking a bit different from this, but I didn't get time to do a print.....for next session, I think. And I think I'll try a sepia coloured ink (Raw Umber?)

My other idea for this week was to search for a way to do monochromatic pictures without using acrylic paint. Can I use more sustainable materials and still get interesting effects?  I happened to have some egg whites, decided to make glair (egg white ink) and tried this out using charcoal and white pigment.
In this first study I used white glair and tried to make a black ink using crushed charcoal in egg white. Not sure that the charcoal ink worked!

However, I do like the charcoal effects - a nice loose and splodgy effect. Quite stormy looking. I'm not sure what to do next with this study. Maybe the top of the hill needs to be a bit more distinct. Or maybe it's just an experiment.

Because the charcoal ink wasn't working, I decided to add a little Prussian Blue pigment to make a blue glair. It ended up behaving a bit like watercolour.

However, again I quite like this restrained effect. For the dark trees I used charcoal and painted over them with the charcoal ink. Also used pencil for some better marks.

I did a couple more studies which were I think less successful.  Nevertheless, kinda interesting!

Not quite the bold effect I was wanting.  So where next? Can't begin to think about this - I've now got a terrible cold!