I’ve been experimenting quite a bit with these prints now and have quite a variety of outcomes as a result of this ! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the most recent prints I produced and now I’m back home in Liverpool so I’ll just have to talk about the ones I have took pictures of ! These are rubbish pictures as well by the way….sorry !
This was one of the first multi-layered prints I produced. I have spoke about it previously however I wanted to make a post which included most / all of my prints so I could look and compare them with each other ! With this print I first had the woodcut print which had been printed onto some “Mulberry” tissue paper. This was then used to chine-collé onto the tan coloured paper at the same time as the Etching print was made. I really like the subtlety of the etching over the wood-cut however I think it may be too subtle. Also the jump between the woodcut print / paper is quite major and I think needs something to break that stark contrast up a bit. (both wood blocks used to print onto tissue paper)
This was produced in exactly the same way as the previous print, just using a different coloured ink for the etching. I like the colours in this one but there’s still quite a large contrast between the woodcut print and the paper. Also in the previous print you could clearly see the etching print over the top of the woodcut but in this print the colours are too similar so it just blends in. (single woodcut print on the tissue paper)
This was the first multi-layered print I produced using the larger soft ground etching plate. It was produced in the same way as the others. I decided to mix a light grey as last time I liked the way the etching print showed over the woodcut however I wasn’t too sure on the blue-ish tone. This was really a test print made on some small magnani paper to see how the print would work out. I do like it, however I think the ink is too strong over the woodcut. For this reason I decided to experiment using extender in the etching inks. (single woodcut print onto tissue paper)
In this print I used extender in the etching ink – approximately a ratio of 70:30 (70 ink). It has made a bit of a difference but not as much as I would have liked. Also I got the positioning messed up. I think it is when I was placing the paper over the top of the etching plate / woodcut print – the tissue paper must have moved. I’m really pleased with the results of the soft ground etching plate. The patterns and textures the found materials have made work really well with the ones in the woodcut print. (2 woodcut prints onto tissue paper using same woodblock but opposite way around)
I have had a lot of trouble with getting prints straight but this one caused me to do something about it ! I put a bit more extender in the ink before making this print. It seemed to have an affect although I think the ink generally looks lighter because of the coloured paper it is on ! After this print I then made a template on some newsprint as a guide of were to position the paper. I also decided to add more extender to the ink as although I do like this one there is still too much happening in the centre I think. (2 woodcut prints onto tissue paper using two separate wood blocks)
This was one of my more successful prints. I managed to get the positioning pretty sorted and also the transparency of the ink I was pretty happy with ! (50:50 ratio). To overcome the big jump from the woodcut to the paper I added another layer of tissue paper in between the one with the woodcut on and the paper – giving the prints a “halo” which really seemed to work and softened the harshness of the contrast really well ! I like how the print from the etching plate has a different effect on the paper / tissue paper/ woodcut – making the overall print a lot more interesting than previously. (single woodcut print on tissue paper)
I decided to use the two previous etching prints I had produced to overprint onto as I thought this may produce some interesting effects and I had a lot of ink left over on that day after producing the other prints ! The ink still has a 50:50 ratio of ink to extender in which worked well when printing over the other etching as it didn’t appear to strong over it but still showed over the other prints / tissue paper. I like how with this print you can’t really notice the grey ink until you get up close. It relates back to the idea of taking a second look at an object – not just dismissing it for what it is. Looking at an object in more detail and seeing the hidden beauty ! I decided to keep with using another layer of tissue paper as well as it really helps bring the print together. With this print I positioned the tissue paper with the photo mount on straight onto the damp paper and then placed the etching plate over the top. I then flipped the paper / plate over. This was so I could match the plate up with the print accurately. This method seemed to work well – and allowed me to position both the tissue paper / woodcut print and etching plate exactly were I wanted to. I was a bit worried at first – especially with flipping the paper / plate over as I thought the plate may slip however it seemed to work OK ! The woodcut print is a lot darker than the previous ones however it was a print I produced early on in the project with a different coloured ink which I decided to use as I. I think this darker colour works well with the colours in this prints – especially with the orangey colour. (2 woodcut prints on tissue paper using same woodblock opposite way around.)
This print was produced in the same way as the previous one. You can’t really see the grey ink over the black as much as over the orangey rusty colour in the previous print, however I think the grey still brings the whole print together although it’s not so strong.
I wanted to try out overprinting onto a print produced from the previous etching plate I produced (the plate produced using hard ground and then different materials and turps used to remove it). I really like how this has turned out but I can’t work out whether I like the fact that the prints aren’t the same size as each other or not. I think the colours work really nice in this print. The soft subtle print from the hard ground plate doesn’t over power the grey print from the large sort ground plate – it just sits nicely over the top. I decided not to use another piece of tissue paper between the woodcut print and the paper however I think this could have worked quite nicely.
I’m pretty pleased with this collection of prints and I think from experimenting with different layers / extender / processes I have really learnt a lot. It’s a shame that there’s not really more time to produce any more prints in this semester, however I know I can use the same techniques and processes in year 3 so it doesn’t bother me too much. There are some more prints which I produced – including just producing the woodcut print straight onto the paper instead of tissue paper and also some experimentation with other colours. When I get back up to Dundee I will get some pictures so I can upload them onto here / explain how they were made etc. Overall I am very pleased with the outcomes and although there may not be a perfect final print I am happy to have played around with different ideas and processes to produce the different results I have achieved.
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