Royal Society of Printmakers exhibition at Bankside Gallery 22nd May

I went to this exhibition expecting to be impressed by the work of the best printmakers this country has to offer but came away rather underwhelmed. I will give a more detailed log of my favourite works later (yes there were some I liked!) but this entry is a more general reflection. The Bankside Gallery is ideal for this sort of specialised exhibition being a 'professional' space in an area of heavy footflow and big enough to exhibit small to medium size graphic works so the exhibition experience was always going to be satisfying.



There was a steady flow of the general public through the exhibition in the two hours I was there and the Society had provided a demonstration of etching by one of the members which attracted a good deal of attention. The fact that this was done at all is interesting because it shows how little the idea of Print has permeated the public consciousness and how useful and entertaining such eduction is.



For most people it's all Art and how it's made is of secondary interest which raises the question, "What was this exhibition about?", was it about ideas, or decoration, or was it about technical ability?



I felt the exhibition was too much about technical ability and how proficient the members were at their particular discipline rather than how Print can express ideas in a unique way that other mediums cannot.



On my own progress I have spent the time since my last entry developing a series of prints using stencils, both positive and negative, from an initial life drawing session using a pregnant model. These drawings morphed into a boxer! It was a good solid shape for making stencils and anyway the point of the exercise was to explore the possibilities of layering and offsetting stencils with colours and of introducing textures to the inked plate.



Some of the prints were successful and some were more experimental but still useful. I thought the textural effects achieved by back drawing were particularly useful.



On a separate note I wanted to make a printing press using angle iron and a car jack which I can use for small scale relief prints and having designed such a press I constructed it and experimented with blocks of lino about 4" square using plant leaves as stencils. This actually produced some very clear and well defined prints but I am still experimenting with registration and getting a completely consistent and flat spread of ink.



Using larger bits of lino didn't work because the pressure didn't extend to the outer edges giving an inconsistent layer of ink but I can build up larger images in a patchwork of smaller prints if I design my images cleverly.



I am really looking forward to the last part of this module which will involve using all the techniques employed so far in producing four finished pieces. I would like to do some horses and the inside of an old barn and some landscapes similar to ones I saw at the Printmakers exhibition.

Haven't handed in my first module yet after eight months which has caused me to take stock. I don't like having a non existent tutor that you can't interract with but then if I haven't sent any work to her yet what do I expect? I don't like the on Line learning log although I chose it because it's not my preferred way of doing things (I like note books) but I wanted to get outside my comfort zone. On top of this printing is a completely new technique I am painstakingly trying to learn and I am also trying to achieve a quality of work that matches that I did for my Watercolour course for which I got an 'A' which is unrealistic (or is it?) considering I spent years learning how to paint water colours before I ever started the OCA course.

To be fair to myself I have had a slipped disc and sciatica this autumn which was a distraction and at the end of February I lost my job which initially I thought would give me more time but I actually spent most of it worrying and looking for a new job, which I have now found. Also my band have had some dates abroad and some recording to finish which has meant time rehearsing and writing material.

So I now find, after 8 months, that I have completed Project One of Module One of a five module course ie. a fortieth of the overall course!! Having said this the course is supposed to take 400 hours and the project I have done 10 hours but I have spent nearly 50 hours on it.

What have I to show for this time? About 30 A3 monoprints and a series of preparatory sketches and photographs which isn't bad for the time spent. I have at least 2 prints I think are quite good. I've also got to grips with the inks, the rollers, the techniques of this type of mono printing and worked out how to do things like registering. I've also done some things like stencilling that are part of later projects. So none of this is wasted and will pay dividends later on.

The next two projects are about mastering stencilling techniques using a single image which I should be able to complete quite quickly as it requires very little creative development other than in originating the image.

The image I have in mind comes from an excellent life drawing session I took part in recently with a pregnant female model. I generated several very interesting drawings which I will refine to a single outline for use as a stencil.

The final project in this module requires me to produce monoprints using the techniques in question from four diverse subjects. This will involve much more creative input so whilst I am completing the two stencil projects I need to be thinking in parallel about ideas for the final project.

The Royal Society of Printmakers exhibition starts at the Bankside gallery on 7th May and it would be great to finish the stencil project by then so that I can use the exhibition as a stimulus for the final project.

The bad news is that between now and then I have a new job to start and an Art exhibition to organise for my local Art Society plus framing my own paintings. Nothing I can't handle.

Taking impetus from the Bankside exhibition (for which I will include an entry in this log) I want to spend a lot of time, maybe May, June and possibley July completing project four. I want the work for this project to be up to the standard of my watercolours ie. exhibitable.

The next Module, which is basically introducing Linocuts, I'd like to finish by the end of September, spend the rest of 2010 doing Module 3 (Advanced and Experimental Relief Prints) and then I have until the end of Setember 2011 to complete Modules 4 and 5.

So completing the course and getting an 'A' is still possible!

Saturday 13th February

Tried out my new oil based inks on Saturday. What a difference. The drying time is mach slower so you can work it longer and paint back into a plate that's been used over and over again to get more textural and gradiated effects.

Mixing the ink with linseed oil changes the quality again and makes it flow more easily.

I did some cats which are ok but I need to work out my colour schemes more which I will I be doing this week, I also need to absorb what I have learned and put it into practise next time. So I'm going to pause for a while.

What I can do in the meantime is try some of my still lifes but using oil inks and maybe smaller than A3 for a change.

At the start of my work on Saturday I tried messing around with blue circles in oil based ink to simulate water. The circles got smaller nearer the top of the paper to create recession. I then thought I could paint these over some orange gold fish and it would look like goldfish in a pond so I did some and put them to one side.

After about three hours on other work I had the idea to use gestural marks done in water based ink over the top of the oil based (because obviously it would resist the water) and to try to get that fluid feeling that you get with using very wet ink. I was pleased with the result which is quite abstract yet recognisable as fish in a pond. I have shown it here.

The colours worked really well and my learning from this is that I need to make better colour choises to get the most out of my ideas. I'm going to collect examples of great colour combinations from magazines and put them in my scrap book for reference.

Pipped - Linocut by Dale Devereux Barker

Print Workshop - Saturday Morning 6th Feb, Ipswich

As a surprise birthday present my sister in law bought me a lino cut workshop. I was sceptical at first but it turned out to be one of the best birthday presents ever! The tutor was Dale Devereux Barker who is a fellow of the Royal Society of Painter Printmakers amongst other things and he really knew his stuff.

He fined us £1 if we referred to the inks as 'paint' and used profesional lithographic printers inks which were very viscous and oil based. He showed us how to roller out the ink until it stopped making that sticky sound and became satin in appearance. We then applied the ink to blank blocks of lino and printed them on proper printing paper using a hand press. We then over printed using stencils made out of paper or found objects like feathers.

I was amazed at how precise the printed images of feathers were and how flat and even the printed colours were. Of course you can go on to use second generations of print from the same block or spray vegatable oil onto the block or contaminate it with talcum powder to give special textured effects too.

What made it all work, unlike my own attemps at home, was a subtle combination of using the right inks. in the right way, on the right paper and with the right press. I have to admit that I have been finding water based inks very frustrating as they dry too quickly and give a very poor quality print (unless that is the quality you want).

Also we worked very small, Dales view being that the larger you go the less consistensy you will acheive because most of the pressure from the press is in the centre. He showed us some of his own work done with lots of small, blocks combined to make a larger print and this is something I will try.

For the second half of the morning we worked on cutting the lino to produce images and then going back to the block and removing more lino and printing again in another colour. Reduction method.

I also found that where I had marked the lino with red felt pen it came out on the print and this is a technique I will use also.

Following the course I tried to get some oil based inks from an art shop and managed to get a small tin of White. I have since tracked down the supplier and ordered five more colours.

I tried buying some professional lithographic ink from a company I tracked down on Google but they seemed almost reluctant to sell it to me saying it probably wouldn't dry if I didn't use a proper printing press! I find this hard to beleive and have contacted Dale to find out who he gets his inks from.

Dale suggested that I get in touch with print firms in the Watford area where I live and ask if I can dive into the skip that they throw their empty print tubs into. Apparently they usually leave quite useable amounts in them and this could be a useful source of free ink. So I'm off to Watford Printers Ltd.

I'm also going to get some proper printing paper from John Purcell Paper in Stockwell as I feel the extra fine and shiny, brilliant white cartridge paper I have been using is probably hindering my efforts.

I don't think the printing I have done so far has been wasted, I just think I should be aware of the characteristics of both water based and oil based inks and use both, in combination if necessary, where a prticular effect is required.

I've posted some of Dales work here as I like it very much.

Christmas Period

I finally got down to some more printing over the extended break and have managed about two hours a day on about seven occasions with gaps in between. The problem is also that I have to work in a shed in the garden which has no electricity so I either have to be on holiday or do it at the weekend. Learning a new skill is always frustrating to start with and progress seems slow.

I started with mark making experiments applying the paint to the plate with a variety of objects and varying the consistency with medium. I am working almost exclusively in A3 as I don't want to feel cramped and frankly I think anything less than A4 at this stage just wouldn't work. I am begining to gain some understanding of the ways you can create a textured effect with monoprints.

I am also learning that the white area where there is no paint is as expressive as the area with paint and to plan for these negative shapes and negative textural qualities.

From exercises I moved on to still lifes of a wooden bowl, an orange and an aluminium jug and I did about fifteen or more of these just to explore the feel of the medium more and to grasp how to convey an image.

I find that working with the limitations of monoprint and playing to it's strengths as a medium is the best way to get results. It doesn't work if you impose on it, the accidents are often the best bits and recreating them so that they are not accidents is probably the key!

I experimented with templates drawn in pencil and placed under the plate as a guide and to help register subsequent applications of paint and this was a useful technique. I also did some drawings in indian ink with a stick from a template and then using the same template monprinted over the top. I could of course have just drawn over the monoprint but this didn't occur to me and anyway I liked the effect I got from the accidental mis registration.

I did several versions of these 'line and wash' images trying to develop low tonal key colour schemes that worked sensitively with each other. I made colour notes in my note book for later use.

Tone is a consideration and I have mainly kept to low tonal keys of broken textural nature with white paper breaking through. I probably need to try some of these but with an over print of solid darker paint in some areas. To be frank I am getting bored with oranges, jugs and bowls so I'm going to move on to a different subject.

I saw a birthday card done in watercolour of a cat trying to get a fish out of a pond. It was one cat shaped splodge for the cat with another slightly violet splodge for the shadow and white bits of paper left to denote the cat's white paws and face. I've done some sketches, photos and watercolours of my own cat with a view to doing something similar as a monoprint. I'll probably do quite a lot of them until I get it right.

Hopefully my next post will include some pics of this work.

Getting started (at last!)

A slipped disc has stopped me from focusing on anything but the basics of life for the last month so it was great to be able to make a start on some mono printing last Saturday. I had previously set up my print studio in our summer hpuse down the garden which will be great when there's some daylight but in the middle of November I can only work at weekends.

I started by spooning out some red, yellow and purple and acrylic printing medium and mixing the paint with the medium then rollering them onto the glass printing plate pretty randomly. It was quite difficult to get an even coating on the roller and I wondered if mixing water rather than medium would give a better result. Maybe the consistency with the medium is something I need to experiment with.

I did three different plates cleaning them meticulously after each print. Cleanliness in printing seems to be an issue and I will need an endless supply of paper kitchen towels and black bin liners. I preferred applying the paint with a brush and then drawing into it with the handle end of a paint brush. I used various brushes and sponges to apply paint including a tooth brush.

Drawing can either be direct onto the paint, by finely dripping paint or with a fine paint brush or it can be acheived by removing paint and leaving a hard edge to a clear space then painting into the clear space.

I got some particularly interesting drawing effects by scraping paint off the glass plate using a credit card. I applied too much paint at one point and when I pulled the paper off the ink was not smooth but had little ripples which were not satisfactory.

I found taking a second 'ghost' print an interesting and useful prosess and will try doing one monoprint over a previously taken 'ghost print.

My learnings from this session were to mix only very small amounts of paint and medium and then only one colour at a time. I also need to try more paint effects and make a library of them for when a specific effect is needed to portray an image.

I want to try painting onto a glass plate that has been been wetted beforehand and to try mixing water based acrylic ink with some kind of oil based medium such as turps. They don't mix so it could be interesting.