Whistling in the Dark

The topic is from my Artists Before Noon group.  It's the first prompt I've done in a long time.  My original conception was for a pen-and-ink drawing (which I still may do), but since I'm taking a collagraph class, I thought I'd try to do it with collagraphs.  It's not really working out all that great, but these two are better than the previous two.    I didn't print them yesterday, because the glue in all the lines was still drying.

But I did learn some things today:  You can't make a hard edge with carborundum.  Also, you need to make the areas where you are going to wipe off all/most of the ink (i.e., white areas) higher than the carborundum areas, not lower.  

Fair enough.  And I'm BEGINNING to see what I might be able to do with this medium.

What to do with disappointing prints?

So....what do YOU do with a print that's disappointing?  The first thing I did was attack it with pen and ink to try to get some kind of definition.  Still didn't like it, and at that point, it hardly matters....because you don't care at all. Watercolors?  Sure.  Maybe I'll cut them up next....

It's really kind-of liberating not liking something at all.  If you like something, then you don't want to wreck it, but if you don't, then you might discover something you might not have otherwise.

Rocks in the stream

This is one of several "experimental" plates.  This one I made on black matte-board, which was a mistake, because I had no idea how much ink was still on it when I was wiping it.  The white lines here are glue, and they had dried translucent, so they looked black too on the plate.  Wiping it was pure guesswork, but I got it right--I really really like this print.

And below is my impasse picture, printed again with less ink wiped off.  I'm not sure which way I prefer--this one or the lighter one.

Red Tree #2

Nope--I'm not done with these yet.....They're getting much faster to assemble, as I get my system down.

Sorry that this is out of focus.  They're so shiny that if I use the flash it lights the whole thing up, and I can't hold the camera steady enough straight above it....

Impasse

So.... another collagraph.... it didn't print like I expected, but I have some ideas what I might do with it.  This is an on-going adventure.  

Below is a little texture sample.  Not sure what I'll do with the information of what this could look like, but it's all part of the possibilities.

Emergence?

I am being stretched by new media.  I have spent so long working in pen and ink, that I know pretty much what I can and can't do with pen and ink.  Now that I'm am doing other things, it's all about experimentation.  This is a collagraph.  I'm taking a collagraph class, and it's really really hard.  The plate for this was made with cardboard, white glue, and modeling paste.  It's too thick.  There are three layers of cardboard, the base, the rectangle the figures are on, and then the three smaller figures.  It took forever to ink--probably about 45 minutes total.  Part of me would like to ink it again, a different way, and another part says, "Well, okay, then--you learned something.  What can you do with that now?"  I've already made another plate, which I'll probably print tomorrow.....

Moonlit Tree

It's kindof funny how I am spending way more time than every making art projects, and I have fewer posts than I've ever had.  Alas.  But each one of these that I finish, I have an idea for another one, that I just have to do.....

Another hair guy

So what does one do with a failed collagraph? Either the paper hadn't been soaking long enough, or there wasn't enough pressure on the press, but it barely printed at all.  Not being one to waste a perfectly good piece of paper (with some cool stuff on it), it's now been drawn on with India ink.  Not what I originally had in mind, but better than sending it off to the recycling bin.

Collagraph Trees

 Now that my intaglio class is finished, I am taking a collagraph class.  I've only had one class session, and it seemed promising.  Right now I'm at the let's-just-experiment-so-we-can-see-what-kinds-of-things-we-can-do stage.

But I went in to print the two plates I'd made the night of the class, and all I can say is that I HATE inking cardboard plates.  I LOVE inking copper plates, but this is dreadful.

There are some interesting effects, but it all just seems too fragile to me.