Post-Production Work on Prints Continues

Valentine’s Day Girls

This print is based on an image I did in Photoshop on Valentine’s Day 2009. I worked up the backgound at Aurobora over the weekend using a selection of textures to mimic the Photoshop stamps I used in the original. This monotype has the largest xerox transfer I’ve done so far, the two girls side by side in dark teal.

Here’s the Photoshop version:

With this print, I tried the idea I mentioned yesterday of putting the clean transparency sheet underneath the xerox transfer before prepping it (wiping ink off with the sponge). One thing I didn’t plan for was that when you wipe the transfer to remove excess ink, it will immediately stick to anything that wasn’t first coated with the gum arabic. So, it smeared all over the sides of the image, on the part of the transparency that wasn’t covered by paper.

The idea was that the paper would be nicely held in the safety of the transparency with some border to allow me to cleanly pick it up, but just the opposite happened – the ink on that part of the transparency was a mess. It got all over my hands and then that is a recipe for disaster when you move to the original print with it’s nice tidy white border. One little speck of ink there and it’s all over. So – scratch that idea. I’ll just prep the xerox transfer, go wash my hands or deglove, and then transfer the paper to a nice clean rigid plate that gives me the control I need to move the image to the print. The nice thing is that all that water in the process helps the paper stick to the transparency, plate, etc. Water is my friend. I also found that I really need to make sure the receiving paper is dampened, and that there isn’t an excess of ink on the transfer.

Those darker areas of the skirts had too much ink built up and the paper of the original transfer stuck to the print. I was able to use a razor blade edge to pick it up and tear it off (like a price tag off a plate or glass), but it could have been a disaster under different circumstances. I added a rose that I had printed on vellum to the upper right corner using gel medium and the press to lock it in place. The press is better than any stack of books for getting something really glued down. I’m happy with this print.

More Analysis of Ancient Mythology

These three prints were a series with no further work after Sunday. I used a found plate at Aurobora that had some tape stuck to it in an arc. For the first print, I used chine colle to put down a section from a gelatin print I’d done in MN a couple of weeks ago with a map from that Analysis of Ancient Mythology book. The plate was painted and I think I created what for me is a better technique for getting a nice thin layer of ink on the plate evenly. I used a brush with some Olivera oil in the ink to thin it a bit. Brush over the plate just like doing a painting. Cover evenly. Then, use the brayer to really even it out. This works better for me than the brayer with ink directly to the plate because I can’t seem to get a nice even layer with the brayer without it being thicker. I’m learning to lighten up on the brayer which also helps.

The ghost image and a second print with more paper from the MN project were done on the second and third prints. I have one more series of three prints that are in a skin/flesh tone to finish up. I probably won’t get to those until late nights the rest of this week, or Saturday.