slightly wonky

So, this was a moderately productive week!  I think that I managed to produce things in my classes that interested me.  Granted, I have a long ways to go in the world of printmaking, but these prints are yet again…something new.

No, I haven’t worn my crazy sweater yet.  I didn’t want to risk getting ink on it today.  I tend to get ink just about everywhere.  I think that I may be too messy to be a printmaker.

Here are the prints.  This first one was my first solarplate.  Not successful.  I used a china marker to draw the image, but it just didn’t print well at all. 

I tried to get as much of the linework to print as possible, but it was just too faint.  These next plates were using a drypoint plate that I made a few weeks ago, but had not printed yet.  This first print is ok…I needed a stiffer ink consistency, so it’s a bit inky looking.

This is the ghost print:

Both of these are “monoprints“.  This means that part of the image is repeatable from a plate with some texture/marks on it…and some is non-repeatable…just ink from a smooth plate.

These are some “monotypes” in this series.  A monotype means that nothing is repeatable in the image.

and the ghost:

This last one is the drypoint plate again.  This time, however, I had the right ink consistency.  So, the lines were more fine…less smudgy.  It’s kind of neat…

And this was a more successful solarplate print.  You might recognize it as one of my previous ink sketches…

So…a bit of work done!  Progress is so slow.  I hope that in a year’s time, I will feel that I’m getting somewhere!  Sometimes, that’s hard to tell week to week.  I am learning a lot, so I suppose that’s good, if nothing else. 

I have a delusional aspiration to somehow participate in the Arlington Open Studios this fall.  Wish me luck!