More Fun With Print Making

Two posts ago I told you about experimenting with print making.  At that time I had three prints that I was going to hand colour with watercolours and then over print in black ink.  Well... they're done!... and I'm excited to show you how they turned out.

Peaceful green and blue-greens...

The warmth of the late day near sun-down...

Icy cool blues...

Three different versions - different moods.  Which one do you like best...??

If the last one (the all blue one) looks a bit blurry, don't run out and get your vision checked.  When I over printed it with black ink I didn't pay quite enough attention to making sure the plate was going to accurately line up with the grey lines previously printed.  Oops...!!  You can see the grey lines showing a little above the black lines in the picture below...

So, good lesson learned... check v-e-r-y carefully before overprinting to make sure you have everything lined up as closely to the original printing as you can!

Other than that little glitch, I think my experiment with hand colouring and over printing went quite well.  I'd like to try more printing and learn some new carving techniques.  So many thing to try... so little time!  lol...

In an earlier post I wrote about the fun I was having with pearlescent paints.  Unfortunately it does not show up so well in these pictures, but I used some pearlescent paints on the top of the mountain to try and create the idea of sun glistening off snow.

And I thought I'd share pictures with you of what the printing "plates" look like.

This is what the whole plate looked like before I cut the sky away.  The black parts are the uncarved parts that pick up the paint when the inked brayer (roller) is rolled over the print, and those are the parts that press the ink onto the paper when you lay paper over the plate and press down on the paper.

And this is my plate now - cut in two, so I can print the sky separately or not print it at all if I want to leave a blank area to hand colour (like in the three prints I hand coloured).  Notice that everything on the plate is reversed from the finished print?  You have to account for the reversed image when you are planning how you want to carve your image.  : )

Here is a view of the side of the "plate" - you'll see that in some placed I gouged a bit deeply into the rubbery material.  Good thing it was thick!  Practice would help me make more uniform cuts.

Other than that, I've been playing with my watercolour pencils again.  I bought some Derwent "Inktense" pencils and I'm loving the beautiful rich colour I get when I wash coloured areas with water.  Next post I'll show you what I've been working on...  (don't you love 'cliff hangers'...?? lol...)

I hope you're making time for some creativity in your life - it's a great stress buster!
: ) Fern