Printmaking: last three assignments

Alrighty, friends... this post combines my last three assignments in Printmaking I.

The top print is my second assigned intaglio print... based on an architectural arch and The Green Man. I shaped the plate with my jeweler's saw. I wanted it to be a little bit ambiguous... a little bit creepy... and a little bit fun :) I like it.

The second print is the first of my "Your Choice" prints... actually, both of my "Your Choice" prints are intaglio because I found out that I really liked intaglio printmaking... I liked the process and I liked that it suited my detail-oriented aesthetic. SO, that said this print is actually two plated combined into onto print. Again, I shaped them with my jeweler's saw... partly so that they two plated would fit together nicely, but also because I just wanted to work with shaped plates again. So, my print is of two animals (a tiger and a dragon) circling one another. Those two animals are traditionally associated with the Yin-Yang... but I took the overt Yin-Yang out of the picture to make the print a little more ambiguous and interesting.

I had a lot of trouble with this animal print because I was trying another technique along with it called schinko lie, which is where you overlay colored papers with glue to create more contrast. BUT, the shapes of the animals were so complex that after I cut out my schinko lie paper I couldn't get it to register correctly on my design. SO, what's you're looking at is like the seventh time that I printed that design, AND it is not schinko lie but relief rolled for those colors.

AND, finally, the last print is kind of inspired by my metal work... I was working on a metals piece that was inspired by the gingerbread trim on Victorian style houses. SO, I decided to make a "haunted" house print based on the same design elements. honestly, I think it is my favorite print that I made this semester. My professor thought that the moon in the corner was a little bit cliche... but I say that no haunted house is complete without an ominous moon hanging over it.

So, I had fun in that class... got to learn lots of fun and interesting things, play with acid and sharp tools... and over all, just play.