30silent Mockingbirds: Sundown Print Pt.2

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Sundown Print Pt.2

We are just gonna ignore the test print pictures ok? They just arent pretty. I usually use some cheap paint or mix up a color I'm not sure about so that I'm not wasting my good color ink. I test at least once or sometimes up to 10 times. This is the process where I get all my kinks out, find where I didn't carve out enough, or have uneven lines.

This is also where I see how bad my mistakes are... like really big mistakes. I made a very large mistake at the beginning so I had to figure out how to make it work. I was humming along until my cutter took a long route straight out of the sun. I seriously screamed out loud thinking there was going to be NO way to fix it. The good thing is sometimes mistakes make a design even better.

I was really unsure of the colors to use so I asked everyone in the group if they wanted any specific colors. It came out to be a broad range so I tested out colors thinking I would use one singular color on the print. I promised one person I would do an ombre' look thinking it would be to difficult and time consuming to do multiples. I ending up loving it and doing the most of those since it turned out easier than expected.

Here is step 2

Block inked with a brayer and ready to be pressed.

I use a mat the same size of my paper to help with the centering of the image. With luck I set the paper, lightly rub it with my hands to make the image adere so that it dosent slide around while pressed. I dont have an actual press at this time but I like hand pressing so I am ok with that. :) I use a baren which is like a flat disk with a wooden handle(or a wooden spoon) . Then finish it by pressing with my hands one final time.