Monthly Archives: June 2008

Ow, again

By Somhairle | Published: June 30, 2008

No, I haven’t stuck myself again – this one is muscle strain from a few hours with the carving tools. I’m working on the largest, most complex block so far – katsura, designed to print onto A4 paper. But still, I’m most of the way through the final pass. It takes more or less four, [...]

Posted in printmaking | Tagged , | 1 Response

Malachite & bronze

By Somhairle | Published: June 26, 2008

Another experiment – I picked up two new colours and a new gloss medium, and wanted to try them all out. The background is Hooker’s Green (System 3), and the metalwork is done using Ara Dark Bronze. This is gorgeous stuff, but it’s a nasty one to clean up – I had to go back [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Gramarye

By Somhairle | Published: June 22, 2008

The design and text are screenprinted, the frame is screenprinted and then overpainted to give the broader deckle. For this one, I made a screen framework from scrap mountboard and stapled the screen onto it. Note to self – do not attempt to block it out in the same colour as the sharpie you use [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

T-shirt stencilling

By Somhairle | Published: June 20, 2008

I made this the other day – Sainsbury’s sell fairtrade cotton T-shirts for £3 each. Still horribly ecologically damaging, but there aren’t really any practical alternatives to wearing cotton. And cheap, so I picked up some to experiment with. (I tweaked the brightness and contrast a little, to adjust for the domestic lighting and make [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Sources

By Somhairle | Published: June 19, 2008

Quick post to note down where I’ve been getting things from – mostly, Atlantis Art in Whitechapel, and Intaglio Printmaker in Southwark. The latter is a bit of a trek to get to, especially in a London summer, but it’s worth it. For those of you (most of you) outside London, both places do mail [...]

Posted in printmaking | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ow.

By Somhairle | Published: June 16, 2008

Just been trying another woodcut, after working on vinyl for the last three, and the difference in the cutting texture is very apparent. Note to self – yes, that komasuki is sharp. Especially when you’ve just spent a couple of minutes on it with a waterstone. Just because it doesn’t glide through katsura with the [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Two Birds

By Somhairle | Published: June 16, 2008

I did these with another vinyl block, and discovered a couple of interesting things. The first is that – since the vinyl blocks are only 3.2mm deep, it’s almost impossible to avoid getting ink on the higher ridges outside the “official” design – it gives me interestingly unpredictable bits outside the edges. And if I [...]

Posted in printmaking | Tagged | Leave a comment

Venus Aresin from the Waves

By Somhairle | Published: June 10, 2008

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, reenacted by ball-jointed dolls. Those are about four and a half inches high – they’re Puki Pukis, made by Cerberus Project. Cupid is a ‘Cupid’, the other two are both the ‘Flora’ model. For comparison, here’s the original. I’m rather impressed by how well a four and a half inch doll [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The art of Sidney Sime

By Somhairle | Published: June 5, 2008

Discovered by chance from a Gutenberg ramble – Sime was an early 20th century artist who did a lot of illustrations for Lord Dunsany. Gallery and Wikipedia link.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Vinyl print 1

By Somhairle | Published: June 4, 2008

This is a triple experiment, really. I used a sheet of Japanese carving vinyl rather than the wood or lino previous pieces were done on – it’s extremely nice to work with, except that I occasionally find myself carving too deeply and going right through. Not by accident, it’s a lot like the softwood panels [...]

Posted in printmaking | Tagged , | Leave a comment