WEEK 12 _ Intaglio Critique & Print Exchange

1. We will critique the work from our INTAGLIO Unit Monday 11/18. Please arrive a little early to install.

In place of an edition, you will submit a minimum of 3 different prints created from your drypoint and collagraph plates. Differences may include alternative inking approaches as well as monotype processes introduced by the instructor. 

This set of “monoprints” shall demonstrate variety through the use of the following approaches:

  - Changing the way that the prints are inked and wiped (intaglio)

  - Relief inking and printing 

  - Post-print modifications using media like gouache/watercolor, graphite, ballpoint pen, colored pencil, etc

Here's an example of what I mean by 3 different variations. The first image is three drypoint variations, the second is three collagraph variations.

If you need to make more prints over the weekend remember that you'll need to add the blankets and adjust the pressure for the press. You can find the blankets, blotter paper, and extra printing paper on the shelves below BOOP. DO NOT forget to relieve the pressure and return the press to the way tat you found it after printing. DON'T leave the blankets under pressure!!!!!

2.) Final Project: 

PRINT EXCHANGE

 

What is a “print exchange”? 

It’s common for printmakers to create opportunities to trade work via print exchanges. Usually all participating artists agree to a set of shared parameters such as size, theme, and process. The “edition” size is based on the number of participants (often including an extra 2-3 prints for archival and exhibition purposes by the organizer).

 

 

DETAILS:

 

- Theme: “As Above, So Below” _ You will create a new print in response to this thematic prompt. 

 

- Process: Blockprint, Drypoint, or Collagraph

I can provide you with the following matrix options: ½” MDF (7x10”), drypoint plastic plate (6x8”), or matboard collagraph backing (7x10 or 6x8”). If you wish to work on mounted linoleum you’ll need to purchase it from NRV Art & Fiber. Do not exceed 7x10” in the size of your block so that you may stay within the paper size parameters for the exchange (see below).

 

- Size: no larger than 9 x 12” (paper size)

 

- Color: Black ink only

 

- Edition: 13 prints, numbered 1/13 through 13/13 

 

- Paper: any good printmaking quality paper that we’ve used so far

 

 

 

Timeline

            

Submission = your 13-print edition must be printed by end of class, Monday 12/9/24. This will allow for a little drying time. At the beginning of class on our final meeting (Weds. 12/11) we will sign our editions and assemble the exchange into sets for you to take with you when you leave. 

            

Week 10 _ Introducing Collagraph

Tomorrow you will begin building a collagraph plate as part of our intaglio unit. You will choose one of your remaining 6x8" compositions for the subject matter. Note that this is meant to act as a companion piece to your drypoint print. Tomorrow I'd like you to have a new 6x8" drawing (making a total of 3 designs that you will submit as part of the overall grade for this unit). I'd also like you to review this blogpost and watch the embedded video demonstration of the technique for building plates. You do not need to start any of the steps in the video, just watch it as a preview for class so that my demonstration may be shorter and more specific allowing more time for you to work. 

I will provide the mat board backing for this plate. You should bring a sharp X-acto knife. You may also wish to bring scrap paper in a variety of weights and textures. 

Collagraph _ a combination of the words “collage” and “graphic” to describe a print made from a matrix built with collage materials.

For context, here are a few images of a drawing translated into a collagraph plate and then inked two different ways before printing. 

Getting Started

Materials: 

• white school glue (liquid is desired over gluestick)
• X-acto knife with a fresh blade
• scissors
• a selection of paper varying in weight and texture (as thin as tracing paper and no thicker than cereal box material)
• paint brushes
• masking tape
• mat board 
• acrylic matte medium
• foam brush
• tracing paper/carbon transfer paper

Start by sealing your plate with the fluid matte medium using your foam brush. A thin layer, both front and back. (Be sparing with the medium, it's most important as a final layer so you want to make sure you save enough.)

Build your image as a collage by glueing paper shapes to the mat board. You may also create texture by brushing on acrylic and cutting lines/shapes into the surface of the board. Watch the following video to see how I built this plate:

WEEK 10 _ Intaglio: Inking and Printing

Today I demonstrated the intaglio inking and printing process. This post serves as a reminder of the steps as outlined in the handout provided in class. There is also a video of my class demo at the end.

NOTE: You may not print your drypoint plate until you have showed me your plate and gone over the process with me. This is especially true for those that missed class today.

DRYPOINT _ Printing Process

 

A.) The Press

Printing Drypoint plates requires a different setup for the etching presses that includes additional blankets and higher pressure settings. Here’s a diagram of how the press will be set up for printing intaglio: 

Starting Pressure settings for the plastic drypoint plates =    Betty _ 18   / Boop _ D-0

 

B. Printing Preparation (do all of this before getting any ink out!): 

·       Tear your printing paper to size (minimum 8 x 10”)

·       Gather inking materials like newsprint, matboard inking cards, rags, etc. at the inking table

·       Press Setup = Confirm press pressure. Arrange blankets in correct order and even on the press bed. Make sure there is a clean protective cover sheet of newsprint between the blankets and the registration sheet. 

·       Confirm that the Registration Sheet is on the press and that it’s clean.

 

C. Soak your printing paper

Your paper will need to soak in clean water for a period of time (usually not less than 15 minutes, though this may vary by paper type) in order to loosen the fibers and make it pliable enough to be compressed into the plate during printing. It’s wise to get your paper into the soaking trays before getting into any of the other steps so that when your plate is inked and ready your paper will be too.

Note: In PENCIL, lightly initial your printing paper on the back to identify which sheets belong to you since we’ll be sharing tray space. This also lets you know what side is the front when printing.

 

D. Inking your Plate (Note that the ink for this process is not the same as the ink used for relief!)

E. Printing

·       Lay your inked plate upright on the registration sheet in the inner rectangle.

 

CLEAN HANDS ONLY FROM HERE ONWARDS!

·       Remove your gloves and retrieve a piece of printing paper. Hold it over the soaking tray until most of the excess water has drained off. (Slow individual drips)

·       Place your paper between two sheets of blotter paper and blot off remaining excess water. The paper needs to be damp and soft to print, not wet. If you see shiny spots on the surface blot a little more.

·       Place your dampened paper on to the plate using the registration sheet as a guide. 

·       Carefully lower the newsprint and blankets over the plate and gently smooth them out. 

·       Roll everything through the press at an even speed.

 

F. Print Drying/Flattening

·       While printing you may place prints on drying rack BUT before they dry completely it’s good to stack them with sheets of newsprint in between them and a little weight on top so that they dry flat. (in your cubby)

 

G. Wrapping up* 

·       Relieve the Pressure on the press and move blankets to lower shelf.

* NEVER leave the blankets under pressure! This will create a permanent impression in the felt and ruin them. 

Video DEMO:

WEEK 8 _ New Territory > "Intaglio"

 New Territory _ INTAGLIO

Thus far this semester we’ve practiced “relief” printing techniques. For Print #4 we’ll explore intaglio, which requires different techniques at almost every stage of the process. 

Intaglio: In contemporary usage the term refers to any printing matrix where ink is held in recessed areas of a matrix. (So we might think of this as the inverse of relief printing where ink sits on the surface areas of the matrix.)

  

Traditional intaglio platemaking processes fall into two categories:

•   processes where lines are inscribed into a plate directly by hand, such as engraving and drypoint
•   processes which employ acids to establish images on metal, known as etching

Historically intaglio processes used soft but sturdy metals as plate matrices. Copper and Zinc plates are in common usage in most traditional etching studios. However in recent years, the desire to move away from toxic chemical processes and interest in emerging materials have led to the use of various plastics as plates. 

Pablo Picasso_ Portrait of Olga in a Fur Collar (Portrait d'Olga au col de fourrure)1923 _printed 1955

Drypoint is the most straightforward of the direct techniques and is accomplished by simply scratching into the surface of a plate with a sharp tool. As the tool is scratched across a plate, a burr is raised. In addition to the ink which is held in the incised line, this burr also traps ink, which accounts for the soft quality of the printed line.  

Drypoint plates have a limited life. This is especially true of the soft plastic plates that we will use. As the plate is printed, the burr gets flattened and holds less ink. 

Carroll Dunham _ Untitled from Shadows_ 1989

Print #4: Drypoint 

For this print you have two options in terms of theme/subject matter:

A.) Student Choice: You decide the content that you wish to explore. For those of you in Senior Studio this is an opportunity to make something that connects with the content that you're exploring in your capstone.

B.) Thematic Prompt: "Shadows & Echoes." For those of you that prefer to have a little direction and a shared point of departure. 

Design Process: Complete a minimum of 2 sketches on the provided paper. (Paper is 8 x 9"; you should create a live area of 6 x 8", which corresponds to the material that I will provide for this print).

Use a ballpoint pen and fill the entire frame. 

These are due for discussion on Monday 10.21* and will be factored into the rubric during final scoring. Do not throw them away. You will turn them in.

 

*After small group discussions you will immediately select one of your designs and translate it as is or with minor modifications to the plate that I provide following my demonstration of the drypoint technique. You will have until the following class to complete the plate and we will all print on Wednesday Oct. 23. 

TIMELINE

WEEK 5 _ Some INFO on Editioning + Timeline for Prints 2 & 3

We proofed all of your Still Life as Self Portrait blocks last class. Now is a good time to talk about different designations for prints.

There are several designations for proofs depending on what point in the process they were pulled and for what purpose. Here are a few that are relevant for you:

• State Proof (S/P) _ an early proof that shows developmental changes in a block before the final edition
• Trial Proof (T/P) _ early working proofs with experimental changes in color or wiping to visualize various effects
• Bon a tirer Proof (B.A.T.) _ French for "good too pull." This print is used by the printer as an example for the edition.
• Artist Proof (A/P) _ Common practice that 10% of an edition is reserved for the artist. These are identical to impressions from the edition but are not included against the edition count. 

Editioning (excerpted from Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes by Fick & Grabowski, p.31)

Creating the plate through various techniques, and developing and adjusting the image through proof printing, is the art of printmaking. Pulling an edition is the business of printmaking. 

There are a few "rules" to follow when editioning. Of course, rules are made to be broken, but unless there is a good reason for doing so, consider these conventions:

• Every print in an edition is made on the same type & size of paper.
• Paper is commonly torn rather than cut. 
• Paper deckles go to the right or bottom of the print.
• Borders on prints are equal on the top and sides and larger on the bottom, by about 1/16 to 1/2".
• Prints should be free of smudges and fingerprints - both front and back.
• Prints are signed with the proof designation or edition number, title, and artist's signature. Note that titles are optional. Leaving the title space empty implicitly means that the piece has no title. 

Example print showing locations for edition number, title, and signature. Prints are typically signed in pencil.

Print 2 Parameters & Timeline:

Critique for Print 2 is Wednesday, October 9

[Immediately following critique you will submit an "edition" of 5 prints* from your Still-Life as Self Portrait block.] 

Between now and Oct. 9 we will use most of our in-class time to work on the collaborative Get Out the Vote posters. This means that you'll need to come in outside of class to print your editions for Print #2. We will use a sign-up sheet to reserve time slots for out-of-class printing. I STRONGLY suggest that you print in pairs. Having an extra set of hands makes everything from printing to cleanup much easier. The minimum amount of time that you should reserve for printing is 2 hours. This allows enough time for setup, printing, and cleanup. You can't do much in an hour and if you rush you will make mistakes and make a mess. 

Do yourself a favor and prepare your paper for printing when you have a few extra minutes in class, that way, when you come in to print you don't have to spend time on that step. 

Here's a link to our signup sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15w5CX13p2AW1eyVe1ddGUWxjsn-s8IDiWOdBJ0qa5W0/edit?usp=sharing

*[An edition is a set of nearly identical prints. I'm asking you to arrive at an edition of 5 which is a very low edition number in the printmaking world. You should expect to print at least twice as many prints as your desired edition and then select the best five from the group to edition. Because printmaking paper is expensive, you should make your first prints during any printing session on newsprint. We use newsprint until the block is fully inked and printing correctly, then we shift to the good paper for the actual prints.]

Print 3 Parameters & Timeline:

Formal Analysis = There's a Canvas Assignment for this exercise. Please scan and upload documentation of your formal analysis to Canvas by Thursday Sept. 26.

Today we transferred our designs to the large blocks and began carving. Please continue carving over the weekend. We will have some time to carve during class on Monday Sept. 30. I anticipate that we may have someone from the university present doing some video/photo documentation of the process that day.

I'd like to be able to seal and begin proofing the large blocks by Wednesday, 10/2. 

Monday 10/7 _ Class print session for Get Out the Vote blocks.

WEEK 3 _ Collaborative Poster Project

 

Posters for the People: Election Year

Today I gave a presentation about work created by artists employed by the Federal Art Project under Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. After a careful study of the themes, tone, and design of the example posters provided in the slide presentation, each group will design and print their own poster that addresses voter info/awareness. Think: “Get out the Vote”.

Early steps (together): 

We did this in class as groups today.

• Define “non-partisan”.
• Identify some goals. What would you like your poster to communicate/accomplish?
• List key pieces of information that your poster should include. Briefly discuss them in terms of priority/hierarchy.
• Brainstorm some imagery/visual ideas. (The design process will be “iterative.” Come up with a variety of ideas > then think of several visual representations/solutions for each.)
• Note any questions or concerns that you may have. 

 

Early steps (individually): 

  

Complete the following Formal Analysis Exercise by Wednesday, Sept. 18

 

 

1. Choose one of the posters from the CANVAS folder located under:

Files> Print 3 _ Posters for the People > Posters Options for Formal Analysis  

Select an option that you find particularly compelling from a FORMAL standpoint.

 

2.  Using the provided handouts for guidance/refresher, conduct a formal analysis of your selection. Your analysis should combine written descriptions that employ specific, appropriate vocabulary with sketches that illuminate your observations. The goal is to carefully observe and describe how the design “works” formally, and consequently how these decisions create impact and meaning. Do this on a single sheet of 9x12” paper. 

Here are a few student examples of this exercise:

WEEK 2 _ Print 1 submissions / Print 2 Prompt

Print #1 _ Submission

Today we printed our Exquisite Corpse blocks in lots of fun configurations. You should have also printed your own blocks as single image at least once. 

You will scan your print (when it's dry to the touch) and submit documentation of the print to the Project 1 Canvas Assignment. 

File specs: 150dpi, 1500 pixels on the longest dimension, .jpg

PRINT #2 _ “Still-life as Self Portrait”

(refer to in-class presentation on contextual examples relating to this prompt)

Stage 1 _ DESIGN

1.) Make a minimum of two different designs in response to this prompt. Your designs should employ a grayscale with a minimum of 3 values. Remember that to achieve grayscale in block print you must use "optical grays" (i.e. cross-hatching, cross contour, stippling).

Materials:
- Format = 8 x 10" picture plane drawn (within the 9 x 12" paper provided)
- sharpie

HW:  2 drawings (different compositional options), DUE Weds., Sept. 11 at the beginning of class.