Sunday, October 26, 2014

Press experiments, Part 3: Or maybe I should just say "Linocut in Progress"

Ask me how much fun I'm having working on the new press. Go on, ask me!

[Insert reader query here.]

I'm having a blast, thanks for asking!

There's not much to report in the technical department this time around, since I've now put down two more colors without mishap. I did start to have a little issue with ink tack towards the end of the 5th color run, but with five colors in two days I'm not surprised. No real problems... I could just feel things getting a little tacky when I pulled prints off the block. Some Setswell would have fixed it right up had I needed to make more prints.

So here's where we are– Color 1: gray, Color 2: gray, Color 3: blue....

Color 4: A sort of pale ochre. The weird texture is an artifact of the photography... a little ink glare and some rogue shadows. I haven't figured out a good set up for photo-taking in the "new" space yet.

First press print in progress, Step 4

Color 5: A light brown for shadows in the ochre-y areas. Again with the funky shadows, sorry. But hey, birders! Any guesses what our species might be?

Linocut in progress, Step 5
Time to think about what's next. There are two small areas of the bird that will require spot inking, and I'm considering some sort of color blend in the background. But which to do first? Always a question in reduction prints!

1 comment:

  1. It's exciting to know that Presston is proving to be an asset, if not entirely free of technical difficulties, and that you can print without pain of the physical sort. Yay! And it's a great print, too. Can't wait to see how the next color layers go once the ink has dried enough....

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