Printmaking, Fall 2012

Roses Painting the Red, Drypoint

Tender, Loving Touch, Woodcut

"I Do" Etching

He Carried Me, Etching with Aquatint

Here are the prints I made in printmaking! The first print is a drypoint, which was the first print that I made by scratching into a copper plate, then spreading ink across the plate, wiping it off so the ink stayed in the scratch marks, then running it through the press.  I wasn't sure how to exactly make the design I wanted, I just had an idea and a few images to combine together and make my own.  I love Alice in Wonderland, and one of my favorite parts is the painting the roses red song, so I decided to create that song with a twist.  After making my first print, it actually looked exactly like I wanted it to, so I just darkened a few lines, and ran it through the press a few more times.  The second print is my woodcut which actually made it into the all student show this year.  It took me all semester to finish this print not only in the design, but also in how long it took to carve my woodblock.  I wanted to show something from my trip to Ghana, Africa last winter break, and I wanted to show childhood innocence and joy, but I really struggled in how to show it.  I finally came up with the image in the picture, and I worked and re-worked it to make it my own, and also make it possible to carve.  I think that print is my strongest of the 4 not only because of the detail, but also because of my attachment to the events behind the image.  The third print is one of the engagement pictures I took of my sister and her husband, and I wanted it to look like a Polaroid image, and also not completely detailed as I've found my style has become.  That was my first etching, where we cover a copper plate in what is called hard ground, carve in a design, then place the plate in acid.  What has been carved away is then what gets etched into the plate, and it is then printed in the same way as the drypoint.  The fourth print is an etching that also has a little bit of aquatint on it, which is the gray tone in the cliffs.  The design is based on the "Footprints in the Sand" poem, and I wanted to show that poem in my own way, because Jesus is a huge part of my life. I really like how it turned out as well.  One of my favorite things about printmaking is how different each individual print can look, and you have no idea how it will look until you run it through the press.  You can also work and re-work pretty much as many times as you want in order to produce the best print.  I really enjoyed this class, and learning the process behind making prints, and I have a much greater respect for master printmakers, because I now understand how difficult the process can be.