Trials and tribulations

I have been trying out both water and oil based printing inks to see which one produces the result I want.  Have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I prefer the oil based inks. Reluctantly because of the additional 30 mins after the printing session needed to clean up. However more practise at the cleaning up process is meaning that I am getting quicker!

I did get into a real mess with using extender or reducer with the inks. I have realised that I added far too much to the ink and a real sticky (and difficult to clear up) mess resulted.  I had only seen extender used once before and thought I had remembered what to do but memory failure added to the chaos. Still one learns from ones mistakes.

Have been on a couple of pastel workshops recently organised by my local art society.  Good to be thinking of something other than printing for a change.  This painting ended up quite close to the original idea but not a lot like the still life set-up.   The second workshop, I started with a clear idea of colours and mood which was supposed to be calm with blues and light ochres - the colours of the seaside and driftwood. The result was a long way from my vision and very disappointing - where are the peaceful colours and mood of the seaside?    So the painting has been brushed down and the colour knocked back so that the pastel card is waiting for another paint sometime in the future.       

With these pastels, my recent drawings and my printmaking I am still noticing my small alphabet of mark making. The more I look at other artist's work, especially print makers, I feel my own lack. I have been looking at wood engravings in particular and the tones that are arrived at are incredible.I especially like the work of Colin See-Payton - http://www.see-paynton.co.uk/.  We bought one of his engravings last year - his work is fantastic and every time I see his exhibitions I have to resist buying more.

I was pleased with one piece of work I managed at the last life drawing I attended. The model was Marie and she was able to pose with incredible stillness.  She gave us 4 standing poses and for one I could not resist her beautiful profile.  I used a photocopy of this for a dry-point at the society's monthly printmaking workshop yesterday.  I need to clean it up a bit and add emphasis but am pleased with the results so far.  A little bit more work to do before I post the results.

I came across another artist's work yesterday that I have found helpful - Robert Gillmor http://www.pinkfootgallery.com/gillmor.html. He typically uses 10 linoleum blocks - one for each colour for his prints - and I am finding 3 different blocks hard to handle!  His work is stunning though and the more one looks at it the more there is to see.