Diner printing update

Started printing the yellow background for the Diner print yesterday morning.  Used the new Hansa Yellow that I bought and it's still very tacky and thick.  Decided to push forward anyhow and pulled 5 prints.  Since it's my first time printing an unmounted piece of lino I had to play around with the pressure.

My previous problems have made it easy to avoid printing, but I really wanted to get this thing rolling so I jumped right into it.  The thickness of the ink is still making it tough on me and the transfer of the ink wasn't always great.  I would play with the pressure as I went and found that if I wound it too tight than the registration tabs that I bought would pull and warp the holes that the pins went through.  If I loosened the pressure then the holes were fine, but the ink transfer was questionable.

I'm going to add some transparent ink to the yellow to try and change it's consistency and then apply more think to the plate than I was in hopes that both will cause a good transfer without having to keep the press too tight.

On another note...one of the registration tabs that I taped to the paper came off....sigh.  That one will now be my test print.  Ugh...haha.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #Diner #neon #sign #yellow

American Sign Museum - Cincinnati, OH

My wife and I recently took some time to travel around to some cities near us that we'd never visited before.  We went to both Cincinnati, OH and Indianapolis, IN.

We discovered that Cincinnati had a sign museum and since I've been working on a lot of projects involving signs we decided to go and spend some time there.  Though it's a bit small the amount of signage and neon that they have is incredible.  They have older bulb signs, letters, neon and about any other types of signage that has been used.  Areas of the building and constructed to look like old streets and storefronts which is pretty cool and inside the windows are additional signs as well as old sign making materials.

It was a really nice location and if you happen to be in the Cincy area I would highly recommend stopping by to check it out.  Below are some pics that I took while on our visit.

Was hoping to get some printing started this week, but so far work has been fairly rough this week and I started a new work schedule.  So far this week I've already gotten 38 in 3 days and still have some more to work.  I've basically been going to work, sleeping and going back with no time in between to do any kind of art.  Going to shoot for Saturday to get some printing started and it'll probably be the Hi-Land Dodge piece.

 

 

  

 

 

#art #neon #signs #AmericanSignMuseum #HowardJohnsons #MailPouch #Firestone #Ohio #Cincinnati #vacation #HolidayInn

Hi-Land Dodge - 1st color carved

 

Though I was planning on printing the first color of the Diner print yesterday it didn't actually work out for me.  I wound up spending a good amount of time going over the Hi-Land Dodge identifying the color separations.

I used the green for the light grey and the blue for the medium grey.  Everything is black will be printed in either a very dark grey or black - I haven't decided on that yet, but I've found I'm not overly fond of straight black.

I had no intention of carving this piece, but figured I'd just do a little.  I got a little excited I guess and would up finishing the carving for the paper white.  I'm going to spend some time going back over it though so that I can double check that I did not miss anything.  I probably should've identified all the white areas with a color as well, but I didn't.  I left so much of the image the original battleship grey of the lino that it didn't really occur to me until I was already well into carving.

I'm going to need to prepare some paper and I want to give the entire block a wipe down with mineral spirits before printing.  I don't want any of the marker transferring to the paper and since my first color is marked in green there is a good chance of transfer.  Maybe next time I'll choose to mark the white of the paper, and each color from #2 onward and leave the first printed color un-markered.

Printing should occur for this as well as the Diner print sometime this week.  Though I will say that I'm rather nervous about altering the printing height of the press to print two different types of lino (mounted & unmounted).  My press does not have fantastic measurements and I hate changing where I have things set.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #Sharpie #Dodge #ZionNationalPark #TradingPost #ZionParkRV

New updates and a new ink roller!!

Here is the current update on the Hi-Land Dodge lino that I started a couple weeks back.  Progress has been pretty slow, but I just took a week off to go on vacation otherwise this would have probably already had it's highlights carved out.

I will say that some of the areas are tough to decipher, but the detail in those section isn't overly important so I'm making small changes here and there depending on how it feels and looks against the photo.  Once I complete the black and blue areas I will go back in with another color to identify where the other 2 colors belong.

Also, the issues that I've been having with my ink have hopefully been fixed by a new can of yellow ink and the possible issues with the ink brayer (roller) have hopefully been fixed.  I contacted the manufacturer about the issues I was having and they offered to send me a new roller all the way from Germany!!  Super excited that it already showed up and now I'm ready to start printing again.  Hoping to test the new ink and roller out on the Diner print either later today or tomorrow morning.

I also stopped by Target the other day and found a bunch of "Back to School" Sharpies on clearance for 88 cents.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #Abig #ABigBrayer #Sharpie #Dodge #ZionNationalPark #TradingPost #ZionParkRV

Hi-Land Dodge update

Hi everyone!  Here is the most recent update for the Hi-Land Dodge linocut.  I've been a bit quiet on here for a couple days as I've been in contact with the ink brayer company about possible issues that have arisen while using their brayer.  They've been kind enough to offer to send me a new brayer free of charge since mine is only a couple months old.

I have been working though on some things including preparing my printing bed for the Diner print as well as inking the transferred drawing of the Hi-Land Dodge.  For the first time ever I'm using multiple colors to help me identify which areas are to be carved at certain points.  I also hoping that this will cut down on missed carvings.  I bought green, blue and violet ultra-fine point Sharpies to use for this process.  Sharpies really seem to hold up well to the cleaning of the block multiple times.

 

Here are two images of the transfer process.  The left shows the traced drawing taped onto the lino block and placed inside the registration jig and I've laid a piece of plexi-glass on top of it.  I then place a printmaking blanket on top of the that and push it through the press.  The image on the right is what the block looks like after the previous step is complete.  The graphite has transferred over to the block and in this case...it is very faint.

I have to be very careful when I start to ink the block that I do not allow my hand to lay on any part of the transferred image otherwise it'll rub right off and I'll have to try and make things up as I go.  In the main image of this post you can see that I've worked a lot of the right edge as well as the top.  The sky area of this image allowed me a nice place to rest my hand.  I do put down a piece of tracing paper to prevent my skin oils from getting on the block.

Getting ready to go on a short vacation to visit some new cities that my wife and I have never been to.  I've scoped out some hopefully cool neon signs in these areas that I can hopefully use for future projects.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #Dodge #Hi-Land #ZionNationalPark #ZionParkRV #UT-9

The issues continue....brayer issue as well as ink issue??

While printing the last couple layers on the Cafe print I noticed that the brayer only seemed to be placing ink on it's edges and not down the middle.  As much as I want to continue on printing I decided this morning to test the brayer on a lightly sanded lino block.

What I got was the picture above.  Shown is two passes...one on the left and one on the right.  The darker greys are where the brayer left ink.  Keep in mind that the actual center of the block is the overlap of the two passes.  Looks like I'm going to be needing a new brayer before I can continue.

#art #printmaking #linocut #reductionlinocut #inkissues #brayerissues  #sigh