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| 'Flooded Britania", one print I managed to complete during the workshop |
Lithography is a planographic printmaking process- everything is taking place on a flat surface without higher or lower inking planes. Lithography is based on the fact that water and oil repel and that ink will be attracted by oily surfaces. So on a piece of limestone, the artist uses a greasy drawing medium to create an image , and the stone is kept damp while the ink is rolled onto the stone. A special press needs to be used, a lithography press which accommodate the stone slab ( about 100 mm thick). This seems simple but in fact several chemical process take place to prepare the stone (it is reusable ). That is almost all I know of stone lithography, besides the fact that it is considered the printmaking technique closest to painting as the artist literally draws or paints on the image.
This Spring, polyester lithography was the big buzz in town and a class was offered at the School of Art in August. i had heard that it was simpler and relatively inexpensive and one did not need dedicated printmaking equipment; one can use Sharpie markers, China markers, india ink, ballpoint pens, acrylic paint, toner solution to create an image on a special film of polyester, and with some prep with gum arabic solution, and with a solution of water and civic acid for dampening the plate, one could print with an etching press or even by hand with a barren or a wooden spoon.
That is basically what we explored during that workshop, the kind of image we get with different writing mediums, how durable is the plate prepared with different medium for multiple prints, whether heating the plate make a difference, what about the viscosity of the ink, and the type of paper, and dampening the paper, how to make a multiple color image & registration, and how to separate colours of a digital image using Photoshop and get multiple plates of their primary colours.
In the workshop, after a day, a day and a half of playing around and trying everything and figuring out the steps, i calmed down and decided to limit myself to two images and try them with different drawing mediums and papers to understand how everything responded. it started to get better for me when I figured out a plan of action.
The print above was done with two plates. Most of the image was drawn with sharpie markers and china markers and the water and clouds were done with touch, a toner solution applied with a brush. i had tried create the water with acrylic paint and i found that it create a solid opaque value, which was not what i was looking for. Toner solution has more dispersed particulates and this created different values.
The print below was my first attempt at that two-plate image on good paper. I used china markers for tree shapes and birds and grass, and brushed-on acrylic paint for the blue areas, and damp BFK Rives paper. The very absorptive paper seemed to have evened out the brush strokes of the acrylic paint (on newsprint, these showed) , which was disappointing. I chose to start over with a new set of plates, and this time, i heated the plates on a hot plate at about 200-220F. This seemed to reduce peeling of the image. I was looking for a more painterly look for the pond and for that, I switched from acrylic paint to Touch ( toner solution), and it did create more texture (See the print on top).
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| After a few trial on newsprints, I tried with good paper and it created a different feel. Also the image on the plate was starting to fade or peel off, so few 'good' prints would be possible. I found that heating these plates made the image on the plate more durable. |
