It seems like it's been forever since I got a post up, but life has been busy. So it has taken me a little while to get rolling on Think Digital/Act Analog. But here we are now, so let's talk about printmaking! More specifically, let's revisit the design.
Now as you may remember, this image evolved from a quick doodle, to a better sketch, and then an even more refined one. Today, I'm going to show you what happens next. First thing first, I need to clean up the typeset. The "analog" style type works fine for me, but I've been having trouble finding a typeset that captures the "digital" aesthetic. After a little more playing, tracing on grid paper, transferring back and forth (forever), so on and so forth, I finally get something that fits the look I'm going for...
It's clean, and has the right look and feel to it without looking (too) campy. So with the design pretty well cemented, it's time to get the design onto the block. How do we do this? There are a number of techniques printmakers use, but the technique I use most often and the one that I'm going to show you today is using a transfer sheet.
I start by taping the design down and then taping a sheet of tracing paper down on top of it. I like to make sure everything is secure so there isn't any slipping or moving around.
Once the design and the tracing paper are snug and secure, I start tracing over the design with a soft graphite pencil. This can be pretty time consuming, especially when there are a lot of fine lines or intricate details in the design.
After the somewhat laborious task of tracing is done, it's time to actually transfer the design to a block. This means turning the tracing paper over, lining it up on the block and securing it down again, like so...
Now it's time to transfer the design to a block. It's simply a matter of tracing over the lines again. Since I'm pressing on the backside of the paper, the soft graphite I initially traced with will print onto the block as I retrace the lines.
The retracing takes a little time as well, but after it's done, we're just about finished with the transfer. To make sure that I don't ruin the design on the block while carving it, I go over the lines with a fine permanent marker. After a few minutes time to let it dry, the block is ready for carving.
You can see that in the bottom right corner I have excised a star out of the block already. It's a little reminder of how I want to carve the block; from that little star I can extrapolate what areas I decided to carve, and what areas I want to leave uncut. The image is in reverse because, as you probably remember, the block will serve as a negative to the print. So everything is backwards on the block, but it will come out right as rain when we pull the prints!
So now the block is ready to carve! Unfortunately, I don't know that I'll have enough time to get it all carved before I start my holiday travelling. If I can, I'll be sure to let you know. Either way, I'll keep you posted. Thanks for reading and if you'd like updates on when new posts are coming out, or if you'd just like to experience the art project that is my life via random bursts of information overload in 140 characters or less, follow me on Twitter: @CaptGam
Keep your eyes peeled for the next update, and don't hesitate to hit me up on the comments!
Unless otherwise noted, all work by Wade Ellett is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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