Printmaking has been a love of mine for a very long time. I remember that in high school art class, we carved linoleum blocks and printed with them. This was, hands down, my favorite project of the year, and I even won a blue ribbon in a local art show with one of my pieces.
I love to carve stamps. I love to make stamps from fun foam. I love stamping with found objects. I love mono printing. I love collagraph. Screen printing intimidates me a bit, but after an introduction in class with Michelle Allen, I feel a bit more confident about giving it a go.
One of my favorite books on my art bookshelf is Printmaking + Mixed Media by Dorit Elisha. I have nearly worn the pages out poring over the images, reading the instructions and imagining, imagining....
One type of printing I have long been interested in trying is gelatin printing. The artwork produced in this way in Dorit's book is exactly my aesthetic. I also ran across a good how to on the Sketchbook Challenge Blog recently. The clincher was that my sweet daughter was peeking over my shoulder and said "oh mommy can we try that?" So we went for it. The results follow.
I neglected to take a photo of our first application of paint to the gelatin, and I could not get a good image of the gelatin itself. I made it in a shallow aluminum pan I bought from the grocery store.
This first image is the first print we pulled. I learned quickly to go easy with the paint. We cut heart shapes out of index cards to use as masks. You lay them right on top of the paint, and that area will not print.
We pulled a second print on a piece of canvas I had previously painted with some leftover blue paint.
This is what the gelatin looked after pulling the first and second print. The heart shaped masks are still in place.
So Miss. M. pulled the "ghost image."
Here she is stamping into green paint on the gelatin. Ain't she cute?
A Sunday afternoon well spent. Art fun with my baby girl and lot's of cool new printed papers to use in my artwork.
2 comments:
How fun! Yay Momma and Messa for having such a fun artsy day! I wasn't sure how gelatin printing worked but I am so much more clear on the process now. Thanks for sharing your special day "_
I was out blog surfing and came upon your blog. I am so glad that I did! My favorite thing ever is to find artists that have something original to say with their work. The other favorite thing is people with homespun noncommercial blogs. Well, you got an A+. I love your work! I hope you don't mind, but I've taken it upon myself to follow you and to invite you to do the same. When you have a little spare time, come on over for a visit. My welcome mat is always out.
Connie :)
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