Day Sixty Five

Guess who’s tired? Me, that’s who.

After leaping from my bed at 9:30 (a certain coffee date with a certain grandmother having been forgotten) I proceeded to have the perfect, relaxing, whipped-cream-topped, mochalicious start to what I knew would be a long, long day. After that sentence, I feel the need to sidetrack briefly to apologize to every English teacher I’ve ever had for the “run-on sentence”. “So”, you ask, “what could you have possibly done today to warrant that kind of ‘run-on’ introduction?” Well, I’ll tell you...

In case you are unfamiliar with the lovely (and, at times, extremely frustrating) art of silkscreening, it goes a little something like this:

·         --Fine fabric is stretched over a wooden frame.

·        -- Light sensitive emulsion is applied to the “screen”.

·         --The emulsion is exposed to an image with UV light.

·         --The screen is washed, and the unexposed parts of the image are left, creating a kind of stencil.

·       --  Paint is applied to the screen, and squeezed through onto a surface (paper, t-shirt) to create a positive image.

Ah, the handy dandy information that comes from us lonely artists... Anyway, silkscreening is the medium that eight or nine hours of my day were devoted to. Having received a last-minute Valentine’s art order, I have spent the last few days shooting, editing, shopping, and, finally, printing. After repeating the above process exactly four times, every flat (and semi-flat) surface in my room was covered in prints and t-shirts.

As I fell onto the couch, I realized that not only had I not eaten in approximately 7 hours, I also had yet to complete the day’s work. Muttering to myself as I wiggled free of the cozy blankets I had wrapped up in, I decided I’d better get back to work before I lost consciousness.

Flipping through the dictionary, I decided to stop closer to the end. Fearing some obscure x, y, or z word, I stopped short of the true end of the dictionary. However, I still managed to happen upon a word I have yet to hear in an everyday conversation. (I plan to change this.)

un-der-brim The area on the underside of a hat’s brim.

I just love this word. With Valentine’s Day coming up (awkwardness and broken hearts, here we come), I wanted to illustrate a sweet, Valentines-y character. As I am not a hat-wearer myself, hats are not often present in my art. Thank you, “under brim”, for helping me to change that.

In keeping with the Valentine’s theme, I used light pinks and purples to color the character’s outfit. I like the touch of blue within all of that warmth; I think it keeps it from getting too blended together. For the hat, I liked the idea of one of those...I want to say “bucket hats” but I’m not sure what the proper term is for them...anyway, I wanted to have her wear an old-fashioned looking hat with a large, festive pin on the side. Although I ended up with more of a pink safari hat, I think the idea still comes across. I wanted to have the hat covering the majority of her face to keep you guessing.

I hope you enjoyed today’s post; thank you so much for reading.

Xx

-r

Day Thirty Seven

Sadly, today was a designated school day. That means no art, no television, and no music. Well, I cheated a little on the “no music” front. Feeling deprived, I decided to take some extra time today’s project.

I had an uncarved linoleum block sitting around, and decided to use it. After the experience with linoleum block print Christmas cards, it seemed like a good art form to explore.

Before I tell you more about the carving process, I should probably tell you today’s word:

romp  v.  To run, play, or frolic in a carefree way.

Okay, back to the carving...

The original sketch was of a girl (seen from the back) running through the forest. This block was very easy to carve; cutting down considerably on time and amount of accidental stabbings. (hooray!)

I spread some paint on a sheet of glass with a silkscreen squeegee, and placed the carved block onto the paint to ink it.

Let me just say that many of the fine details did not come through in the carving (the blades I had were much too wide for this task) and the girl herself did not come through as much as I’d hoped.                                                   

The first time, I’d put too thick a layer of paint on the glass, and the print came out "blobby".

The second print had too little ink, and barely came out at all.

The third and final print was lacking some paint around the edges, but I decided to go with it.

The two people (other than myself) that have seen the print can’t quite tell what it is *sigh* but I hope at least some of you can. Thanks for reading!

Enjoy your night!!

Xx

-r

Day Thirty Six!

Holy cow!! I have never before been this close to NOT posting!! Oh boy..came pretty close, there. I was wondering to myself if anyone missed me? I was curious if there had been any readers checking in only to find...nothing... Well, to those readers (if you do exist) I am very sorry.

Would you like to know what happened?

I’ll tell you anyway.

As you may have guessed, The Ink Drop is far from being my only artistic outlet...

Recently, I have been attempting to master (or at least become friends with) the art of silk screening. Tonight, I was finally able to come close. I’d burned a screen with two images on it to save time (before printing one, I’d tape over the other) and decided to do three print runs in one night. The results?

This is a print from a high contrast photograph I’d taken of my younger brother in France. I burned it to a screen and printed it on 5x7 backing board.

This is a print from a photograph taken last year (date unknown) in an alley downtown during a construction project. (Those of you who live in Lawrence: that stupid “night club” called Tonic...this was the construction of their back patio...you know...the one with the giant fake palm tree...)

I decided to play around with some 80’s style pop art colors. I hand-painted the background, did the first layer in pink (or green) and then did another layer over that in black.

I then had to wash out my screen...

My small army of paint:

Now, back to the reason you are here...

Today’s word is PERFECT. I could not have picked a more perfect word for today...

sat-is-fac-tion  n.  Anything which brings about a happy feeling; the fulfillment of a need, appetite, or desire; a source of gratification.

Ahh...just the way to describe my evening.

I decided to use some of the paint that had been sitting around, and draw the sound that came to mind:

I painted the girl (over a pencil sketch) and left her face in pencil-the brush was much too large for that fine of detail.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s post! (Most of you will no doubt read this tomorrow) For now, I will be sinking into bed and not moving for at least 10 hours.

Good night.

Xx

-r