The Proofing and Printing Process

When it came to printing my tarantula it went really smoothly, sometimes printing and proofing can become a disaster. So you really need to no when its ok to say FUCK IT and start over. But when it came to my first test run back in the print studio, it went really well. The proofing of the image was finished within an hour on regular sketchbook paper until the image was to where I wanted it (press pressure wise that is) and after the proofing was done I went straight to printing.  when it comes to printing an edition you need to establish a B.A.T print, that is the print that all of your proofs are based off of and are compared against, and it they match the B.A.T perfectly they become a part of the edition. 

The only thing with this print that I don't like is the fact that it was just a test, and I didn't want to put the time into it. I could of obviously pushed it farther, and perhaps I will this fallowing summer, but until then, this print will remain unfinished. 

The Beginning stages of my litho experiment (Lithography 2013)

First things first, I'm sorry it took sooooo long for me to get this blog done. So lets start this. In the summer I took an extended studies program at the University I attended, this extended studies program was geared toward my self exploration and generally just me trying to learn how to achieve things with this medium on my own. I took an intro class the fall before and I loved it so much that I wanted to continue my litho practice. Since I had no idea where to start, I started where I left off, with prints of Bugs. The fist "test" print I did was of this tarantula, I call it a test print because I haven't done any litho since the fall and I needed something to refresh my memory. So BUGS! BUGS! BUGS! :D

Drawing on a lime stone is quite simple, you can use different grades of litho pencils or even inks, in this picture above I was drawing with a number 2 litho pencil and I gummed out areas that I wanted to stay perfectly white. 

After the drawing is done, you have to process it, so in the picture above i'm talcing up my image( this was after applying resin and dusting it off). this is before you apply your etch, which is nitric acid mixed with 1 ounce of gum arabic. 

The above 7 pictures are of me doing the second etch, unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of the first etch. The first etch sets the image into the stone, making the parts of the stone that were not drawn on water loving and the parts that were drawn water repellant. after you duff the first etch into the stone, you can clean the stone with estisol, to dissolve all the litho pencil, after all the pencil is gone, you wash the stone off with water and apply ink, now before this when the stone is ready for ink the image will still be there, but it will be a faint sepia tone on the stone, once you roll up your image ( which is what I was doing in the images above) you can pour your second etch. 

After the image is processed and rolled up with ink, you can move on to printing :D!

fucking phone..

I will eventually be blogging about my time in extended studies and what I was doing in the print studio. I have a lot of photos and I need to transfer them off of my phone before I get a new one and thats taking a really long time. So hopefully I can get this done soon, I want to be more active with my blog and art again and stay sharp. I don't want to just work all the time and not be about to do any art that I want to do, Merrrr hopefully shit gets done.

Its been a while, I'm starting my extended studies soon in about a week and a half and I am super excited about it. Its in the Lithography studio at NSCAD and i'm going to try and make as many prints as I can. AAAAND hopefully update about it frequently and show what i'm doing and such, I plan on making some video's perhaps but probably of the printing rather than all the technical stuff but we'll see about that.

I start on the 8th of July. Hopefully this gets me out of my art rut i've been in.

Graduation Exhibition 2013

I'm only going to upload these ones of the grad show because this area was where my piece was displayed. The Gallery lit my piece rather nicely i thought, however I would of put it in another spot in the gallery instead of the little niche area by the staircase. I didn't get to attend the opening for the grad show, mostly because I forgot that the openings for this gallery are on Mondays and I forgot to book monday off. But at least I got to take some pictures of the work when I went to the show on Wednesday.  

At the moment I'm working on a series of paintings that all have a similar theme of disintegration. the first of these paintings was of a dog that was shrivelled up with the skeleton showing, this one I wanted it to be way more subtle and make it look as though the deer is sleeping( even though it is a painting of a dead deer). I called this painting "In Due Time" mostly because it take time for a body to decompose. These paintings are my response to memento mora, and the venitas symbols that are in art, by creating my own with these half drawn emerging flowers that have more of a suggestion to a rebirth of life and the moths caring for the spirit or soul of the creature that is present. 

I'll write more about it eventually, I'm hoping to have a gallery show of these paintings soon, so in a few months i'll see where i'm at and hopefully it happens. 

candy painting

so this is painting project that is (almost) finished, it is in fact, a candy still life. Which for me is ironic, because I hate candy haha. My intermediate painting class is going really well so far. and my teacher Andrew is an amazing teacher. I've learned so much more with him teaching me than I have with any other painting prof (aside from marla) haha.

my next painting is a still like as well. so thats fun.

Im also in this intro lithography class, and i've never done lithography before. I have done other forms of print making though so I kind of know what to expect. but so far I've levagated a stone, and drew on it with litho crayons, I'm going to etch my stone this thursday so that will be interesting. I just hope that my first litho print turns out.

DIY things

I've been doing a lot of DIY things with my stuff lately, like a while ago I made a post on my shoes that I painted, well I started painting my old back pack and im continuing with the "ghost level" mario theme, and so far I just have the blue base of the back ground done but i'll post some updates on that soon.

paint brush holder for school :] 

The latest thing that i've painted on was my paint brush holder case thing, its was a black canvas paint brush holder thing that had a zipper and an ugly logo on it that said art something or other.. I don't know, I just didn't like how it looked, and because it looked shitty I didn't use it. so I painted it a few times, once blue, then white. but now I painted a skull with a crow and some roses on it and it looks pretty cool. The roses on it were done in marker though, and because of that after I sealed it with MOD podge it sort of smeared everywhere, so I made it look more intentional. But since I painted on it, I like it a lot more, and I'll be keeping it in my studio at school.

I like doing DIY things like this. super fun :]


I'll be back in Uni in like 12 days :D im so excited to be back in school. And it will bring back the creative atmosphere that my summer has been lacking.

~jessy