Love dealing with bipolar weather and bipolar people...

So it's what, the 4th week back to college?  And i am STILL dying sick.  The abnorally cold Print room isnt exactly helping the situation so I'm pretty much just on the way out I think.

I finally got to print this morning!  After applying the Gum Arabic on friday, it had to be left dry so I couldnt touch it again until today when I was in the workshop.  For this process, I had to set up the big scary press and transfer my stone from the work bench on to the press. 

I applied White Spirits (mighty stuff to be inhaling at 9.30am) to the stone and rubbed it down till i was left with a negative of my original image.  I then applied this browny-black crappy stuff (thats the technical terms there) better known as asphaltum and rubbed it into the stone with a cloth.  After this I had to wash down my stone with a sponge and water to remove excess and also the cloth fibers that got stuck to the stone. 

Once this was complete, I could start the roll-up method.  Using a leather roller, I rolled in a fan like motion to get an even spread of ink over my image.  The aim of this is to get the negative image back up to its original levels of tone and detail that I had prior to applying the White Spirts.

Then, a layer of newsprint paper was placed on top along with a large thick piece of acetate like material better known as tympan.  Grease was then applied to the sheet of tympan so that it could slide under the bar of the press easily.  Once the pressure was right and the stone was properly aligned, I was able to send the block through the press.  With this you have to be very careful about when the arm of the press comes down and when you have to stop rolling the press.  With other presses you can send the print right through to the other side but with Lithography presses, the stone goes someway in, then comes back out the same way.

The result was my first proof.

The image was quite faint so i re applied the ink to bring it to the levels of darkness and tone that I wanted.

I then had to re-do the Etching process that I did on Friday to prepare the stone for its proper printing. 

As well as Print workshop, Im also doing Media on Tuesday evenings.  Here we're currently being taught the basics of Photoshop which is something we need when studying Print.  It's quite a complex programme at the start but the more time we spend at it the easier its becoming.  We completed very basic assignements like creating wallpapers for desktops etc. and then yesterday we began to learn how to blend images.  Basing it on what we were dong with our main projects, we all created our own images.  Seeing as I was dealing with Recession and everything that comes with it, my image depicts these events.



Its not the most difficult or amazing image but sur im only learning ;)