Week of Art, Day 4

Wow. I printed today. On a press. It was one of those days where the stars align and everything looks fabulous. Let me tell you about it.

I intaglio printed my laser engraved chip board, which I made eons ago and talked about here. The plate is roughly 20 x 20". I used Akua Intaglio Mars Black, applied with a card, then wiped with a tarlatan. I then paper towel wiped with a block. Pretty awesome, huh? I printed on Arches 88 that went into the water bath and immediately removed. I let it sit on the blotters for a bit before printing. Now for a color version.

Next up, mixing some ink. (I'm a little out of practice, apparently.) The blue on the far right is a combination of Akua Intaglio inks, and then I threw in a teaspoon of Akua's Transparent Base with the goal of making it looser than the Mars Black. (I was trying hard to remember what I learned in a recent viscosity demo...)

After inking and wiping my plate with Mars Black, I rolled on some of the blue. I used a medium-hard roller. It seemed to be rolling on very well without much black off-set.

Here it is printed! The chip board isn't totally smooth so it left some nice incidental marks, so you can see some of the paper coming up through the blue.

I  happened to be in the studio while Carolyn Kimball was working on a soft ground. She had some success too, so the positive mojo was flowing! I love it when that happens!!

My art week has come to a close--I'm seeing my family tomorrow for some R&R. I may be blogging in the next week, or I may be sitting in a hammock reading a book. Either way, I'll be back to regular updates soon!