Experiments

This week was a free week to experiment with various techniques. I used additive and subtractive to complete my artwork. The first piece I did used the roller to add different colors to the plate. I found for this that the color went on the best and most evenly if the roller was a little bit over the normal saturation of ink. By using the roller and mixing various oranges and yellows on another plate original colors emerged on the plate in ways I may not have mixed them. Next I used the subtractive method, using Q-tips and removed the parts of the plate I wished to be the flower. By adding the black contour lines it really defined the shape of the flowers. After this I still felt that the piece was missing a real focal point or highlight so I went back and added the red into one of the poppies. The piece printed much lighter than the colors I had placed on the plate. If I did this piece again I would make sure to put more ink on the background and make the colors more vivid.

I did several other smaller prints using the excess ink from my palette. Using a roller it can be interesting to roll out the ink where ever it is on the palette. I find that the more I experiment with the materials the easier they are to work with, and the more ideas for new projects I come up with.

One of the other projects I worked on was inspired by a textile. The colors appealed to me so I began to experiment mixing inks. I gently laid each stroke down on the plate. The finished Plate was vibrant and the first print came out much darker than the original design. I decided to run a ghost print of this and it came out much closer to the colors I desired. It was a good experiment of mixing inks.