Realizing a blog is supposed to have fresh material on a regular basis. I know this. Under the circumstances, printmaking has slowed down considerably. Home maintenance and improvements have captured my time and energy over the past weeks. I will confess, I did make an 11x14 gum over palladium print of Native Dancers, having completed the first one of the series, with it turning out quite nicely. I will also confess that I knew a few layers in that I wasn't liking it as I should have been. At that point it was what it was, and I wanted to see it to the end, just to see where it would go.
I didn't like it. At all. It annoyed me that I had made it. That one is on a back burner, with some work on the negative image, tweaking it a bit before printing it again. And yeah, I printed that one over the course of five or six weeks. To make up for that, I jigged up a new image I captured recently. Adopting an elder cat, being elder and all, won't be round for the length of a kitties lifetime. Capt Jack. He staggers a bit and is unsteady on his feet at times, like he's coming off a long binge. But he affectionate, and loves to eat. He is a professional napper, and that is th eimage; him napping on the couch.
This print is a gum print, on Fabriano Artistico 300 g/m, pre-shrunk but not sized. I'm relying on the paper's interior and exterior sizing to keep the image off the paper fibers. There is a bit of paper stain on the first run, which was a mix of light cyan, with a tiny spot of dark cyan for a deeper blue, over the entire print area. I'm going to begin the print using the standard CYMK printing format. I laid on the Golden Yellow layer this afternoon. Next up will be a quinacridone magenta, followed by a very sheer black layer, before beginning to color highlight areas on his fur.
I find myself moving away from traditional realism,although, I admit the last print of "Morning Ritual" was pretty much dead on realistic replica of our front door view. I didn't mean it that way exactly, I follow the printing intuitively, theoretically, based upon subtractive color theory and color wheel principles. I've made it well known that I am near color blind to red/\green colors. Makes printing a bit dicey at times. Ya throw's the dice' and ya sees what ya gets. Not always, as standard printing theory keeps things in the lines. It is when the urge to experiment, trying out a new style or color application. One mistake and the print is junk.
I have to say I am enjoying printing in gum again, not gum over palladium. It's a difference experience. I have two 8x10 printing frames for gums so I am working on the 11x14 print of Capt Jack and began an 8x10 print of a pond at sunset, surrounded by trees. A subtly shaded scene and I want to get the light right, as well as the delicacy and tones of the light on the water. That's the tricky part. Stay tuned.
