Printing Processes

Relief Process

This technique involves craving into wood or linoleum so that when ink is applied, the carved areas show up as white space and can either haver grain texture or be a flat black. This skill is needed to easily replicate images with texture or not, and can be used by anyone if not doing it by press when one has a baren. First, you begin by prepping the object with ink so that you may have a background to tell what is happening. Then you transfer the drawing onto the wood, and either use black line or white line composition to create depth. Once the image is cut into the block, it is ready for ink to be rolled over the surface, then put onto a press to transfer the design to paper.  With linoleum, you can use a marker to draw onto the block, and then carve the soft material out, and with this medium, the black is very flat and has no wood grain texture.

Intaglio Process

This technique involves scratching or moving of material on a flat plate, such as copper, to create wells for the ink to settle in. This is a direct opposite to the process above, but is also used to mass produce items, but would be less common as it required access to metals so more popular artists would use this method. You begin by using a variety of tools to create texture on a surface into your desired design. Then, you must soak the plate, wash it, and soak it once more. Once this is completed, you polish and clean it to begin etching, which begins by preparing the ground. Then, you smoke it to create a black surface, and scratch the ground off to reveal the copper beneath. The plate is then put into acid to create the spots for ink to sink into, and is then cleaned for printing. First, you must put ink along the surface then wipe off the excess. A dampened piece of paper is laid on top, then felt is rolled over the sheet and paper to transfer the image.

Lithography Process

This technique involves using a lithographic stone that is both receptive to water and grease, so the grease is the drawing that can be removed with various items, and this printing type is very delicate with its surface. This would be used for printing posters and other pages requiring words, and would be used for those in the writing or news business. The grease is made with either lithopencils or lithocrayons, and is done directly onto the stone. There is a first etch, then rosin and gum arabic is applied to the drawing. TAPEM is applied next to help keep the gum to the stone, and the gum itself is added again, and the whole drawing is buffed. A greasy solvent is placed upon the drawing, making it "disappear," to act as a base for the ink, which is applied after wetting the surface. For printing, ink is first forced into the crevices, and this is down multiple times to gather a full print from the stone, but this also creates a realistic look of each newsprint being hand drawn.

Summary

The printing process I would like to attempt the most is Relief. I feel as though this would be the easiest one to do in a school setting since we don't need a press to do it. Also, I have always wanted to do wood carvings since I tend to be a very nature centered person. I think these older printing processes have affected contemporary designers by allowing there to be ways to print cheaply and have the methods be widely available. Also, this allowed for us to mass produce designs, such as t-shirts, and not create the same thing over and over. Overall, it allowed for more colors and mediums to be introduced into printing, and made the printing itself more commonplace for artists.

Multi Exposure Panorama

DC Panorama

Travel

At the beginning. we passed over a calm river to reach the destination of our 23 bus ride: Washington DC. On our way to a hotel, there was a building that reached up into the heavens, a sight that we would see nearly everyday. The altitude was different here, the air felt lighter but with the amount of plants and trees, it felt more invigorating. Breathing in welcomed the strong scent of rich earth and aromas from various food trucks and restaurants nearby. I had never seen a city so cultured and so different around each corner, people talked in more languages than I could imagine and they were selling everything from around the globe. 

During the middle, we spent most of our time visiting monuments and museum. There was always another building close by that beckoned you to explore it. One of my favorite places to see was the Botanic Gardens, which I know isn't some fancy, towering building with more history than some states, but I felt alive with all the growth, and how they had everything from desert cacti to tropical trees. Don't get me wrong, I feel more knowledgable visiting national museums that taught you everything from art history to NASA, and I will forever keep close the awe I felt when I saw the founding documents. At the end of each adventure, we'd return to what would become our home, safely protected by a stone lion.

The end came with after our parade. The parade itself was through bustling streets, and I had difficulty breathing in the heavy, humid air. But we all pushed through the landmarks and smoke left over by the motorcycles are few hours before. All I could focus on was making it to the end, even though I dreaded leaving the mountainous, lush green region to go back to flat, yellow Kansas. Then, it was over, and I chugged down a water bottle, which had become the sweetest thing in the city to me. The bus ride back to the hotel was quiet, all of us satisfied with completing our main goal for band. Soon after. we began another day long ride, leaving over that calm, shimmering river. 

Reflection

First, I had everything in black and white so that they could have a shared mood. I edited the contrast balance so that the images might have a dark black and a bright white. I kept color in what I felt had the most impact on people, which in the end was the colors red and gold. The 2 rivers were both put down as the background, one at night and on at day. The tried to have the buildings show up in the order that I saw them, and had the ones I saw the most in the middle and on the left side. I wanted it to appear as though they were right by each other, without having hard lines and by deleting the backgrounds. I feel like the little bit of color represents what the city itself tried to make the most important, having a strong historical/political background. The buildings were either in the background or the foreground to keep it consistent. Then, extra items were put along the middle. The emotions were mostly awe of the monuments, and a sense of wonder. Overall, I tried to make it flow from the beginning to the end, to have that sense of Travel through DC, and to convey what I felt along the trip. 

Photoshop Pop Art

Pop Art

For this project, I was partners with Audrey Young and had her as a subject to create pop art. To begin with, I cropped out the background so it was only her and then made it into black and white. With the background, I tried to have the repeated circles of Roy Lichtenstein's comic style, and also made it cool colors to add further contrast with the bright, warm triangles and horns. The is some influence of Warhol with her inverted image, so that the subject is also repeated. I tried to have it be flashy like theirs to balance out the black and white adjustment mode. 

Over this adjustment mode, I used some layers with the Color blending mode or Overlay blending mode to retain the feel of the original image, just with some Pop! The main filter that I used for this were the Blurs, seen with the inverted subject and then the triangles. There were many masks to keep the desired effect in a specific area and to add back color. I wouldn't say I have a true color scheme, just various forms of warms with cools, so almost complementary colors, and then there is contrast with the black and white focus.  I would say I was effective in creating my design, as I was able to easily add and take away additions to her, and had a lot of freedom in what I wanted to do.