“Here goes nothing” seems to be my catch phrase in class recently. It seems that my current print project has been full of wrong turns and lackluster attempts to get my desired affects.
I am learning that printmaking can be challenging and you can’t alway predict the results but when it works….BAM… it’s worth every minute of frustration and failed attempt. I think that is just part of the artist journey. I wouldn’t change a minute.
My latest experiments were trying to find a way to make a stencil so I could get a wash-type effect with a photo emulsion screen. I tried playing with different variations of liquid tusche , photo-copier toner mixed with alcohol.
For the toner and alcohol, a 2:1 ratio of alcohol were used. It mixed together very easy. It was applied to a sheet of matte film with a bristle brush. The mixture went on smooth and I liked the way the effects looked on the film but once it dried the toner didn’t adhere and flaked off.
Next I tried two different ratios of tusche and alcohol. One with a 2:1 ratio of tusche to alcohol and then inverted the mixture with 2:1 ratio of alcohol to tusche. The mixtures were all applied with a bristle brush. The first mixture held up well and produced some gradient effects. The second mixture produced some cool effect, it reacted similar to that of alcohol inks. It was no quite the effect I was looking for. It also seemed like this would be a difficult effect to reproduce. For the final test, I used tusche without any alcohol. The tusche was a little darker than what the first tusche and alcohol mixture produced but there were areas where the tusche was very concentrated. The true test would be how it exposed and printed.
The only test that has a good printing results were the 2:1 tusche/alcohol and the unmixed tusche. I decided to go with the unmixed tusche for the effect I was trying to get from the wash. I started to further explore the idea of applying the unmixed tusche with a spray bottle with a negative stencil. On the matte film, it looked great but did not expose well with the photo emulsion. I went back to the original idea and applied the tusche with a brush on the matte film.
Good experience and a better understanding of how a wash will interact with the photo emulsion process.
It was definitely a couple of days of “Here goes nothing!”
Daylene Horn Art 