My Green Door Print Exchange has arrived!

Check it out! My Green Door International Print Exchange has arrived. This has been the second time  that I've participated in this show and I've been quite impressed with how organized the exchange has been. Below are just a few of the pieces that I received in exchange for my Bandit linocut print.

l-r: Eleanor Walker, Harriet Brigdale, Monique Wales

The picture above is of the wonderful info-graphic that was included with the print set. Here I got to see which print mediums were used, what paper was the most popular, which countries submitted as well as all of the names of the participants. What fantastic info! 

Hot One Inch Action 2014

Woo-hoo! I made into this year's Hot One Inch Action! This fun one night art button trading show is one of my favourites and I'm only sad that I won't be able to attend. Below is my submitted image "Big Mac" which is from an artist's proof of a yet to be editioned drypoint. 

If you haven't been to this yearly show yet you really must go. It maybe teeny tiny art but it's big time fun. And make sure you trade for my Big Mac!

Sneak peek

A quick post and a peek into what I've been working on. I'm planning couple submissions for some print exchanges and some other promotional stuff. Below is the drypoint plate I'm working on for the ArtSpace Original Print Exchange and Exhibit. This is a mini-print exhibit and you can find the details here.

The second exchange I'm working on is for the annual La Calaca print exchange. I haven't figured out what method I will use or even my image yet but it's always a fun subject to do. If you're interested in submitting to that one, you can find it here.

Year of the Snake Print Exchange

Well hello there! How was your Christmas? Hectic? Fun? Relaxing? I hope you're ready for the new year because I can see it's around the corner. 

For the past few years now I have contributed to an annual print exchange through PROOF Gallery and this year we'll be creating images to celebrate the Year of the Snake.   Below is my submission which is a drypoint created on a plastic plate and then hand-colored with watercolors. Below that is the artist proof in straight black and white and I think I prefer that version. What do you think? Which do you prefer?

Do you ever create a drawing and then regret coloring it?

You can view all the snake print submissions from around the world at the Year of the Snake blog

Work in progress

I'm currently working on a new drypoint that has to be done and shipped out by the end of the year. This is the first time I've used my press since we've moved and it's been a bit tricky to adjust my drums to the perfect pressure.

Here are a couple pictures of the plastic plate I'm using. This is a harder and smoother plastic than the Ikea bins I've used in the past so I have to be very gentle with my wiping so as not to remove too much ink. If it gives me too much more trouble I might re-draw a new plate.

Illustration Friday: Water

Here's today's submission for Illustration Friday's: Water. This little drypoint with watercolor seems to get a lot of love on Etsy. It's a cloud shape that I've worked on several times before and it must hit a chord with me because I'm on the wet west coast. 

This is one of the drypoints I did on plastic and it's made me think that I might not buy another zinc plate again. I did a previous post that explains the process here.

Carded! 2012

Guess what? I've had my "Totem Jim" drypoint and watercolor accepted into this years CARDED! show. This year's show will be at the Gallery Gachet in Gastown on April 21, 8pm-11pm. I won't be able to make it for the actual trading but maybe you could? Trade me away!

Year of the Rabbit print exchange

This past week was the start of the Chinese New Year which is celebrated by a large proportion of the Canadian population. All over the country festivals and celebrations are held to see in the beginning of the new lunar year, the Year of the Rabbit.

  Just like last year's Year of the Tiger, the PROOF Gallery in Toronto put a call out to printmakers to create imagery around the rabbit. This international print exchange will be on display from Feb. 2-13.

For my bunny submission I chose to create a drypoint on a plastic plate. Once the edition was printed, I hand painted each print with watercolor. I'm happy to say that my little print made it onto the poster for the show this year.

Gung Hai Fat-Choy!

Drypoint prints with a plastic plate

For today's post I thought I'd take you into my studio to show you what I've been working on lately.

Although I'm a printmaker, I've never really been too fond of pulling an entire edition. It's for this reason that I keep my editions quite small; usually under 12 per image. Besides the wiping of plates, I really find the prepping of intaglio plates to be tedious. I have found various ways to work around my laziness and still be able to print. For example: I use the cut window remnants of my matts for my collographs because they are already bevelled. For my drypoints, I have been known to use tin which is so thin that it doesn't need any bevel at all. My quest to make plate prepping easier continues. One day when I was cleaning around the house I re-looked at some plastic Ikea bin lids and wondered if I could cut some plates out of them. The plastic is quite soft and can easily take the marks of a scribe well. The lids were as thick as my steel plate so I put a 45 degree bevel on the edges with a utility knife. Easy! That's my kind of plate prep.

Below are some photos of the process I used to create a drypoint print with a plastic plate.

This is a plate in progress.  I will finish the print by hand-coloring with watercolor.

I've been really happy with the variety of line and tone I can create with these plates and because I don't create large editions, I'm not concerned with the plate wearing down.

The major drawback to using this softer plastic versus a styrene or metal plate, is that the oil from the ink softens the plate a bit and it becomes hard to wipe the plate clean after a while. To compensate for the fact that I am only able to print three times per plate before having to clean the plate completely, I print 2-3 different plates at the same time. As well, the plastic gives a lot of plate tone which I have been using to my advantage and wiping it much like I would a reductive monotype.

Here are a few pictures of some pieces I have created using the plastic plates. Fun and cheap. You might want to give it a try too. I would love to see what others come up with.

1000,000 Giraffes

I have a fun post for you today. I wanted to show you my submission for the 1000,000 Giraffe.com site. The goal of the site is to collect one million images of originally created giraffes before 2011. The only stipulation for submitting to this site is that your Giraffe be an original drawing,painting or sculpture created without the aid of a computer. Let's get back to the basics!

The site has some fun features like stat listings, searches, blog and "guess the artist's age" game which is my favorite. It was very easy to upload an image and were notified very quickly that our pieces were accepted in the collection. So for some simple creative fun, draw yourself a little giraffe and submit it to the cause.

Below are the watercolor painting my daughter submitted and the drypoint with watercolor that I submitted. What do you think?

Claire Age: 5

Drypoint on plastic w/watercolor