Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Perhaps


(photo by Susan de Witt)

This is an example of lith printing, something I want to try.  I don't want to explain the process here, but it could be something very unpredictable and time consuming, maybe too much for me.  I want to try it and see.  The thing is, it requires a darkroom.  I may have access to one.  I will have to work on that and get permission.  If I do, I'll buy the chemicals I need and give it a shot.  Who knows?  Maybe trash cans will look good when done this way. 

I want to work with my large format cameras, too, just because the work is slow and you don't produce many pictures.  That is my speed now, not producing many pictures.  Making two images a day would increase my present production by. . . any percent you want to say.

It is just a lack of trying.

But I am always intrigued by processes that mess up the image.  I don't like to do that digitally.  Like my old Polaroids, it needs to be something that I do physically before the image enters the digital realm.  I don't mind tweaking it there, but I don't want others to be able to make the image the way I do.  I learned early from photographers like Mark Tucker and Lilya Cornelli back when I would write to photographers I discovered and wanted to offer a fan's note.

That seems so long ago.  Oh, yea. . . it is.

I have ideas again.  Now I just need the energy.  I'll give something a shot this summer.  You'll see.  


6 comments:


  1. Well.


    Prolly one thing certain is ..... I'll be around here to *see.* .

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  2. Energy, time, and peace of mind is a nice creative combination. Spark it up with a new process and maybe there will be magic! I'm making collages in a whole new way (acrylic applied to rice paper adhered to black canvas) and the results have been pretty exciting to me so far.

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    Replies
    1. Terrific. I've tried something similar, but it is truly difficult to keep the rice paper from crinkling. Good for you.

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  3. The paper is Kozo Rice paper by Yasutomo. Comes in 12x18 sheets which I cut down to fit the printer. Trick is to adhere it to raw canvas with a thin layer of Golden's acrylic gloss medium, burnish it gently with your hand, and let it dry completely before applying acrylic paint. The paper has a rough side and a "hot press" finish side. I print the structure of the pattern (using Epson printer with waterproof ink) on the finished side and adhere rough side down. Usually I am creating a repeating pattern which goes down in small units rather than one large piece. I thin the acrylic paint with medium so it goes on like a transparent glaze (which is partially absorbed by the paper) and I can layer the colors.

    In the example linked below you can tell the order I applied the dots by the amount of the dark background showing through. The darkest ones did not dry enough before I applied color.
    https://anitanh.tumblr.com/post/184574692825/color-test-by-anitanh

    The smaller version is the initial study done with markers. Gold lines applied to canvas with Pitt metallic pen as a last step. There's your lesson for the day! :)

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  4. Just found this on YT: "Epson Japanese Kozo Paper." Have you tried this method?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgMd8VbmP_4

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