Thursday, April 15, 2010

Solar Plate Printmaking



Instead of always teaching, I've decided to take a class myself. I wanted to try something different so I am taking a class in solar plate printmaking. Because I love to draw, I am enjoying this art form very much. And rather than sitting or standing and drawing, drawing, drawing; I am doing more hands-on work making the plates, inking the plates, printing the plates. The top photo is my original pencil drawing on etched glass. The glass is placed on the solar plate and exposed to sunlight or a light box thus the image is transfered onto the plate by UV rays. Next you wash the coating off the plate with water and you have an etched image. I tried the a' la poupee method of inking the plate with several colors on the paint tube drawing and learned it takes a while to ink and you must wipe really well. I am really liking my print of the koi (bottom) and I look forward to experimenting more with this one.

3 comments:

Kathy said...

Good for you! One of these I'm going to take an art class of a different color, so to speak. Interesting post and I agree with you - I love the koi!

Teresa Mallen said...

Well here I am learning something new - I didn't know you could etch with UV rays! Congrats on exploring something new!!

Kendra said...

I get so wrapped up in colored pencil that sometimes its fun to try a whole different medium and process in art! Teresa, there is a good book titled "Printmaking in the Sun" by Dan Welden all about etching with UV rays, its out of print but I was able to get it at the library.