Key block sneak peak

I feel excited that the end of my project is coming closer with every key block I finish. Which means that all the hard work, no sleep and late nights are finally looking like they are going to pay off. I look forward to the end of the next few months with sleep deprived enthusiasm that my artwork will look great and inspire everyone who see it. But... I still have a month left, loads of work to still finish so... back to work and enough wishful dreaming! 

Along those lines, I have some news for you! I now have a date to start sharing with everyone for my show. All of my completed prints will be hanging, ready to be seen, and ready to be purchased on March 14 2015. The show will be at the Human History Museum there in the park. It will be up for 3 weeks; enough time to plan a trip to the beautiful national park but not enough time to procrastinate. 

So forgo the mental note and write this in your calendars, 

"Get Connected" artwork by Chip Wiggin inspired by Zion National Park. March 14- April 5 2015. In the Human History Museum at Zion National Park. 

See ya there. 

Now here are some sneak peaks to some of my new finished key blocks. 

"How much further?" 

"Couples hike" 

"Family sunset" 

"Family sunset" in color. 

Updating colored prints

These last few weeks were busy (and productive). Yet it has to be that way or my Zion show won't get done. I've come to the crunch time! There are about 6 more weeks until March arrives. It's a little crazy to think that the year just started but in 6 weeks the first quarter of 2015 will be here. Scary thought. 

So last week I challenged myself to getting one colored print done each night. I was shooting to have 6 more done by the end of last week, bringing my total number of colored prints finished to 11. But I was just shy from finishing that last week and now currently I have 9 colored prints finished, ready and waiting for the black key block image. 

I wanted to catch you up on my progress so here they are, the next few images for Zion. 

"Brothers lookout" 

I don't know if these are going to be the final titles for these works, but these are what I'm calling them now to identify them. 

Also I got the key block carved out for this one I just haven't printed them together but here is what "brothers lookout" looks like all carved out.

"Decent" 

"Family sunset" 

"Couples hike"

"You're almost there!" 

"Celebrate" 

Last weeks challenge was printing, this weeks challenge is carving. I'm well on my way for the week being half over. I have 3-4 prints all carved and are just waiting to be printed. So there's the hook to keep you guys coming back for more. In a few weeks there will be a new post with finished prints to see, so stay tuned. Maybe subscribe to my blog by putting your email address in the bar on the top right of this page. That ensures you won't miss out on anything! Otherwise come back and see what I've done, ask questions, leave comments, share this with friends. Until next week. 

A simple way to register a print

When you're creating a print with multiple colors, it's sometimes frustrating when the colors don't match up. There are a few ways to register an image so after each pass through the press every color lines up where it's suppose to be. 

Someone asked me recently how I got my images to line up so well, so here is my response to you. This method of registering I do with my work, I discovered after seeing someone else's printing video. I was watching a video created by Tugboat press where they were filming a demo, and as I watched them demo a print I noticed this strange stick thing they used to aline the print and paper. I watched the clip a few times to get a better understanding of what they were doing with it, because they didn't explain it in the video and then to the best of my abilities filled in the blanks. 

This method of registering has an official name but I don't remember it now. (Maybe one of you know) So this is what I came up with. 

The wooden one was the one I created first. What I noticed from the video was that there were two grooves on this stick, one for the board/matrix you were printing from and then the other for the paper. I created this wooden jig one night while I was creating some frames for an upcoming show. (This part you'll have to use some imagination, I don't have pictures sorry) So I bought a stick of poplar, then on a table saw I raised the blade 1inch (and a little bit)  just enough to cut halfway through the stick, ran it through the table saw then flipped the stick and cut halfway through the stick again to get that notch cut out that you see. The reason I raised the blade specifically 1inch on the first cut was because that's how much boarder I wanted around my print. You see, depending on how wide the spacing is is how much paper/boarder is around your print. In comparison you can see in the second register I made is 2inches. I also drew a 1.5inch mark. 

I didn't have access to a table saw the second time around so I made this second one in a different way. Warning, in a way this way was easier and harder at the same time. I'll explain. I made this one out of sintra, a plastic material like pvc pipe but rolled out in a sheet. I have lots of this around cause I get it out of a dumpster. (Yeah free stuff) so I measured out two "L" shape pieces. One 1inch and the other 3inches, so I could glue the 1inch piece on top of the 3inch piece and still have a width of 2inches. Makes sense, simple enough. But it was hard to make sure my pieces stayed true. That is the important part to this system, making sure the "L" shape is a perfect 90 degrees. Try as I might, mine is still not as true as I wanted so I have to fudge my prints a little bit when I print but for the most part it does the job. That's why creating my first one on the table saw was a little easier because the machine made my cuts true. And yet.... My wooden one isn't true either because wood has a stupid tendency to warp. So when I get around to making a 3rd one it will be the charm. 

Once it's created the rest is pretty simple. It's important to remember that when you are using this method you really have a limited choice for the boarders around your print. Unless you create multiples jigs with varying widths, you are stuck having the same boarder thickness. 

Before I print I tear my paper down. I add 2inches to the dementions of my matrix (in this case because I'm using the 1inch stick. 2inches, 1inch for either side if my print). Once my paper is torn then I begin printing. You set your matrix in the corner of the jig and hopefully it's slides right in snugly. If your jig and matrix don't match up because the agles are off then there will be some play. When this happens to me I will make a visual decision. You know how sometimes you can visually see that something is croocked? If my matrix has some wiggle room in the jig I will either line my matrix up with the top of the jig so the matrix and the jig are flush together on the top or on the side, whichever way won't look visually croocked. Hope that tip helps. 

Once the matrix is where you want it, then carefully put the corner of the paper in the corner of the jig. Holding the paper with my right hand (my dominate hand) I will angle the paper on a steep angle to get the corner and the top lined up guided by my left hand so the paper doesn't cause the jig to move. The first few times you try this you will probably push the jig with the paper so it's off registration, that's why I angle my paper at first so there is no premature transfer of ink to the paper. It takes practice, good luck. Once the paper is alined in the corner and the top I lay the paper down and once I know it's down, it's kind of past the point of no return cause I won't want my paper to move now, I put my left hand directly on top the paper so it doesn't move. 

At this point you don't want anything to move. So with my hand holding my paper in place I remove the jig. Yeah, this is important, chances are your jig is larger then your matrix so you can't roll that through the press so you have to move it and set it aside. But as long as your hand is there, there is no worries cause nothing moved. Roll it through the press and bam! A sweet looking print. 

Mine is still in progress so it's not sweet yet. But the registration looks great. A good example of a successful print using this registration method was this print, 

 

"Hallothankmas" this was one of the first prints I finished with this jig and whew.... It looks pretty sharp! 

Hope that inspires you, happy printing! 

Playing on the river

Happy 2015 everyone!

Another year, another chance for amazing things. I'm really looking forward to this year. I have been working on my goals for this year and am really excited to get to work. But first and foremost, working on and finishing this Zion residency. 

The deadline is coming up quick, about 2 more months, and I have a long way to go before my pieces are ready to hang. 

My next piece in my series: playing on the river. 

This is my 3rd print I've completed and if you have been following along since the beginning of my residency journey, you would be thinking to yourself right now "just his 3rd one? Isn't he doing 20 prints for this project? Man he is really behind." You would be right, I am still working on 20 images for this project but what I'm really behind on is keeping my blog updated. I finished this print a little over 3 weeks ago and only now getting it uploaded to my blog. So sorry for the long wait. 

The color went really smoothly, I'm beginning to really love this jigsaw method of printmaking. 

Once the colored ink had a chance to dry for a while, and I had a chance to carve the key block it was time to put the two together for one beautiful image. There is a beauty in just the black and white. Ah I love printmaking! 

And yet the image feels more complete and visually pleasing in color. It's understandable, Zion is such a colorful place. 

Well like I said, there are many many many more to come (17 to be exact) so stay tuned. Also feel free to sign up to receive my blog posts by email by subscribing to my blog. If you scroll up to the top of my blog on the right side bar you will see my website link, and under that is a line where you can enter your email and then automatically every time I post, it will come to you in your inbox. Pretty cool technology. 

Well until next week! 

With the ranger

I talked a little about the process I decided to use in my post "from suicide to jigsaw" how I was going to add color to my relief prints. The process works great and I'm really happy with the way the final images turn out too but I was still looking for a faster way to make my images. Using the jigsaw method, I could have all the various colors rolled up with ink and pieced back together in about 15-20 minutes. Doesn't seem too long except when you're trying to make an edition of ten, making the printing process 3-4 hours. At 2 a.m. I didn't want this to take this long, I was impatient and wanted to find another approach that might even still speed up the process.

That's when lightning struck.

"I've just had an apostrophe"

"I think you mean 'an epiphany' Smee" 

"Lightning has just struck my brain" 

"Well that must hurt" 

-Hook

(Such a great movie!) 

....back on track... I got this idea that maybe instead of cutting out all these little shapes I could just draw my image on a piece of plexiglass, paint the ink on plexiglass and run that through the press. Awesome! I'm sure this would save me so much more time because if the ink was fluid enough it would just brush on the plexiglass nice and easy and before long I would have another print done. So I went to work. 

With sharpie I drew my image on the plexiglass, I mixed all my ink colors and with different brushes I painted all the various areas I wanted color. Even though I thinned down the ink with a thinner it still wasn't as fluid as I hoped. I still took time to cover all the shapes with color. The other issue I didn't consider with this method was how more detailed I could get my shapes. My shapes are only so detailed when I have to cut them out with a pointy knife, but a sharpie I could get smaller shapes and more of them.

Painting my image this way took about 30-40 minutes per print. Hahaha so much for saving myself time... so I quickly got burnt out with this method and wished I had a print assistant to slave over this print instead of me. Any volunteers to print with me from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. every night? Payment would be in prints and pepsi, I cant really afford much more then that.

Even though it was a much longer process it didn't look to bad. It had a very painterly feel which was a nice effect.

Once all the carving was done I ran a test print to do a final check to make sure everything looked right. Then the more exciting part.... running a color test proof....

Nice. These print are much more dynamic and visually interesting then the black and white key block image. I'm really excited that the color is working out even though the printing process requires so much more time. It will be worth it seeing all 20 of my prints hanging in the Zion gallery space. 

Hikers over the mountain, printer over the moon!

The slump seems to be fading, especially after my exciting night last night. (And early morning.) I was in the studio last night finishing up my key block image. The key block is the final image in a print and has most of the details. So after finishing my key block around 12 I inked it up to see what it would look like on paper.

It looks pretty good just black and white but there is no contrat between the different shapes. So in my excitement I took a colored test proof and printed the black key block on top and....

Bam!! This just reignited my printing fire for this project! The colors, the texture, everything looked great! This called for a victory dance. Don't judge. I could get away with dancing because it was 1 in the morning and no one was around to see, also it was 1 in the morning so I needed something other then caffeine to keep me awake. 

My journey is far from over, so I couldn't rejoice too long. I have been keeping track of my time and so far each print is estimated to take about 15 hours to complete (that is if everything goes smoothly; let's not forget Art Rule #1: everything takes longer then you think.) and I have to be finishing about 2 prints every week to keep on schedule with my goals. So after working 40 hours a week to keep the lights on and mouths fed, I will be working an additional 30 hours a week to finish this project! High five for the art life! :D 

From suicide to jigsaw

After last weeks failed attempt with my first colored print I felt like I needed to rethink some things. Now, don't call your psyciatrist because I used the word suicide, just hand tight and it will all make sense. 

The next few days after printing my second color and not liking how it was going to turn out I went into a little slump. I felt deflated and unmotivated to start over which threw my schedule off a little bit. But after some encouraging strategies from my coach I cleared my head and started making progress in the right direction. 

My first obstacle to rethink was the method I would add color to my print. Originally I was going to do the "suicide method" which is a process of printmaking where you carve a little bit of the image away at a time with each color. It's all done on the same printing block so depending on how many colors you want in your print, you run the block that many times through the press. This is the process I primarily use, so some of my pictures from prior posts might be more visually explanatory; but because of the beautiful colors in Zion National Park, there was just going to be too many colors, meaning too many times through the press, meaning it would take too long to finish all of my prints. 

Problem: a quicker way to add color. Solution: a new printing method, the jigsaw method. 

I have done this method before and it's really cool, yet it's also time consuming. The jigsaw method is just that, a jigsaw. If you're imagining a jigsaw puzzle you're on the right track. Little pieces that are all separate then are put back together. 

Here, visuals. :D 

I took my detailed drawing and created simple shapes I could cut out. Then I traced these simple shapes onto mat board and with a razor blade I cut out all those little shapes. The benefit to doing this is I can ink up all the separate shapes with a different color, piece it all back together and run it one time through the press. And then TaDa! All the color is there. 

Cutting out all those shapes were no fun but you can't beat how simple....well simple-er, it is when it's all cut out. Inking up the smallest pieces was a challenge but it's ok. Oh what we do for art! 

This was my first attempt. You would think that I would have thought about this before but ink drys on paper and mat board is made of paper so while I was inking all the pieces some of the ink was drying on the mat board. The result, too light. 

The second attempt was much better. And look at all that color! One time through the press and the color looks great. Next will be getting the key block image carved so all the details stand out so stay tuned for my next posts.